Villa offer Jenkinson an escape from hell

STEVE BRUCE has offered Carl Jenkinson the chance to rebuild his career at Aston Villa.

Villa’s boss is working on a loan move for the Arsenal defender, who has suffered a crisis of confidence at the Emirates.

Bruce is happy to give the right-back the opportunity to play at Villa Park in the New Year as he re-shapes his squad for the second half of the Championship campaign.

Villa have struggled to fill that position since the days when Luke Young broke into the England squad under Martin O’Neill.

Several players have failed to convince in that position and Bruce wants to give the Gunners man the platform to prove himself.

Bruce shares a close relationship with Arsene Wenger — Arsenal’s boss once loaned him three players (Nicklas Bendtner, Seb Larsson and Fabrice Muamba) for a season and all played a role in securing promotion with Bruce’s previous club, Birmingham City.

And it appears that Wenger has given Jenkinson the green light to build his shattered morale after a testing return to first-team action in north London.

Jenkinson suffered an injury to his cruciate ligament 10 months ago during a similar temporary move to West Ham and battled his way back to be given a run-out for the Gunners against Southampton in the League Cup.

However, his performance was roundly criticised. His substitution against the Saints was cheered — with even Wenger admitting the player had been ‘hammered on social media’.

But the Frenchman believes that Jenkinson is a viable alternative to Hector Bellerin when fully fit.

This move will give Bruce a quality rival for the spot currently held down by Alan Hutton.