Kieran Tierney reveals his toughest opponent – and he could have joined Arsenal

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Kieran Tierney has revealed who the toughest opponent he’s ever faced is, and it’s someone who might have actually joined Arsenal before he made the move he did.

The £25 million full-back (BBC Sport) was taking part in a series on the club’s official YouTube channel called ‘The Chat’, alongside Hector Bellerin.

Having tasted Champions League football, the 22-year-old has already faced off against some of the world’s top players, but none have been more of a handful than Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe, who was part of 7-1 win over Tierney’s Celtic in 2017.

He said of the World Cup winner: “In games it was Mbappe. He was so quick and that PSG team as a whole. It was actually the manager here who was the manager at the time.

“It was the toughest game I’ve ever played in my career, against Mbappe and Dani Alves down that side. The two of them.”

Tierney’s answer is quite interesting, as Mbappe actually might have wound up at Arsenal instead of PSG, meaning he might never have come up against him that night.

As reported by Goal, the then-AS Monaco player actually met with former manager Arsene Wenger to discuss a potential move, but ultimately chose to remain in his homeland.

TBR’s view

Many of football’s top players have supposedly come close to joining Arsenal down the years (Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo to name two famous cases), and there could be some real regrets over Mbappe.

Perhaps in the end there was nothing they could do, but it’s likely going to sting watching him shine at the top for years to come.

Tierney may well be hoping to test himself against the superstar again soon, but Arsenal need to break back into the top four to be in with a chance of meeting PSG in Europe.