The Gunners boss is “looking forward” to working with the Scottish full-back once it is safe for football to resume amid the coronavirus crisis
Mikel Arteta has expressed his belief that Kieran Tierney is “going to bring something special” to Arsenal after overcoming a string of injuries at the start of his career at Emirates Stadium.
Tierney completed a £25 million ($31m) move to Arsenal from Celtic last summer, bringing to an end his four-year spell in the Scottish Premier League.
The 22-year-old has been restricted to just four Premier League starts for the Gunners since then, and has yet to feature for the club under new head coach Arteta.
Tierney was sidelined with a dislocated shoulder in December, but was approaching full fitness again just before the 2019-20 campaign was called to a halt due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Arteta has revealed that he challenged the talented young full-back to “react” in the face of adversity, and is confident he will have a big impact on the first team upon his return to action.
“I’m really looking forward to working with him and giving him the opportunity to play,” the Arsenal head coach told Ian Wright in an interview for Adidas.
“His attitude, his commitment, his will; it’s incredible. I think he’s going to bring something special to us. It’s a shame (Tierney’s injury), but it’s part of his development.
“In your career, you go through these moments and I challenged Kieran to say, ‘Kieran, how are you going to react to that?’
“You cannot feel sorry for yourself that this happened. Okay, the level of expectation now is a bit higher, you have to deal with it.
“You are playing with a top club, top expectation… deal with it.
“You have everything to be successful here, you have the best possible attitude that I know from a player, go and lead your profession and enjoy it and that’s it.”
Arteta also addressed the difficulties he faced at the Emirates after inheriting a confidence-stricken squad from Unai Emery back in December.
“It is happening [the transformation],” he added.
“Coming into the club in that moment wasn’t easy but you mention a key word which is ‘energy’ and I felt that the energy around the training ground and the stadium wasn’t right for this magnificent club.
“I was here and was lucky to play here so everyone, first of all, has to feel in that way.
“There was a lot of disconnection in many areas and I wanted to bring everyone together.
“First of all to make everyone understand how lucky we are to be here and then a very clear direction of where we have to be.”
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