£25m player is still expected to join Newcastle, but now Aston Villa want him

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Aston Villa are set to enter the race for Arsenal’s Kieran Tierney who has been linked to Newcastle United this summer.

Many media outlets have said that Kieran Tierney to Newcastle is pretty much a nailed-on transfer this summer, however The Times are suggesting that they could now face competition from Aston Villa.

Villa boss Unai Emery is said to be a big admirer of Tierney being the man who brought him from Celtic to Arsenal and could make a move for the 25-year-old to try and get in ahead of the Magpies.

Newcastle are still in pole position to sign Tierney

The Times do go on to state that Newcastle are still frontrunners for Tierney on the strength of being able to offer Champions League football and being much closer to his family in Scotland, but there’s always an outside chance that his pre-existing relationship with Emery could sway him.

Tierney, who the Daily Record once called ‘immense‘, is seen by Newcastle as the left-sided equivalent of Kieran Trippier in that he’s just as comfortable going forward and providing crosses as he has at defending, and bringing him in could provide more balance to the side and give Newcastle extra attacking options without sacrificing the defensive side.

Arsenal are asking £25million for the Scottish International who has fallen down the Arsenal pecking order behind an excellent Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Dan Burn was brilliant this season but a natural LWB is needed

Newcastle have played with Dan Burn as a makeshift left-back for the majority of the season, and he has done absolutely brilliantly, however it’s not his natural position and with Matt Targett being kept out of the side by a player playing out of position, it doesn’t look like he will be thrust back into the first team right away next season.

It’s a shame for Targett who made his loan move from Aston Villa permanent last summer and then failed to secure his place in the team, but if Newcastle do bring in Tierney it’s likely that Targett will find himself spending a lot of time on the bench again.

As a big fan of Tierney, I hope this happens. He will definitely be a quality addition and could dramatically improve the attacking options in the side next season.