Arsenal: Jonjoe Kenny and Ryan Fraser require same thing

Arsenal are now linked to both Ryan Fraser and Jonjoe Kenny, neither of which seems of high priority. They would both require the same thing.

Just a few days back, I wrote about how Carlos Soler and Marc Roca required the same thing if they were going to move to Arsenal. They both required us to have faith in Mikel Arteta and his ability to get the most out of them, as well as having faith in the higher-ups that they knew what they were doing.

That faith doubles here when applied to Ryan Fraser and Jonjoe Kenny, but they require something else as well. Something that maybe isn’t as easy to get behind.

Both Fraser and Kenny play positions we have no need to add to. Fraser makes more sense of the two because at least he has something we don’t have—he has a good deal of Premier League experience at the winger position.

Still, with Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, and Nicolas Pepe filling two winger positions, there are higher priorities. Even if Fraser would be free.

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For Jonjoe Kenny, he very specifically plays rightback, where Hector Bellerin, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, and Cedric Soares all happen to play as well. Now, of those three, it’s likely that only Hector Bellerin’s position is solidified. Maitland-Niles could be headed for a premature exit seeing as how he has completely fallen out of the picture. Cedric Soares, meanwhile, is on loan. A £5m permanent move for him would make a ton of sense, but until it’s done, there is the possibility that a spot opens up as the back-up rightback.

That said, in order to make sense of Kenny or Fraser, we would have to see someone leave the club at their corresponding positions. And that’s what I don’t like. It makes more sense to pick Cedric out of the bargain bin than it does to spend far too much on Jonjoe Kenny.

Likewise, I’d rather trust our youth wingers than bring in Fraser as anything more than a rotational role. But even still, he would start to make a lot more sense if, say, Reiss Nelson was headed out of the club. Which I really hate the idea of.

These are two moves that get raised eyebrows from me. Maybe they are emergency options if something happens that needs replacing, and for that, I admire the proactiveness. But that’s about as far as it goes.