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Fullname: Jonjoe Kenny
aka: Johnjoe Kenny, Jon Joe Kenny
Born: 15 March 1997
Birthplace: Liverpool, England
Signed:1 Feb 2021 (loan till end of season from Everton)
Left: 16 May 2021 (back to Everton)
Position: Right-back, defender
Debut: 2021-02-02: Kilmarnock 0-4 Celtic, League
Squad No.: 16
Internationals: England up to U21s (but not full seniors)
International Caps: ? [complete at end of career]
International Goals: ? [complete at end of career]
Biog
Jonjoe Kenny arrived at Celtic mid-season having had a mostly stop start career in the top flight with Everton, filled in with loan moves. He finally gained a lot of experience in the Bundesliga on loan to Schalke but returned back to England.
He was a temporary filler with the departure of Frimpong to Germany and Elhamed having stated he wanted to leave. Celtic were at near rock bottom, with the Chief Exec announcing his departure to come, and the manager (Neil Lennon) underfire after a disastrous season so far, but there was still a few months left. Add in the covid-19 pandemic, and it was a horrid time to come to Celtic. After the poor form of practically the entire transfer lot this season (bar Turnbull), expectations weren’t exactly high for him.
Signed on for Celtic on loan during the disastrous campaign for ten league titles in a row. Add in a manager underfire and would be in time moved on, and a chief executive under the cosh announcing his retirement at end-of-season, it was a difficult environment to sign under. The squad was demoralised, the performances poor and the defence at Celtic was a shambles. The covid affected season 2020/21 was ignominiously ending what had been a glorious golden era for Celtic. The league challenge was already well over by the time he had come to Celtic, and really he was just a sticking plaster.
In truth it wasn’t a name to whet the appetites but after the expensive failed loan signing of Shane Duffy, expectations were tempered giving him some breathing room. He seemed to be happy with the move:
“It was a decision I couldn’t turn down”
On the field, he had a fair debut in a 4-0 victory over Kilmarnock, Celtic’s first good victory for a while after a very turgid period.
It didn’t quite work out from there, but he was not by any means the poorest transfer of the season.
His matches didn’t show him to be anything more than perfunctory which was fair enough. However results were at first poor, resulting in the overdue sacking of Neil Lennon as manager. Things may have kicked on but John Kennedy as interim manager was in a no win situation in which Jonjoe Kenny could do little more to help or make much difference.
He had a tough first match v Sevco in March 2021, and while he was in possession around the halfway line, he made a very clumsy long-range backpass back to goals from which Celtic conceded a corner that led to the Sevco goal. Cost Celtic a victory as the game ended one each, but he wasn’t the only issue in that match. To rub it in, in his next match v Sevco he scored an unfortunate own goal in a 2-0 defeat. He just couldn’t get the rub of the green.
Worse was to come in his final match v Sevco in April 2021, in a 4-1 defeat. He was heavily targetted by Sevco in their match plan, and a poor performance across the Celtic team sealed a poor close to the end of the season for Celtic.
As Celtic were to end the season empty handed, he was to leave Celtic without any silverware at all. Something that was extraordinary after all the success over the past decade, but not the fault of Johnjoe Kenny.
He was actually a mostly unremarkable player in an impossible situation arriving as Celtic were already in free fall that season and close to hitting the ground face down. He did his general work on field fair enough but in retrospect Celtic should have just given the place to a youth team player (e.g. Ralston). He was clearly a stand in doing his job, given a chance at a big club which was beyond him but this was now his fourth loan move and things were again not working out.
Some were very caustic on the player, claiming that he didn’t want to go forward, didn’t want to defend, and just wanted to pass back the way. To put it another way, he was the new boo-boy for the eternally disgruntled, despite there being a lot of competition at Celtic at this time for that unwanted title. Didn’t help him in that his first Celtic manager got cut (Neil Lennon), an unprepared interim manager (John Kennedy) was brought in to steady the ship, and Celtic had difficulties to bring in a decent permanent replacement manager. This was all in the space of a few months.
He was to leave a dishevelled Celtic side at the end of the season, and will sadly be recalled mostly for the high profile costly errors against Sevco. He was though not the biggest problem that season, and at least provided some cover overall. It was a thankless task.
We wished him the best.
Post-Celtic
At a dishevelled Everton, things weren’t working out, and he was played little by their manager Rafael Benitez who was heavily underfire (and had ironically been at one point a potential target for the Celtic job). He finally did manage to gain a regular place albeit in a freefalling Everton side that season. The next season he moved onto Hertha Berlin, …
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Playing Career
| APPEARANCES (subs) |
LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 2020/21 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
| Goals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Honours with Celtic
None
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Articles
Neil Lennon singles out ‘gritty little hardy man’ for special Celtic praise after Kilmarnock win
Neil Lennon reserved special praise for his newest recruit Jonjoe Kenny as he savoured Celtic’s biggest win since last September.
By Andrew Smith
Tuesday, 2nd February 2021, 10:38 pm
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/neil-lennon-singles-out-gritty-little-hardy-man-special-celtic-praise-after-kilmarnock-win-3121940
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The right-back was solid and lively on his debut, only a day on from his arrival in a six-month loan deal from Everton, in helping his new team to a 4-0 victory at Kilmarnock. And as a short-term replacement for Jeremie Frimpong following his £11.5million move to Bayer Leverkusen, the 23-year-old supplied Lennon with everything he was looking for. Not least in allowing Kristoffer Ajer to vacate that berth and move back to central defence.
“Jonjoe played very well on his debut,” Lennon said. “We had to be patient to get a right-back in after Frimpong left and that puts Ajer back in there. Jonjoe knows the position, is a good defender and I thought he was very good going forward. He was very calm and looked like he’d been playing with us all season, even though he’d only trained with us for a day. I was delighted with his performance. I quite like his attitude and his enthusiasm for the game. He’s a gritty little hardy man and I thought he defended his position very well.”
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Lennon also had plaudits for Stephen Welsh, preferred as Ajer’s partner to Shane Duffy, and two-goal Odsonne Edouard. On the Celtic youngster he said: “I’m delighted with him because he’s been steady. He got thrown in at the deep end this season with Rangers and AC Milan. I wouldn’t say he’s struggled but it’s been difficult for him. He’s had a couple of games since then and he’s been very good. I was delighted with his performance and he should be.”
All in, Lennon maintained his five-changes and his damning calling out of the players’ professionalism in the aftermath of Saturday’s home loss to St Mirren had produced the desired effect. “I got the reaction I wanted. It was the polar opposite of what we produced on Saturday,” he said. “People were criticising me for jagging the team but they needed the jag to be honest and we got a great performance and a great result and the body language, their attacking play. The concentration was so much better. That is more like us so we have to build on that from here on in.”