Arsenal defender Kieran Tierney is reportedly free to leave the Gunners after Mikel Arteta decided not to take up an option of an extension.

Tierney is out of contract at the end of the season but the left-back did have an extension clause attached to his deal. However, according to The Athletic, the Gunners will not extend his stay in North London by a further year.

That means Arsenal may be looking to sell their defender to regain some money from his transfer fee. Such a deal could be of interest to Manchester United who are looking to add to the left-hand side of their defence sooner rather than later.

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Should they make a move for the Scotland international, he would come recommended by former United interim manager Ralf Rangnick - who once dubbed him 'one of the biggest talents in Europe'. Speaking in 2018 while Tierney was at Celtic, the then-RB Leipzig manager was complimentary of the full-back.

"Tierney, [Callum] McGregor and [Odsonne] Edouard are great talents in Scottish football," he explained. "Tierney, in particular, is one of the biggest talents in Europe.

"He can defend and he likes to get forward. Those three are good players but Celtic are a club that is well known across Europe for not letting players go for a bargain.

"We are not interested in them though — because we don’t have the kind of money needed to invest in those players!" It is fair to say that United could do a deal for Tierney which is considerably less expensive than Rangnick feared back in 2018.

Wednesday night against Crystal Palace was Tierney's first appearance since suffering a severe injury during Euro 2024 with Scotland. His performance lasted 69 minutes before he was substituted with what appeared to be an injury but the extent of the issue was not clear.