Out-of-favour Arsenal full-back Carl Jenkinson is reportedly attracting interest from Crystal Palace as the London club look to replace Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
As Arsenal embark on their search for the right players in the market, they could be in for a little windfall by the sale of one of their outcast players. According to The Sun, Crystal Palace have re-ignited their interest in Arsenal’s out-of-favour right-back, Carl Jenkinson, and are eyeing a cut-price deal for the defender.
Arsenal and Crystal Palace have been at loggerheads ever since Arsenal made a series of offers for Wilfried Zaha. Both clubs are yet to reach an agreement over the Ivory Coast international. Palace have rejected Arsenal’s recent £40 million bid; Zaha, after returning from international duty has reportedly told the club he wants to leave. Arsenal is his preferred destination.
While the Gunners were working on a deal for Zaha, there were rumours the North Londoners were looking to include as many as three players in the deal. Mohamed Elneny, Calum Chambers and Jenkinson were reportedly those players. Now Crystal Palace are trying to sign the full-back in a separate deal as they search for a replacement for Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Jenkinson has spent an incredible eight years at Arsenal. But, he has only managed to feature sporadically for the Gunners, under both Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery. Despite the long-term injury to Hector Bellerin, Jenkinson failed to nail down a place in the side last season, with Emery generally preferring Ainsley Maitland-Niles, and there seems to be little future for him at Arsenal.
This is not the first time that Palace have been linked with Jenkinson. There was a failed move back in 2017, but now things have changed as Arsenal want much less for the defender than before. Jenkinson is by no measure Palace’s first-choice candidate to replace Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
The South Londoners first tried to pursue Norwich’s Max Aarons, only to cool their interest due to the growing number of top clubs who have been after him. Torino’s Timothy Castagne was the other choice only for the player to sign a new deal with the Italian club. Finally, they were looking at Chelsea star Reece James, but the Blues are reportedly looking to keep hold of him.
Those failures in other pursuits have led Palace to go back to their old target Jenkinson. Arsenal are looking to add to their meagre transfer budget by offloading several out-of-favour stars. As for Jenkinson, the Gunners are believed to be wanting £5 million for the 27-year-old.
It remains to be seen if Arsenal can exploit Palace’s interest in Jenkinson to lower their asking price for Zaha by including him as part of a deal for the Ivorian. The decision would also depend on Jenkinson’s preference as other clubs are also showing interest in him. Jenkinson would want regular playing time, and if Palace offer that, the Arsenal right-back might be on his way.
