On This Day – 8th January
On 8th January 1999, Arsenal signed Jermaine Pennant from Notts County a week before his 16th birthday.
Pennant signed for a deal of around £2 million and he played for 15 clubs over the course of his 18 year career. He played in over 300 games in that time for the various clubs.
Pennant famously scored a hat-trick in a league game for Arsenal against Southampton at the end of the 2002/03 season. Robert Pires also scored a hat-trick in the same game so there must have been a squabble at the final whistle for the match ball!
Sadly for Pennant, things didn’t really get fully going at Arsenal and he found it hard to get into the first team. He went on numerous loan moves before joining Birmingham City.
After a short spell at Birmingham, another big break came for Pennant as Liverpool came in for him. He played over 50 times in three years for the Merseyside team before moving to Spain to play for Real Zaragoza.
After only a year at Zaragoza, Pennant moved back to England for a loan spell with Stoke City. They soon made the move permanent and he would stay at The Britannia Stadium for three years.
Pennant joined Pune City of the Indian Premier League after his spell at Stoke City came to an end before joining Wigan Athletic. Another opportunity came up to move abroad after Tampines Rovers of the Singapore Premier League.
The spell in Singapore lasted a few months before Pennant ended his career at Bury and finally Billericay Town after multi-millionaire Glenn Tamplin took over at the Essex club.
Pennant would play for the England Under 21 caps 24 times over the course of his career but he never really reached his full potential.
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