Getting to play for Everton is a dream come true for many thousands of Blues in this city so Jonjoe Kenny deserves respect for deciding that dream is over for himself this summer. With Everton announcing their retained and released list, it was revealed that Kenny had been offered a new deal at Goodison Park, understood to be a multi-year contract on improved terms, but has instead decided to pursue a new opportunity elsewhere.
Hailing from Kirkdale, Kenny was as local as they come for Everton. This correspondent recalls an interview he gave for the ECHO in 2016 while still a young prospect starting out when he spoke of his excitement over playing at Goodison Park.
He said: “It’s over the road from mine so to play here it’s a dream come true and I want more of that experience.” However, playing for the Blues was never a mere convenience for Kenny who went out on loan to Wigan Athletic, Oxford United, Schalke and Celtic, and there was also another quote that day from the then teenager which is now more telling than ever.
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Kenny insisted: “I’m not here just to be one of the lads - I want to be a first team footballer.” Although he captained Everton’s Under 23s to Premier League glory in 2017, the path to regular football in the top flight was never a smooth one for Kenny with the Blues. Touted to become Seamus Coleman’s possible long-term successor, like so many of his team-mates he had to juggle the demands of playing under a plethora of different bosses with their varying football philosophies during his time at the club.
Indeed, having been first picked for his debut by caretaker duo David Unsworth and Joe Royle, coming on as a 29 th minute substitute for Matty Pennington in the 3-0 home victory over Norwich City on the final day of the 2015/16 season, he worked under all six of Farhad Moshiri’s managerial appointments. After making just eight appearances under Carlo Ancelotti in 2020/21 after his year in the Bundesliga, Kenny enjoyed something of a renaissance in what proved to be his last campaign at Everton with 21 appearances second only to the 25 he played in 2017/18.
With everyone handed a fresh start after the latest change in the dugout in January, Frank Lampard seemed particularly keen on him, picking him on 14 occasions – eight of which were on his unfavoured left side – and was clearly impressed enough to offer him a new deal. However, having turned 25 in March, Kenny now older than Blues captain Kevin Ratcliffe was when he lifted the League Championship and European Cup-Winners’ Cup trophies in 1985 and releases he is now longer an up-and-coming prospect.
Coleman is also a great admirer of captain Coleman and Everton shelled out fees that could eventually top £30million on two new full-backs in the January transfer window in the shape of Vitalii Mykolenko and Nathan Patterson. Perhaps he could have picked up a handsome pay packet to continue in what might have been a bit-part role but Kenny has decided that the time has come to make a dignified exit on his own terms and try and nail down a more regular place elsewhere and for that he should surely be applauded.
It cannot have been an easy choice for him to make and is of course in stark contrast to the kind of acrimonious departures of other boyhood Blues like Wayne Rooney, first time around, and Ross Barkley who instead were enticed away to go and play for Manchester United and Chelsea respectively, clubs who were competing for the game’s top honours. In terms of the kind of dent that his wages were making on the club payroll, Kenny’s farewell will make far less of an impact though than an additional trio who are also on their way out.
Fabian Delph, Cenk Tosun and Gylfi Sigurdsson are perhaps three of the biggest examples of the mistakes that owner Mr Moshiri spoke about in the apology he made in his open letter to Everton fans this week given that between them they cost around £80million in transfer fees but now all depart for free. While there is nothing that can be done now in terms of undoing the errors of past recruitment, the freeing up of a trio of salaries that were among the club’s highest should hopefully provide some considerable scope for squad rebuilding.
As Kevin Thelwell outlined in his first interview as director of football back in March, Everton’s recruitment strategy needs to change as they look to “build a team that’s a bit more consistent, a bit more stable and is also very clear about what their roles and responsibilities are on the pitch.” A big part of that will be getting players who can actually get out there on a more regular basis.
Beyond players who made just a single appearance, Delph scored the highest average score among the ECHO’s overall Everton player ratings for the 2021/22 season, but only figured in a quarter of their matches. Tosun had just three late cameos as a substitute and did not pick up a single mark while Sigurdsson did not feature at all.
The Blues have yet to make any new signings but have been strongly linked with a move for James Tarkowski who will leave Burnley at the end of this month when his contract expires. Although, like Delph when he arrived in 2019, he is in his 30th year, he is a player who for the past five years has played more than 30 Premier League games a season so if he does sign then Lampard will be hoping to get a player who is not only a leader but also someone more durable given that Yerry Mina, regarded by many as being Everton’s best centre-back, figured in just 14 matches himself last term, a mere three more than Delph.
