80% of you are out of order

[rage]

He's nowhere near good enough for us. He would never even make the bench at United, Chelsea or Arsenal let alone play in their first 11.

A complete waste of money who offers **** all in terms of attacking threat in the final third. I'd accept any bid of 4 million and above.

Well I think that was a sensible debate .... and a good selection of current opinion regarding Mr Pennant.

I think we can call it a day on this one .....

and his career with us with a bit of luck

[Nicey]

2006/2007: 10 Assists ....in only 20 starts!

2007/2008: 7 assists in 18 starts

And very important ones at that if I remember correctly. I remember at the time a couple of games he really played a blinder, really clever runs moves, cut backs and assists. His distractors still would not give him credit, if it had been Stevie G pulling those moves they would tripping over themselves to throw bouquets at him but because its Pennant its was all .. Hes still not good enough.

Cant believe he is still only 25, if he continues to keep his head down, stay out of trouble and bide his time he will be sensational and the majority of people on here will have to eat there words.

In fact this could be his most important season yet. If we get Barry and Keane and revert to a more classic 442 I would have him on the right wing anyway at Home, He has the ability to cause a lot of trouble. Perhaps Benny has slightly more defensive ability and better off the ball movement but as a winger Pennant is very solid.

We need players like Pennant in our squad, he definitly ticks all the boxs for at least a very good squad player, but I have always thought he is much more than that.

[barnes10]

Doubt we'll have apid the full £7m TBH- lost of it wouldve been for add-ons & we've won FA since he arrived.

Agree with you about the CL MoM thing tho, really winds me up. Not only is it simplistic & ill-informed, but it also denegrates the performances of other players who did play well. Suffice to say, allowing for the time & space Pennant was given & his lack of delivery, I'd say he was one of the worst on the pitch that day.

Disagree. we saw a lot of him because he was the outlet much of the time. but what you blame as lack of delivery comes down to the fact that he had no support. Kuyt was in the midfield with gerrard.

he beat his man half the time only to either be faced by the keeper or another defender. not once was he able to score or beat that second man tho and thats why he's not world class and is also why we only paid 7mill for him. but to call him sh2t and one of the worst players is a bit OTT.

he's a good player. very good at holding the ball high up the pitch and beating a man - albeit on the inside. a bit like beckham without the set pieces really. He just isnt the ronaldo type wide player to provide the magic. sure we need to upgrade but he isnt half as bad as people on here make out. i will agree that he hasnt cut it and its time to move on i think - better for him than spending a couple of years in our reserves.

[Roboklopp]

There is some truth in what you say about lack of support in the box that day, but JP also consistently failed to find people running from deep- there are one or 2 absolute howlers I can remember where he could've set Stevie up in a perfect position & failed miserably. They must've been bad cos I was hammered that night, it was over a year ago, I've tried to forget the whole thing and still I remember.

Like I said tho, I'd only sell him if summat better was coming in. Those stats Michael quotes are certainly impressive if true, but I'd agrue that JP is even more of a flat-track bully than Yossi (who gets slated for it).

Quite how Michael classifies Marky as an "old school, better quality" poster just cos they are in agreement on this one, yet rejects the opinions of more reasonable, balanced people like Shags & Mr Michael as "out of order" is beyond me tho. Unless, of course, I am missing the irony of the post Alannis Morissette- style...

[jono]

My memory of the 07 final is not too good. A bad result + copious amounts of alcohol put paid to that. My memory of Pennant though was that he was given plenty of time on the ball owing to the fact that AC Milan weren't trying to shut him down. Hence his ability to deceive people into being good on the night when in fact the opposition couldn't be too bothered with him.

[Michael]

Quite how Michael classifies Marky as an "old school, better quality" poster just cos they are in agreement on this one, yet rejects the opinions of more reasonable, balanced people like Shags & Mr Michael as "out of order" is beyond me tho. Unless, of course, I am missing the irony of the post Alannis Morissette- style...

Mr Michael and I are in some form of agreement on the matter, he just has a slightly harder line, but we are not many miles apart.

Shags was just having a bad day and I would normally expect better of the Nando's King

[Exiled_red]

I find it both interesting and disturbing that whilst Pennant is being criticised Benayoun is being praised …..

Is perhaps the flack that comes the way of Pennant has a somewhat sinister motive …… Like Heskey, Sissoko, Djimi Traore, Babb etc….

Maybe that's because Benayoun scored 11 goals last year compared to Pennants 2!!

Ok so Benayoun played more games but that Pennant but it still averages out that Benayoun got a goal every 4 games compared to Pennant one every 12 games. I've no details on assists but IMO Benayoun's contribution last season far outweighed that of Pennant.

As for the implication of racism please...

In Babb and Traore you have picked poor defenders the critisism of who was similar to that given to other defenders of similar quality (Josemi, Kronkamp, Kvarme etc). The critisism of Heskey was similar to that aimed at Kuyt, he was a striker who didn't score enough goals

[Michael]

Kuyt is lauded for his 'effort'

[Exiled_red]

Kuyt is lauded for his 'effort'

He is now but for the first 2/3 of last season alot of people (myself included) were having a go

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

2006/2007: 10 Assists ....in only 20 starts!

2007/2008: 7 assists in 18 starts

granted, but the teams he's been starting against are lower league teams so them stats don't mean a great deal. I would keep him as a squad player if i didn't want the club to improve. However Kuyt is better than him and so is Benayoun, add that to the fact we want to sign winger should be clear that we should sell.

[macca_82]

To me pennant looks like he can't be bothered. He was beaten for pace against tranmere for god's sake. It's not like he has had a tiring summer. He has had opportunities but as mentioned by others doesn't get into scoring positions enough and has no ability when it comes to putting a decent ball into the box.

Just not good enough!

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

To me pennant looks like he can't be bothered. He was beaten for pace against tranmere for god's sake. It's not like he has had a tiring summer. He has had opportunities but as mentioned by others doesn't get into scoring positions enough and has no ability when it comes to putting a decent ball into the box.

Just not good enough!

I agree that he isn't good enough, but aren't tranmere aloud to have fast player or something ? he can't win every battle of pace

[Sarb]

A 'winger' who can't cross and who can't beat a man. He isn't realyl a winger is he. The fact that Rafa would rather play a striker there than Pennant speaks volumes of how pants he really is.

£7m down the drain. Get what we can for him and move on

[tomasjj]

Pennant is a good little player who in the right situation is a very useful asset.

He works hard and gets stuck in even though it isn’t in his makeup or stature to do so!

He only has good things to say about the club, is a good ambassador and accepts his position in the squad without complaint! He has been no trouble at all!

I also think he plays a lot better than people give him credit for and much criticism is unwarranted …… it is simply in Vogue to have a pop at him!

In fact if you watch him closely his general distribution is good and he is solid in possession!

Apart from the stuck in part. He is a bit of a fanny, but a good player to have in certain situations.
Gets far too much stick, as does Voronin the public enemy no 1.

[lawrie]

Pennant was up against it from the start. The majority of fans didnt want him in the first place because of his bad boy reputation and his below par performances in the first few months of his new career added weight to that opinion. Many disregard the fact, however, that from January to the end of his first season, Pennant knuckled down and became our best attacking player of that period. Season 2 started badly for him - his performances were aggravated by a seious leg injury which ultimately kept him out of the team for quite a few months. Unfortunately for him, on his return he found a team playing really well in a formation that didnt really suit his qualities. Nonetheless he again buckled down and actually asked to play in the reserves to get himself match fit for if he was needed in the first team. Rafa has already said that he expects to use several different formations in the coming season and so, in my opinion, Pennant is definately worth keeping in the squad