Arsenal have “received an enquiry” from La Liga side Real Sociedad for Kieran Tierney, according to The Sun.

The English tabloid claim that the Spanish club have been monitoring the Scottish international’s situation all summer and they have now formally registered an interest in taking the defender on a temporary basis.

It’s not clear whether the Gunners would be open to loaning out Tierney, with it being assumed that they would prefer to sell him outright to raise some cash from his departure.

The fullback was a substitute in the Community Shield win over Manchester City at the weekend, with manager Mikel Arteta preferring to deploy Jurrien Timber ahead of him.

Considering that Oleksandr Zinchenko was also missing through injury, it seems as though Tierney is now third choice on the left-hand side of defence.

The writing has been on the wall for a while

Tierney has never signalled his intention to leave the Emirates, having even stated his determination to fight for his place in an interview last month.

However, the 25-year-old did not start a single game in pre-season and the fact that he was on the bench at Wembley suggests that he won’t be featuring a great deal going forward.

Tierney is a wanted man

In addition to Real Sociedad, the player’s former club Celtic are known to be interested in re-signing him. Manager Brendan Rodgers has publicly expressed an interest in bringing the player back to Scotland, but only on loan.

The main issue for Arsenal at the moment is that they would prefer to offload Tierney on a permanent deal but, so far, teams have not been willing to stump up the cash.

Newcastle have been regularly linked with the defender, but the Magpies have prioritised other targets. For the time being, Tierney’s future remains very uncertain.