Celtic ready to play waiting game over Kieran Tierney

Kieran Tierney’s on-off transfer is set to go down to the wire.

The Celtic and Scotland full-back has been the subject of two failed bids from Arsenal.

The Hoops have been unwavering in their £25-million valuation of their player and the need for that cash to be guaranteed, but have also made contingency plans for his departure.

At the start of the month they snapped up another left-back, Boli Bolingoli, from Rapid Vienna for £3.25 million.

And while yesterday they were cool about reports suggesting they had offered former stalwart Emilio Izaguirre a six-month, short-term deal, the size of the fee for the Belgian they have recruited allows Neil Lennon to be relaxed about the Tierney saga.

The link with Izaguirre came from Honduras where the 33-year-old is now back in pre-season training with Motagua and deciding whether to return to his first club or join a new club abroad.

Motagua president, Eddy Atala, has been quoted stating that Izaguirre has had offers from clubs in the United States, Japan and Australia.

He said he also had the possibility of returning to Celtic, but only for six months, and that he hoped he might instead join his club.

The Hoops could take some comfort from the fact Tierney’s future is not the only drawn-out affair of the summer.

While last week’s reports of a third bid from the London club for the Scot were premature, so too was the talk of their giving up on the deal.

Negotiations remain ongoing with the likely outcome being that eventually they will reach agreement.

In fact with the Scottish transfer window shutting three weeks later than the English, it could actually work to their advantage.

For from August 8 there will be a significant number of Premier League players south of the border who start to realise they are not part of their employers’ plans for the season and that their chance of jumping to another English club has gone by.

With extra cash to spend from a Tierney move, manager Neil Lennon would suddenly find himself in a position to pick up talent he might otherwise have had no chance of persuading to move to Scotland.