Newcastle United can gain huge advantage by beating Man City and Celtic to £25m star

It’s cold on Tyneside. Believe me, I know, I live here. It’s the kind of place where owning more than one pair of shorts is akin to arrogant lunacy, and where the ice cream men would do a better trade if they served cones full of Bovril instead of soft serve - even in the summer. It is also absolutely not the sort of place where you want to be a stuck as a benchwarmer.

Then again, neither the temperature nor a lack of first team minutes would be an issue for prospective Newcastle United signing Kieran Tierney. In the first instance, the Scot is the kind of granite-nerved maniac who would pack for an Arctic expedition as if it were a lads’ holiday to Zante. In the second, should he join Eddie Howe’s squad this summer - as many are expecting him to - then he would surely waltz straight into contention for a starting berth.

When Tierney first bid farewell to the streets of Glasgow for the comparatively arid climes of north London, there was an unspoken consensus that he would be Arsenal’s first-choice left-back for years to come. In the early part of his stint with the Gunners, there were even muted musings over his potential status as a future club captain, such were the steadiness and pluckiness of his performances.

But then, around this time last year, Mikel Arteta through a flaxen-haired spanner in the works when he struck a deal with former employers Manchester City for the out-of-favour Oleksander Zinchenko, You see, even though a player may be deemed surplus to requirements at the Etihad, there is still a pretty good chance that they will be regarded as a serious asset by just about any other club in the country. It’s the Law of James Milner.

So it has proven, too; over the course of the season that has just concluded, Tierney was limited to just six Premier League starts, while Zinchenko got the nod on 26 occasions. He also, in case you were wondering, missed a further 11 games through injury.

But you see, even though a player may be deemed surplus to requirements at the Emirates, there is still a pretty good chance that they will be regarded as a serious asset by just about any other club in the country. It’s the Law of Emi Martinez. And this is where Newcastle United come in.

At various points this summer, the Magpies have been touted as the most likely destination for Tierney, should he and Arsenal part ways before the end of August. Most recently, Football Insider suggested that the door had been opened for Toon chiefs to table a bid amid uncertainty surrounding the 26-year-old’s immediate future. It is understood that Eddie Howe is in the market for a more attack-minded full-back who can offer greater pace on the front foot than Dan Burn, a man who finally answers the question ‘what would happen if the Angel of the North came to life one day and showed a frightening propensity for freestyle breakdancing?’.

Certainly, Tierney - despite last season’s setback - ticks those boxes. The Scot has 51 assists and a further 13 goals to his name in 295 career appearances, with the vast majority of those outings coming from the left side of defence. His range of passing is exemplary, as is his ability to get up and down a touchline with a near-Sisyphean regularity. What’s more, all of the qualities that marked him out as a possible successor to the captain’s armband in the fledgling stages of his time in the capital are exactly the kind of traits that would be lionised on the banks of the Tyne. After years of apathetic drudgery, there are few fanbases who appreciate grit and guile and pure effort as much as the Toon Army. In short, Tierney feels like an ideal fit.

Should the defender depart from the Emirates in the coming weeks, there will, of course, be competition for his signature. In the kind of twist that must have Mikel Arteta stood baffled and slightly deranged before a cluttered corkboard criss-crossed with a web of thumb tacks, coloured yarn, and annotated black and white mug shots, Manchester City are said to have sounded out the possibility of a deal involving Tierney. More romantically, there is talk of a sensational return to Celtic for a homecoming alongside Paradise’s very own prodigal grouch, Brendan Rodgers.

Once upon a time, these whispers would have concerned Newcastle immensely, but being the richest club in world football, and having the lure of Champions League football poking seductively out of their back pocket, does have its distinct advantages.

Back in 2019, Arsenal paid £25 million or so for Tierney. How much of that figure they would look to recoup - or indeed whether they might aim to turn a profit on their outlay - remains to be seen, but whatever the Gunners’ demands end up being, Newcastle could inarguably meet them. And provided we’re not talking silly, silly money, they probably should too.

In spirit, character, and body temperature regulation, Tierney is a Newcastle player through and through. Now the Magpies must make him one in an actual, tangible sense as well.