It was reported last week that Arsenal and Crystal Palace were supposedly locked in negotiations over the permanent transfer of Carl Jenkinson. Arsenal were reportedly willing to let the right back leave on the cheap, after failing to impress since his return to the club. Palace manager Sam Allardyce is keen to build a new team in order to fight relegation, but Jenkinson may no longer be a part of the manager’s plans.
Carl Jenkinson returned to Arsenal officially for the start of the 2016/17 season, after spending the previous two years away on loan at West Ham. His loan spell at West Ham, where Jenkinson did play under Allardyce, went reasonably well, before an injury unfortunately cut short his second spell in East London. Wenger clearly believed that Jenkinson had the potential to provide valuable backup to Arsenal in the right back position this season and although he hasn’t had too many opportunities to feature, the defender has arguably been awful in every single appearance.
With Wenger therefore having seemingly given up on the right back, Palace’s interest was welcomed by the club. A deal rumoured to be between £4-7million was supposedly on the table, but according to today’s report in the Guardian, the move has collapsed over personal terms.
It is understood that Jenkinson was willing to make the move to Crystal Palace in order to get more game time under his belt. This is despite the fact that he would be leaving his beloved Arsenal in a permanent transfer. However one demand that Jenkinson did supposedly make to Palace was that if he was going to join a club involved in a relegation battle, then his wage should be bumped at least a little bit. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Jenkinson is currently earning around £40,000 per week at Arsenal and has a current contractual agreement with the club until 2018.
Palace, in my opinion, have unsurprisingly rejected Jenkinson’s apparent approach for a higher wage, despite the Eagles being supposedly willing to match the current pay he’s on at Arsenal. Despite wages in general having long been of what is considered an acceptable price, £40k per week for Jenkinson does seem a little high and I’m surprised Palace even offered to match the money to start with. Palace cannot afford to spend such large sums of money on players every week, whom in reality are probably more like reserve quality than starting eleven, especially at Arsenal. It’s even more unsurprising considering if Palace were to be relegated, this season or the next during Jenkinson’s potential contract with them, £40k p/w on the books would surely be a player they’d have to look to move on if they are in the Championship. Thus Jenkinson’s apparent demands are nowhere near being accepted by his potential new club and as a result, it seems like the deal has broken off.
If the rumours are therefore true, you can assume that Jenkinson is still on the availability market and ready for a transfer, but it’s unlikely that Palace will be the right back’s next destination, after demanding just a little too much from them.
Does this development just highlight the fact that Arsenal pay their fringe players too much?
By AH
Yes! Mertesacker’s new contract highlights just how bad things have got under Wenger! Arsenal are haggling over new contracts for our two star players, but yet again, they don’t mind giving a new contract, worth a lot of money, to a player that’s never been that good, hasn’t even played for a long time, near the end of his career, and who is probably our fourth/fifth choice CB.
Before the AKBs say it’s the board, and not Wenger, I promise you that Wenger would have sanctioned Mertesacker’s new contract.
And he will give one to Cazorla who won’t play next season. And he gave one to Arteta who didn’t play in his last season. And he gave one to Rosicky who didn’t play, and Tomas didn’t even want to stay on!
And don’t even mention Diaby!!!
The Mertesacker (and possibly Cazorla) contracts are different. Arsenal have a history of giving loyalty one year contracts (or pensions) to retiring players who haven’t earned testimonials like Rosicky, Arteta etc. I don’t approve as these players occupy a spot in the 25 registered players for the season.
As for Jenko, £40k a week is around £2m a year compared to a wage bill of around £167m. It looks massive and is probably more than I will ever earn, but the club made £350m last year before the new TV money even kicks in. We need reliable back up players and the truth is you get what you pay for. Most of his wages have been paid by West Ham for the last 2 years so again no big outlay.
The club make a lot of money and this should be no excuse not to pay Ozil or Sanchez what they want.
The reality is I wouldn’t even pay Bellerin the 100k he’s reportedly on, in fact, I’ll ideally not go beyond 50, but could stretch it to 70 not because he ain’t a fantastic player but it has a way of diminishing the hunger in young players especially. Imagine we had pegged Walcott at 90, he’ll only stay on because he wants to be here and fight on and if he left [for the money ] we wouldn’t have lost Serge Gnabry. I prefer the Walcott that was fighting for a pay rise to the contented one that’s doing just enough. It helps to separate the truely passionate players from the mercenaries, little wonder Chelski players are easily getting lured to China, our very own Alexis is so far unmoved even by Pellegrini’s temptings, now that’s a player worthy of breaking the bank for.
I think this just highlights that some players are more interested in money than playing regular football. Jenkinson should jump at the chance to play regular football at Crystal Palace rather than stagnate in our reserves. Just goes to show what some people’s priorities are.
Would you leave your current job and go work for less? Stop with this crap please, put yourself in his position before you talk crap.
If I wasn’t getting job satisfaction at my current job then yes I would go somewhere else for less money. Jenkinson is hardly going to be a pauper if he goes to Crystal Palace, at least he’ll play regularly. But hey, everybody’s different, if he’s happy staying with us playing spasmodically then that’s what he should do.