OPINION
Newcastle United winger Kenedy has been awful all season and has stumbled his way from one bad performance to another but hopefully the performance of Chelsea rival Emerson in the EFL Cup against Liverpool will cause him to get his act together.
The 22-year-old flyer is on loan from the Blues at the Magpies for the season and no doubt holds ambitions of breaking into the first-team at Stamford Bridge when he returns to his parent club next summer.
However Chelsea are no doubting keeping an eye on Kenedy’s performances and won’t welcome him back with open arms as it’s clear that he’s not even worthy of a place in Rafa Benitez’s side based on his current form.
Yet despite this, the Brazilian has not shown that he has the hunger to turn his form around at St James Park as at times his bad performances have looked a result of lack of heart or desire rather than talent.
Kenedy must realise that he is not helping his future by putting in continued bad displays for the Magpies and must use the latest display of Chelsea player Emerson as an immediate wake-up call in order to start delivering the goods for his current side.
Emerson scored during the Blues’ 2-1 win over the Reds and showed several reasons why he would keep Kenedy out of the first-team set-up for a while.
The 24-year-old, who earns £75,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac) is currently behind Marcos Alonso in the pecking order at the Blues, showed signs of being a little rusty against the Reds but as the game progress got better and better.
Emerson, who like Kenedy can be deployed as a left-sided midfielder or a left-back, looked able to offer his side everything his 22-year-old rival can but also looked more capable when asked to do his defensive duties.
Given that the Italian defender isn’t even the first-choice option at the Blues and Kenedy probably wouldn’t be ahead of him in the pecking order as it stands, after witnessing Emerson’s performance against Liverpool it must act as an immediate wake-up call for the Brazilian.
If Kenedy’s form starts being at the level it should be at then the flyer will be able to return to Chelsea in the summer with actually a fighting chance of featuring but if his current standard of performances continue then he hasn’t got a hope at all.
