Kieran will soon emerge from Gunners nightmare
It looked like a dream move for Kieran Tierney.
Celtic to Arsenal – from his boyhood heroes to a global soccer superpower.
Instead, since the summer, there must have been times when it seemed like a bit of a nightmare.
Injury has curtailed his game time, while the Gunners results have been rotten.
Now the manager, Unai Emery, has been sacked.
But if I were Kieran, I would be full of confidence about the future – because Arsenal are about to get better.
Anybody who has watched them under Emery, particularly recently, could see where their major problem lay.
They are far too weak through the middle and in central defence.
Whoever takes over from Emery will not have his blind spot. It will get sorted in January.
For a player like Kieran, that will make a huge difference.
In Scotland, everyone knows how good a player he is.
We all know that once he’s fully fit, and playing in an Arsenal side that is functioning properly, he will be an absolute menace in the Premiership.
Kieran can absolutely do for the Gunners what Andy Robertson has done for Liverpool.
But to do it, he needs to have the confidence that he’s got centre-halves next to him who can actually defend!
That’s what Robertson has at Liverpool. He knows if he bombs forward to whip in a cross, he’s got big Virgil van Dijk next to him to mop up anything that comes back.
What does Kieran Tierney have? Sokratis? David Luiz? Calum Chambers?
Sorry, but it’s no wonder they have been struggling.
And it’s no wonder Emery was finally given the heave-ho.
But, as I said, I wouldn’t be panicking if I were in Kieran Tierney’s position.
Already, Arsenal are being linked with
It’s no wonder Arsenal have been struggling and no wonder Emery has been given the heave-ho
proven managers – and it’s no surprise that Brendan Rodgers is among them.
Look at what he’s done for Leicester City since taking over.
Brendan has got them comfortably inside the top four, largely by taking players that were there when he arrived and improving them.
He did exactly the same thing at Celtic early on.
That’s the sort of approach that makes other teams take notice, and Arsenal will certainly be one of them.
Kieran Tierney came on leaps and bounds under Brendan at Celtic, so you can imagine the prospect of linking up again will be appealing to both of them.
But the big question mark for me is whether Brendan will actually want the Arsenal job at this point in time.
It might be a case of right club, wrong time. After all, he’s on to a good thing at Leicester. He has a great relationship with the owner and the players are running their socks off for him.
If he can stick around and secure Champions League football, his stock will be even higher than it is now.
And I reckon he’ll be backed in January in an effort to make it happen.
He might actually have more money to spend in the next window at Leicester than he would at Arsenal.
So while making Arsenal better won’t be difficult, getting them up to top four standards will take a bit more work.
Fortunately for whoever comes in, having guys like Kieran Tierney in the squad will make their task that wee bit easier.