Jenna Nighswonger Leaving Arsenal?

What on earth is going on with Jenna Nighswonger?

I woke up today having written the "Ona Batlle is not a direct replacement for Katie McCabe" piece, realising that shirt number 22 which Ona has taken was the number worn by Jenna.

A quick scan of the inter webs for Arsenal Women news reveals nothing. A visit to the club website shows Jenna among the defenders with no shirt number and when you click on her image, her full bio is still there.

But scroll to the bottom of her bio and click the "Shop all Jenna Nighswonger items at Arsenal Direct" link and you are met with a glaring PAGE NOT FOUND!

Sure enough (remember I dig further so you don't have to), if you then go to the Arsenal Direct store, pick a home shirt and go to the select a player list, she's not there.

Now, I did say on the podcast that I felt there was no way back for her and she'd likely be finding another club, possibly heading back to the NWSL, but this seems to be a major faux pas on the part of Arsenal, which is so unusual given the care and attention to detail they put into most aspects of what they do online, from socials to player reveals and the general crafting of the website. Especially in comparison to most other clubs (I went on Chelsea's site yesterday (I know, yuck) to find images of Katie McCabe and their site is not even mid as the youngsters would say).

So this is it. A signing that came with much enthusiasm, quickly turned to "what on earth is going on with Jenna Nighswonger"... found some redemption when she was allowed to go to Aston Villa on loan but now seems to be in the dumpster again.

It's been such a weird one and it feels like some level of mismanagement on the part of the Club, not just in her recruitment but also the general handling of her through to this current situation where her shirt number has been blatantly given to our new superstar signing and her digital footprint at Arsenal online is now a mess.

I really feel for Jenna. I think she showed signs of being a talented player and a highly valuable member of the squad. I'm just thankful that she's still only 25 so has many years of career ahead of her, and I hope she can secure a move to a new club quickly, so she can put this all behind her.

Whatever happens, I'm sure many of you reading this will join me in wishing Jenna Nighswonger all the best. It's just a shame that the ball has been dropped by certain people at the Club in multiple ways - there's been only one loser in this situation.