‘They thought they would’: Arsenal genuinely thought they’d be selling £25m player this summer – journalist

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Kieran Tierney has left Arsenal on loan to join Real Sociedad in La Liga.

From the outside looking in, that is a rather bizarre move, and, that wasn’t the initial plan for Arsenal either.

Indeed, according to Charles Watts, speaking on his YouTube channel, the Gunners initially wanted to sell Tierney this summer and they genuinely thought they would.

However, according to Watts, no offers were forthcoming for Tierney, and ultimately, Arsenal had to settle for loaning him out.

Arsenal thought they’d sell Tierney

Watts shared what he knows about the £25m man.

“I don’t think Holding is excellent value. Xhaka and Balogun were decent deals. The blemish is Tierney not being able to sell Tierney is a big one. I’m not sure I blame Arsenal for that, the bids just didn’t arrive. They wanted to sell him, they thought they would, but the offers just didn’t come in,” Watts said.

Should’ve kept him

Of course, we don’t know all of the ins and outs of this deal in terms of a loan fee and saved wages, but we can’t help but feel that the Gunners should’ve kept Tierney.

After the departure of Rob Holding and the injury to Jurrien Timber, Arsenal only have six senior defenders available for selection, and, in all honesty, that doesn’t feel like enough.

Injuries at the back derailed Arsenal’s season last time around, and the Gunners are in danger of doing the same again.

Fingers crossed it won’t come to that, but the Gunners are leaving themselves open to getting into a bit of trouble here.