In The Know reporter confirms Kieran Tierney's Arsenal demotion

After a strained pre-season between Mikel Arteta and Kieran Tierney the Scotland defender has been left out of the 20 man matchday squad for today’s EPL opener at home to Nottingham Forest.

Even with Oleksandr Zinchenko missing from the side there is no place for Tierney who has been linked with Celtic since the return of Brendan Rodgers.

Kaya Kayanak covers Arsenal extensively for London Football, once the team lines were announced he was quick to tweet that there was no injury issue for the player signed from Celtic four years ago.

Kieran Tierney has just not been selected from the squad today. No injury. Same for Rob Holding. Zinchenko not quite ready
— Kaya Kaynak (@kayakaynak97) August 12, 2023

Kayanak has over 50,000 Twitter followers.

We are loosing Tierney slowly by slowly
— H (@WOLLLIN12) August 12, 2023

Way to depreciate his value, Arteta always does this
— Ali (@aliftbll) August 12, 2023

Feel for him he deserves to be part and parcel of this team
— michael bonaya (@bonaya_michael) August 12, 2023

In almost every sense there seems little logic in Tierney returning to Celtic but football has a habit of ignoring known logic.

Tierney is believed to be on a salary of £120,000 per week until June 2026 but having spent £110m on Declan Rice everything is on a scale at Arsenal as they attempt to challenge Manchester City for the EPL title.

Celtic wouldn’t be able to get close to matching those wages if the player came on loan while a transfer fee would be out the question, Rodgers recently warned Celtic fans not to expect signings over £10m.

Despite all that Tierney may well have enough money put away that he could ‘survive’ on the same sort of wages that Callum McGregor is on at Celtic.

Having been at Celtic since his primary school days there is little doubting his credentials. Rodgers showed in June that footballing ambitions can over-rule financial gains, the Irishman could have sat things out for a few months then expected to pick up a decent job in England or Spain.

Newcastle and Aston Villa were both linked with moves for Tierney at the end of last season but both sides seem quite settled going into the start of the season.

KT being back at Celtic this season still seems highly unlikely but it isn’t quite as impossible as most fans would think.

Guess Tierney is injured? https://t.co/TYeFyqThlN
— Eminem (@stalemayte) August 12, 2023

Partey left Back😭😭
— 🥤𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔 ✪ (@AfcBanks_) August 12, 2023

Kieran Tierney has just not been selected from the squad today. No injury. Same for Rob Holding. Zinchenko not quite ready
— Mookings KE (@Mookings1) August 12, 2023