The former Celtic star has been back playing regularly for the La Liga outfit after recovering from a hamstring injury that kept him out for nine Sociedad games.
But across December and into January, Tierney has resumed his role as the Spanish side’s first-choice left-back and is enjoying his football again after a spell on the sidelines.
And with that, it comes as no surprise to hear in a recent interview that he has no intention of cutting his time at Sociedad short, where he is scheduled to be until the end of the season.
Reports suggested Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta could recall Tierney due to Oleksandr Zinchenko’s recent injury. But no, Tierney has zero plans regarding a North London return during the January transfer window.
Kieran Tierney on immediate future
As quoted in The Herald and the Daily Record by freelance journalist Mark Walker, Tierney relayed a firm decision: “Several people have already asked me if I was going to return to Arsenal now and the answer is no. I’m going to stay here for sure.
“As for staying here longer, the decision is not mine. But the only thing I can say is that I love playing for Real. And I’m enjoying it very much.
“Everything is fine with him [Mikel Arteta]. Last year I didn’t play and spent a lot of time on the bench. But this is football, I have no problem with it. I had almost no injuries, I played about 30 games, many coming off the bench, but I felt fine.”
Tierney’s Celtic declaration
Tierney went on to discuss his time at Celtic again and what he says doesn’t really come as a surprise to Hoops fans these days, because we know it is true.
Tierney is a Celtic fan for life and reaffirmed that with the Spanish press, saying: “I signed for Celtic at seven years old. I will always be Celtic. Always, always.
“When I think about what I did at Celtic, where I joined the first team from the academy and here I see Martín Zubimendi and Jon Pacheco and it was the same with them at Real.
“For them, it is their club, their Celtic and everyone loves them. And for me, it was really incredible to make it to the first team because I was seven years old when I joined the club. Here you have 15 players like that. It’s tremendous.
“I was happy at Celtic and I had already had offers from Arsenal before but I didn’t want to leave. But when they proposed it to me again it was a lot of money, Celtic also took a significant amount and I gained the ability to play in another league, so everyone won.
“I was happy at Celtic, not that I wanted to leave, but it was for the best.”
