Arsenal: Jonjoe Kenny move would only mean one ridiculous thing

Somehow, Arsenal has been linked to on-loan Everton rightback Jonjoe Kenny. A link to him can only mean one ridiculous thing, and you can forget about that.

Over in Germany, FC Schalke is trying to figure out a way to keep Jonjoe Kenny. He’s been phenomenal on loan for them, but without the option to buy, they have to make it worth Everton’s while to secure his permanent services. Nothing fits into this scenario quite like rumors of a move to Arsenal.

I feel like it was just yesterday I was talking about how stupid transfer rumors seem to have evaporated. Chris Smalling notwithstanding, we had only sensible rumors coming in through the mill.

Then Willian came back, and then Carlos Soler, and now Jonjoe Kenny, the young English rightback who is a rightback playing rightback.

Did I mention that he’s a rightback?

As I have said countless times, Arsenal have very specific needs—central defense, central midfield, striker. Get that and boom, you’re done. You don’t need to venture out into any other subcategories. At least not until you secure the big three.

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So here comes a link to a young rightback who is already drawing heavy interest not just from Schalke, but from his own club, Everton, who only have Leighton Baines to hold down the role and he isn’t getting any younger.

What use do the Gunners have with a rightback? Hector Bellerin is still young, still one of the best out there, and while he is injury-prone, we have a £5m solution in Cedric Soares, who is much more seasoned and proven than Kenny at the Premier League level, much cheaper, and much more versatile.

Even if we do lose Ainsley Maitland-Niles, which still strikes me as a distinct possibility, we don’t want to answer it by buying another rightback is distinctly a rightback. All that does is commit money to create internal competition with Hector Bellerin. Now again, I’m not opposed to that, but why can’t Cedric create the same situation without as much cost?

This is a really dumb rumor. The only thing a link to Kenny would mean is that we’re planning to sell Bellerin, but there is no reason whatsoever to believe in that outcome either. Bellerin is a Gooner and he isn’t going anywhere.

Thankfully, it doesn’t look like this rumor is catching on, but I just wanted to point out how stupid it was before it died.