Kieran Tierney seals sensational Celtic return as Brendan Rodgers confirms stunning deal

BRENDAN RODGERS has confirmed Kieran Tierney has agreed to rejoin Celtic this summer.

And the Hoops boss admits the club will now aim to strike a deal with Arsenal to land the Scotland star this month.

4 Kieran Tierney is set to return to Celtic Credit: Getty Images - Getty

4 The fan favourite will be back in Glasgow next summer Credit: Getty

SunSport first revealed back on December 18 that Rodgers wanted to seal a sensational return to Celts for KT.

Weeks of talks have now been rubber-stamped for the 27-year-old.

But Rodgers needs a left-back NOW with on-loan Alex Valle returning to Barcelona before being sent to Como.

Asked if that could speed up Tierney’s return, Rodgers said: “Ideally, it would.

“But at this moment he’s still an Arsenal player.

“So I think everyone would agree that that will definitely take place in the summer.

“If we can do it beforehand, then great.

“Could that happen? I don't know.

“I think that, like I said, we'd prepared that for the summer.

“And I don't want to speak too much on it, with the greatest respect because he's not a Celtic player here now with us.

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“But if we were able to do it, of course we would like to do that. But that's out of our control at this moment in time.”

Valle has returned to Spain with Como now set to take him on loan for the second half of the season.

Rodgers added: “Alex won't play again, sadly.

“He's in Barcelona now at the moment.

“And he will probably then move on to another team.

"So, again, he’s another young player that's contributed really well for us.

“He played nearly 20 appearances for us.

“He played in some very important games.

“He made his Champions League debut.

“Especially in Atalanta, he was fantastic.

“He played in really important games.

“So, we're disappointed that he's left. But we have to move on.”

Rodgers has also admitted Celtic MUST sign a new striker to replace Kyogo who joined Rennes this week.

4 Alex Valle, in action here against Young Boys, has left the club Credit: Kenny Ramsay

He added:“Kyogo has been a real iconic player for the club.

“He's done absolutely brilliantly in his time here.

“So, yes, it's about getting a replacement.

“I think that's made clear.

“He's a player that's done a great job.

“But he probably wanted to leave.

“We have to move on from that and we have to look to the next player to come in.

“There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes.

“Like I said, we've known for a number of months of what he was going to look like.

“Clearly, we wouldn't have wanted to have sold him, certainly not at this point.

“But he made it clear he wanted to move and when that's the case, then we have to find the best solution for the club.

“And the club will work very hard and we'll look to get an able replacement.”

Celts face Aston Villa tomorrow night in a Champions League Battle of Britain and Rodgers added: “Yeah, it's a brilliant game.

“Listen, for us, it's a great achievement to be in the top 24.

“I think if you look at the economics of it all at this level.

“But for the players, they've been fantastic.

”They've stayed with the idea, they've worked very, very hard.

4 Brendan Rodgers will work with Kieran Tierney again - perhaps before this summer Credit: PA

“And what we set out to do, which was to firstly arrive in the play-offs, the players have done that, so it's great.

“But our job's not complete in this series of eight games.

“We come here to a great venue, against a fantastic team, but we want to come and play to the level that we know we can do.

“So, we're really looking forward to it.”

Tierney, 27, left his boyhood club in the summer of 2019 after Arsenal paid a record £25million fee to secure his services and bring him down to North London.

Tierney's contract at Arsenal expires next summer but the Premier League club did have an option to trigger a 12-month extension.

However, they decided against exercising that option, allowing Celtic to pounce.

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