OPINION
Kenedy has spent the best part of this season baffling Newcastle United fans.
How could somebody so good last season fall off a cliff so profoundly this time around? It hasn’t been a case of him dipping in form, it has been a case of black and white, night and day, plummeting from exceptional to excruciating in the blink of an eye.
The fact that he struggled to force his way into the side ahead of the likes of Jacob Murphy and Christian Atsu is telling to say the least, but his chances of turning around his faltering Newcastle career have surely suffered a massive blow since Miguel Almiron was brought in in January.
On the face of it, it’s almost impossible to see how the Brazilian can resurrect his time on Tyneside before his loan spell is up an he has to return to Chelsea, but all might not be lost for the 23-year-old.
His days as a starter are probably over, but there is no reason why, coming off the back of this international break, that he can’t have a go at making a really decent impact when he is called upon by Rafa Benitez.
There seems to be a greater freedom surrounding the way that Newcastle play these days, and you would assume that the newfound sense of attacking fervour would make for conditions in which Kenedy could thrive.
Now that relegation has seemingly been avoided, and now that he doesn’t have to be the main man, there is every chance for him to hit the heights he did not that long ago in a more relaxed and less pressurised environment.
