Arsenal defender Carl Jenkinson has revealed that getting the bosses backing helps him improve as a player on-and-off the pitch.
The youngster was signed from Charlton Athletic a couple of season’s ago and due to numerous injuries picked up by Bacary Sagna, the 21-year-old has featured for the first-team a lot more than expected.
Jenkinson has already made seven appearances this season and is slowly becoming a real competition to Sagna for that starting spot at right-back.
Arsenal were linked with a move for a defensive player this summer, but failed to recruit anyone and Jenkinson has admitted that the faith Arsene Wenger has in him, helps him improve.
“I think it’s massive for me,” he told Arsenal Player.
“Sometimes as a player you can doubt yourself and you can think ‘I’m not doing so well. Do people still have belief in me?’ I think the biggest compliment in football, and I often remind myself of that, [that] someone like Arsène Wenger has faith in me.
“That gives me an awful lot of confidence, to know that a man of his stature and his experience believes in me and believes that I can have a great career in the game. For me there’s no bigger compliment in football than that.
“He gives me a lot of confidence, as do the other coaches. It’s an honour to wear an Arsenal shirt anyway. You’re more than worthy of being a good player if you’re playing for this Club so it’s just important that you believe that all the time and you have that confidence in yourself.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt
