West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has confirmed that Carl Jenkinson won’t be loaned back to the Hammers again next season.
The Arsenal right-back spent the entire 2014/15 season at Upton Park and has been back there again this campaign. On Wednesday the club completed the signing of Sam Byram from Leeds, and here at Daily Cannon we asked what that could mean for Jenkinson’s future.
Well, it’s now clear that Arsenal’s position on Jenkinson was made obvious to West Ham back in August.
Interesting side note from Bilic, who says Arsenal told him in August Jenkinson will not be loaned to them again next season #AFC
— Simon Collings (@sr_collings) January 21, 2016
Jenkinson has been battling for regular football this season with James Tomkins playing 11 Premier League games at right-back. Now Byram has signed it’s obvious that Jenkinson’s permanent future doesn’t lie with the Hammers, but could he return to Arsenal?
Should the Gunners sell Mathieu Debuchy, who is desperate to move, this January then Arsène Wenger may be tempted to ask West Ham to end Jenkinson’s season-long loan early. Regardless, it is clear Debuchy won’t be an Arsenal player by the time next season begins and the Gunners will need a new right-back to play second fiddle to, or even compete with, Héctor Bellerín.
Whether or not Jenkinson would be happy to be second choice remains to be seen, as does whether or not Wenger believes him to be good enough for the Arsenal squad. We will probably find out in the summer, but the fact Arsenal weren’t looking to loan him out for a third successive season suggests he does have some sort of future in north London.