Kieran Tierney convinced he might have already played his last Arsenal game amid their current depth at left-back
Arsenal left-back Kieran Tierney has admitted that his chances of playing for the Gunners again are as slim as they come due to their current depth in the position.
The Scotland international is currently on a season-long loan in the Spanish La Liga with Real Sociedad and is set to return to the North London club in the summer.
Tierney initially lost his place in the team to Oleksandr Zinchenko after the Ukraine international was signed from Manchester City in the summer of 2022.
Arsenal have since bolstered their options at left-back, and while the 26-year-old has two more years to go on his current deal, he is not convinced that there is a place back for him at the club.
“There is every chance,” Tierney told The Athletic when asked whether it is inevitable he will move on this summer.
“Look at the squad depth in that position now. They have (Oleksandr) Zinchenko, (Jurrien) Timber, (Takehiro) Tomiyasu, (Jakub) Kiwior. Four players can play there. So if I go back and it’s the same as before then I’m not silly, I know the chances are I’ll be leaving.
“But you never know in football. You get the rare case with (William) Saliba, where he came back after a couple of good seasons (out on loan) but you don’t see it too often with someone who has played for four years, left, and then come back to play again.
“Stranger things have happened. I could go back and there is a place for me. So I’m prepared for both.”
He has featured in 21 games for Sociedad this term, weighing in with two assists and will not be short of suitors in the summer given his quality.
However, a return to Arsenal is unlikely to happen as he has not played as an inverted full-back in Spain and could struggle to start learning it all over again.
The strength of the game of the former Celtic star is his ability to gallop down the line, and Gunners manager Mikel Arteta has moved on from that style of play, with his left-backs and right-backs regularly required to go inside.
Tierney could not convince the Arsenal boss that he is capable of playing as an inverted left-back despite his best attempts, and it makes sense for both parties to part ways permanently in the summer given the current depth in the position.
