Kenedy made just his third appearance of the season on Wednesday night — and only his sixth senior appearance (Chelsea and Watford combined) after bursting onto the scene with 20 appearances for Mourinho and Hiddink two years ago — as Chelsea beat Bournemouth 2-1 to advance to the League Cup semifinals. But despite putting in a lively shift that from various angles bordered on the impressive and one that he could certainly use to stake a claim for more minutes at Chelsea, he’s apparently only grown closer to securing a loan move to Newcastle in January instead.
This is a familiar story from the summer, when the move supposedly collapsed thanks to Chelsea’s inability to secure a backup for Marcos Alonso. That’s still the case on Chelsea’s left flank, so while the Mail claim that the Magpies have already ‘secured’ this loan move, local sources urge a bit more caution and predicate the completion of the move on similar requirements as in the summer — i.e. Chelsea finding a replacement and/or avoiding injuries to the other wing-backs. The Chronicle also point out that a Kenedy loan and a David Luiz loan may not co-exist, though the latter was a pretty silly story already.
With Chelsea set for at least three and probably four cup games in January alone, Kenedy could find a decent bit of playing time. Hopefully if he does leave on loan, he’ll find even more of it wherever he goes. On Wednesday we saw glimpses of the exciting, direct quality we’ve seen at times since his arrival in 2015 and his pre-season debut against Barcelona. The 21-year-old needs consistent playing time to flesh those out into reliable, useful qualities for future Chelsea considerations and contributions.
Around the 70th minute, Kenedy tried an audacious rainbow to beat his man but he was quite clearly pushed to the ground. Looked an obvious foul but nothing was given. #CFC pic.twitter.com/vbGUP2r1fp
— Chelsea GIFs (@ChelseaGIFs) December 21, 2017