In a move that might seem a little surprising to many Everton supporters, right-back Jonjoe Kenny has apparently been offered a new contract by the club.
Kenny’s future appeared to be away from Everton after the academy graduate had struggled to break into the Toffees’ first-team over the past few seasons and then spent time away on loan at Celtic.
Despite the issues with veteran full-back Seamus Coleman, in particular his age and problems with injury, Kenny hadn’t managed to cement a place in the Blues’ side and there were persistent doubts about whether he was good enough for the Premier League.
The 25-year-old has though made a more regular contribution to the team this season as the usual injury crisis and lack of adequate options in the squad, forced both Rafa Benitez and then Frank Lampard to turn to him.
He has played left and right-back and although he hasn’t exactly been outstanding Kenny has been pretty solid overall.
If he does get this contract and signs it he still might struggle to get a game in his preferred position of right-back if Nathan Patterson returns from his injury.
The Scot was just about to make his debut in a royal blue shirt minutes before the West Ham game and was then injured literally minutes before the match.
Now, perhaps because of that contribution and his versatility, Everton have supposedly offered him a new three-year contract.
I think that another reason for this decision is the probable lack of finances available to Lampard this summer, a player like Kenny will be seen as a useful squad member who could fill in for several starting players.
Talking of possible full-back additions, the Toffees’ have been linked with a move for Rennes left-back Adrien Truffert who is apparently aware of alledged interest from the Blues’ and Mykolenko’s Ukrainian international team mate Oleksandr Zinchenko.
The Truffert story sounds like an entirely speculative bit of media noise, but we will see I suppose if anything further comes from this story.
It does sound a strange one though because Vitalii Mykolenko has seemingly cemented the left-back position as his own and Nils Nkounkou is returning to the club after his loan spell in Belgium came to an end.