Kieran Tierney has now dropped his biggest hint yet about his Arsenal future

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Kieran Tierney has now opened up about what his future at Arsenal looks like.

Arsenal left-back Kieran Tierney is currently on loan at Spanish club Real Sociedad.

Last season, Tierney felt like something of a square peg in a round hole at Arsenal. Following the arrival of Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City, the way the left-back role was interpreted at the Emirates Stadium changed. 

The Ukrainian is a very different kind of player to Tierney, despite them both being full-backs. The Scot is far more orthodox, as he excels in bombing forward up the touchline to provide an overlapping run on the outside of a winger and delivering crosses into the box with his favoured left foot.

Zinchenko, meanwhile, performs the role in an inverted fashion, habitually drifting into the middle of the park to become an auxiliary midfielder of sorts and involving himself in the build-up play. This is clearly the approach Mikel Arteta favours, and as such Tierney needed to adapt in order to survive at the Emirates Stadium.

The 26-year-old made a valiant effort to adjust to this new tactical instruction, but never looked entirely comfortable with being asked to come in-field. With Takehiro Tomiyasu also at the club, and Jurrien Timber arriving in the summer, it was clear that the former Celtic man was no longer in Arteta’s plans.

What next for Arsenal and Kieran Tierney?

Tierney himself has admitted that Zinchenko is a better fit for the current Arsenal side than he is. Therefore, it is hard to see how the 41-cap Scotland international resurrects his career in north London when his current loan stint in Spain comes to an end.

Tierney has now discussed what his future holds. In an interview with the Daily Mail, the defender was asked if he will feature for the Gunners again and said, “it’s hard to say. I loved my time there and I still have two years on the contract. I am very grateful to Arsenal. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I am absolutely loving it here. I feel I have adapted quite well and I hope I can return the faith the club have shown.”

It is hard to see, beyond an extraordinary change in circumstances, how Tierney might still have a future at Arsenal.

The Gunners’ plan for the player this summer ought to be centred upon attracting the biggest fee for him that they can and moving him on on a permanent basis. Tierney was an excellent servant to Arsenal for much of his time at the club, but he no longer fits the mould for what Arteta is looking for.