‘He’s a quality player’ – Celtic captain addresses transfer links with Arsenal defender Kieran Tierney

Celtic skipper Callum McGregor says he is aware of the rumours linking Arsenal’s Kieran Tierney with a return to the club and admits the left-back would be a ‘quality’ addition.

Tierney was handed his first appearance of the season in Arsenal’s Carabao Cup win over Crystal Palace last week, playing 69 minutes before being replaced by young talent Myles Lewis-Skelly.

The 27-year-old Scotland international was subsequently named amongst Mikel Arteta’s substitutes as Arsenal ran out 5-1 victors over Palace in the Premier League, though he did not make it off the bench at Selhurst Park.

Since swapping Celtic for Arsenal, Tierney has struggled with a series of injury problems, which have ultimately hampered the full-back’s progress and seen him drop down the pecking order within Arteta’s squad.

Tierney spent last season on loan at La Liga outfit Real Sociedad in a bid to get his stuttering career back on track and it appears another move is likely in January, with the Gunners deciding against extending the defender’s contract.

Celtic have emerged as the clear front-runners to re-sign Tierney, who won four Scottish Premiership titles with the Hoops before leaving for Arsenal in a £25million switch in 2019.

Should Tierney rejoin his beloved boyhood team, he would be reunited with McGregor, who took over the captain’s armband from Scott Brown three years ago.

‘He’s a quality player. I’ve been in war with him for a number of years now!’ McGregor said when quizzed on the speculation surrounding Tierney, who is out of contract at Arsenal next summer.

‘Kieran’s a good guy, we’ll see what happens. I’ve not spoken to him yet, but I’ve seen all the stuff that’s been written.

‘I don’t know too much about it. We’re generally the last ones to know.

‘When someone appears in the building, we’ll go and meet them.’

McGregor would welcome the addition of a ‘few new faces’ at Celtic Park when the January transfer window opens for business.

‘When you’re at a big club, the demands are so high that you always have to be at the maximum level and push yourself, the squad, everybody,’ he added.

‘Come January we might have a few new faces in, and that will push the group further and the squad will get stronger.

‘We’ll see what happens, but it’s always good to have new faces to push everyone.

‘In every window we do look to strengthen. The club will always try and do the best deals they can.

‘Naturally, at a big club there’s always competition for places.

‘It just remains to be seen what happens, but the guys who do come in, we’ll get them up to speed as quickly as possible.’

Celtic head coach Brendan Rodgers last week revealed the club had plans to strengthen several ‘key areas’ when asked about the rumours surrounding Tierney last week.

‘Kieran is someone I know really well but there will be lots of players linked with coming to Celtic,’ he told Sky Sports.

‘We will never speak about a player, especially a young player who is at another club. But we’ve got work to do, we know that. We want to improve the squad further in a number of key areas.

‘But until that happens, the players we’ve got here have been working so well and we’ll just continue to work with them and see what happens in January.’

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