Arsenal: How many times? £25 million a fair price for Kieran Tierney

Arsenal’s £25 million bid for Kieran Tierney was rejected because of unrealistic Champions League-related clauses. How many times must it be said? £25 million is a fair price. Just pay up.

The penny-pinching of Arsenal is exceptionally frustrating. It always has been, ever since they chose not to sign Mark Schwarzer because Fulham wanted another £1 million, which is peanuts to a club of Arsenal’s size. And sadly, this summer, it has taken on a new level of humiliation, so much so that fans are now offering to pay for the egregiously priced new Adidas kit in instalments.

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The latest name to encounter the miserly financial management of the north London club is Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney, who is reportedly keen on a move to the Emirates but is hanging on the two clubs agreeing on a deal, which is predictably proving more difficult and painful than initially imagined.

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The Gunners have made two bids for Tierney already this summer. The first was £15 million offer that was swiftly rejected. The second matched Celtic’s £25 million valuation but was also rejected due to concerns regarding the clauses that had to be activated for the full price to be paid, some of which were related to Unai Emery’s team qualifying for the Champions League, which Celtic rightly deemed unrealistic.

Per reports in the British media, Arsenal are now expected to return with a third offer, also worth £25 million, but with re-structured instalments, a greater portion of the fee paid upfront. It remains to be seen what the finer details of the offer will be, and whether they will be to Celtic’s taste, but it is clear that Emery and Raul Sanllehi are keen to sign Tierney. And that is why this whole ordeal is so frustrating.

A £25 million fee is very fair for a player of Tierney’s quality, age and potential. It may be a record sale for a Scottish Premier League player, but Tierney is one of the brightest prospects to come through the Scottish system in years, his performances at just 21 years of age — he only turned 22 this summer — a wonderful indication of the decade-long security he could provide.

Arsenal have tried low-balling Celtic in an attempt to sign Tierney on the cheap. Celtic would not bite. So now they must return with a more suitable offer, and unlike in the case of the £80 million-rated Wilfried Zaha, matching Celtic’s valuation for the defender is not a careless, over-inflated deal. In fact, it is a fair one.

This arduous saga that has dragged on throughout the summer should have been settled within a week. Sanllehi and negotiations expert Huss Fahmy had the ability to end all of this before it ever begun and provide Tierney with a full pre-season to prepare himself for the biggest move of his life. And yet they didn’t.

So I am not sure how many times it must be said, but £25 million for Tierney is a good deal. So just pay up and get it over with.