Swans & Seagulls In Flap Over Jenkinson

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Once a bright hope for the future, 25-year-old Carl Jenkinson is on his way out of the Emirates and heading to one of the Premier League’s lesser lights. Part of a three-way tussle for his services, Newcastle United dropped out having signed Javier Manquillo, 23, from Atletico Madrid, leaving Swansea City to slug it out with Brighton and Hove Albion, according to the Daily Mail.

Arsenal have a surfeit of promising players who never quite made the grade as well as key personnel, all of whom are out of contract next summer. Whilst Alexis Sanchez, 28, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, 23, take the headlines, the Gunners will find new homes for the likes of Jenkinson and Kieran Gibbs, 25, harder to come by.

Jenkinson arrived from Charlton Athletic as an understudy to Bacary Sagna in a £1m deal in 2011. For three seasons things were going well with the youngster racking up 57 appearances as he learned his trade.

However, the arrival of Mathieu Debuchy, 31, in 2014 curtailed hopes of progressing to Arsenal’s first team while the emergence of Hector Bellerin quashed them completely. Jenkinson moved to West Ham on loan. A permanent move to Crystal Palace fell through last summer when personal terms couldn’t be agreed so he remained at Arsenal, making 5 appearances during 2016/17.

With is England ambitions all but over, Jenkinson needs to find first team football with Arsenal well-stocked with right wing-backs. With younger players also emerging, the schoolboy Gooner is languishing in no-man’s land.