Arsenal set sights on Lee Buchanan as perfect Tierney cover

What Arsenal need in the summer may be entirely different to what Arsenal get in the summer. Their list of targets, like all clubs, will be extensive for every position but in each case they must ensure they get the right profile. Based on their left-back targets, they’re doing that.

A mistake that the club are still reeling from, and will continue to suffer from as the season winds down, is not securing a left-back in the January.

Mikel Arteta insisted they couldn’t land the targets they were after in the winter and had to settle on the midfield and goalkeeper reinforcements they signed, but the injuries to Kieran Tierney have rocked the side since with presumed back-up Cedric Soares usurped by 100%-not-a-suitable-back-up Granit Xhaka.

The manager showed his tactical acumen in reshaping the team to accommodate that loss, working wonders away at Slavia Prague most notably, but that ploy has now run its course and needs abandoning after coming unstuck in Villarreal.

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Arsenal set sights on Lee Buchanan as perfect Kieran Tierney cover in summer transfer window

Given its use against Newcastle it may well be around for longer. It’s the route the manager wishes to take to have the best chance of producing positive results, one that shouldn’t have needed to be adopted in the first place.

Tierney’s absence is so telling and one of the essential pieces of business to conclude in the summer is that the next time the Scot is unavailable, or even just rested, that it won’t require a total restructuring of the team as a result.

Furthermore, Xhaka’s physicality in midfield isn’t close to being matched by either Mohamed Elneny or Dani Ceballos. Thomas Partey misses his partner, too.

All the talk building up to the summer transfer window opening has centred around locating a new right-back. Achraf Hakimi, Tariq Lamptey, Max Aarons and Emerson Royal have all been name dropped as the future of Hector Bellerin is set to be away from the Emirates Stadium, with little mention of competition for Tierney.

Fellow Scotsman Josh Doig has been fleetingly mentioned alongside Manchester City, but the latest speculation lists another name entering the fray, one fortunately not named anything remotely similar sounding to Sead Kolasinac.

Arsenal Show Interest in Derby Left-Back Lee Buchanan

Mentioned earlier in the year was the profile of left-back Arsenal were after. For all positions in the squad there has to be competition to raise individuals’ levels, yet at left-back there is nobody available who could legitimately overthrow Tierney.

The 23-year-old is already touted as future captain material, with no facet of his game able to critique other than his injury record, which based on the differing setbacks he’s had, is pure rotten luck.

Unless Arsenal were going to fork out tens of millions on a readily available world class option, Tierney remains the first choice. Further down the line, however, there is scope for change, and what better way to nurture someone into future competition than to learn off the man himself.

Sounding out a young, hungry, homegrown option who can act as his understudy but have enough quality already to be a reliable figure when he plays is the exact profile Arsenal should be, and are, after.

Enjoying a breakthrough season under Wayne Rooney at Derby, 20-year-old Lee Buchanan has been listed by the Daily Mail as someone Arsenal ‘hold an interest in’. He’s started 18 Championship matches for the struggling Rams this season, earning widespread praise despite the perilous position the club find themselves in.

"Rooney said of Buchanan: “He’s a top, top player. I’d argue he’s one of the best young left-backs in the country. And he can go to another level as well….no….he’s a real top player.”"

Extremely composed on the ball and not overawed by regular senior football, his positive and committed attitude stand out among his finer traits. Willing to get stuck into challenges, call for the ball from his centre-backs or make the advances run beyond, he’s a warrior of the Tierney mould.

Attitude is essential for the summer rebuild as quality alone will not rescue Arsenal from their plight. All early signs of Buchanan in the Championship this season tick those boxes.

As with any young defender with minimal matches under his belt, the lack of experience is unavoidable as is the jump up in quality from the second tier. Mobile and agile, two things Xhaka is not, Buchanan does also need to get himself a gym membership, though.

Still some way off being a top player in the Premier League, the Mansfield-born full-back is the profile of signing Arsenal should be making, both to build towards the future and to meet homegrown quota needs, not least with three academy graduates set to be moved on at least. It would be risk-free and inexpensive.

The transfer strategy has to shift from Stop Gap FC or Retirement United. No Ryan Bertrand’s or Willian’s. Buchanan is raw and majorly untested but the right sort of movement in the transfer window that has an eye away from short-termism. It may not be him, but they’re in the right ballpark.