Liverpool FC Forum

[aCe']

An some wonder why he doesnt get a game.


Liverpool's hopes of offloading boozer Pennant appear dashed after Jack Daniels' party pics
By Sportsmail Reporter


Last updated at 2:17 PM on 18th November 2008

Liverpool are believed to be concerned that they will be unable to offload Jermaine Pennant in the January transfer window.

The out-of-favour winger was pictured guzzling Jack Daniels straight from the bottle outside an Essex nightclub on Sunday night.
And, although the club had given him Sunday and Monday off with the rest of the Reds' squad, Pennant's behaviour will not have endeared him to his suitors - Blackburn Rovers, Stoke City and Everton.
A lot of bottle: Jermaine Pennant is leave Faces nightclub with bottle of Jack Daniels in hand in the early hours of Monday




Sportsmail online understands that Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez is running out of patience with Pennant's lifestyle and erratic timekeeping and the pictures of the partying star will do nothing to to change the Spanish manager's mind.

  High spirits: Jermaine Pennant appears to be downing Jack Daniels whiskey straight from the bottle outside Faces nightclub






The 25-year-old alienated himself from Benitez in the summer by stalling over moves to Rovers, Stoke and Everton. Two clubs agreed to meet a £4m asking price but pulled out over the player's wage demands.



But ,after Pennant lived up to his bad-boy image in Essex for the visit of Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan to Faces nightclub at the weekend, those clubs will be increasingly concerned over his professionalism. And unlikely to renew their interest in the former Leeds, Birmingham and Arsenal forward.
A Liverpool spokesman said that the club would not be commenting on the incident at this time.

Still the best right winger we have in the squad 

Pretty impressive though JP... hope he banged Lindsay   

[NANNY RED]

I really thought he would of learnt his lesson though Ace i mean with the drink driving charge before an all . Hes always in that club an always down in London . The night we played Spurs he was at the Kanye West consert at the O2. . iMO hes not good enough to be in the first eleven football wise

But the lads attitude is wrong for a club of our stature . Why do you think Wenger got rid . he was doing the same thing there an he was only a kid. Sorry for me hes had his chance an hes blew it . I wont be sorry to see him go.

An hes not our best right winger

An Lohan ha she bats for the other side 

[aCe']

I really thought he would of learnt his lesson though Ace i mean with the drink driving charge before an all . Hes always in that club an always down in London . The night we played Spurs he was at the Kanye West consert at the O2. . iMO hes not good enough to be in the first eleven football wise

But the lads attitude is wrong for a club of our stature . Why do you think Wenger got rid . he was doing the same thing there an he was only a kid. Sorry for me hes had his chance an hes blew it . I wont be sorry to see him go.

An hes not our best right winger

An Lohan ha she bats for the other side 

Oh i never knew she did !
Dang guess ill have to get back to that hormone therapy ...


no seriously though i thouht he'd have learned by now but apparently he didnt...
Anyways he was never gong to be a role model or anything...
He takes it a bit over the top and his reputation doesnt help him one bit but most players live very similar lifestyles yet dont make news headlines..

I dont think the likes of Blackburn and Stoke would pass on signing him if given the chance... afterall he's still a very good player and hes shown that he can play and do a job at the highet levels... He'd probably get into the starting 11 of every single side in the league bar the top 4 and maybe ManCity or Tottenham... Read a piece about him the other day.. Benitez was saying that hes a fantastic footballer or somthing... and that he had no problems with him showing up late to training sometimes... he said hes a good kid or something....

Anyways... we need a right winger so him leaving shouldnt be much of a problem if we can afford a top right wingere in the summer...

[Owzat]

iMO hes not good enough to be in the first eleven football wise

I think he's a fine example of why we shouldn't sign from the UEFA Cup and other Premiership sides outside the top four. He is a good player when the expectations of the side are relatively low, when he is a star and when he's playing week in, week out and the bosses are happy with a moderate to good return. We sign them, they don't produce the same performance levels and we end up benching them and dumping them. Arguably that is what happened with Bellamy, Crouch, Benayoun, etc etc etc. Maybe it's the problem with Keane, that and that he worked better with Berbatov alongside than he maybe ever will with Torres.

I would stop buying from the English leagues, unless it was someone like Roque Santa Cruz and even then I'm guessing we may end up with Bellamy II. It's produced a low success rate this policy, we pay more than we should and get less than we expect. So much for "proven Premiership quality". It's no surprise our best players came from Spain (Torres, Reina, Alonso, Arbeloa), youth team (Gerrard and Carragher) and other sources

[GYBS]

Crouch produced the goods for us and you cant dismiss players just cause they play outside the top 4 or in a uefa cup team

[account deleted by request]

I think with the very disciplined tactical football that we play it is perhaps as easy for a foreign player to adapt to our football as it is for a "prem proven" player.

We have had players struggle from both home and abroad and while we seem to have had more success with players from abroad settling quickly, Torres being the prime example, I think thats more about quality rather than where they come from.

Pennant has the wrong attitude, is too easily satisfied with average performances and for me doesn't have the required character. The sooner we get shut the better.

[Owzat]

Crouch produced the goods for us and you cant dismiss players just cause they play outside the top 4 or in a uefa cup team

I didn't dismiss them out of hand, sorry if you read it that way. But they've hardly been the raging success the examples provided are. Of course there are some like Nunez, Josemi and Morientes who've been far from entirely successful, however there's not one players signed from another English club that stands alongside the likes of Reina, Alonso, Kuyt, Torres, Agger, Riera, Hyypia, Arbeloa etc

EDIT : and perhaps the proof of the pudding is if you look at whether the likes of Bellamy, Pennant and Crouch were better in Liverpool shirts or at their former clubs. I'd say pretty much they were better for their former clubs which is why we'd signed them in the first place, the danger of basing purchases on that previous club 'promise', potential or performance is the point I'm highlighting and why I'd not go there. Not so much one bitten, twice shy as bitten nearly every fecking time, more bl**dy sense next time. (or no 'next time' whatsoever)

Of course I did miss out Mascherano, whether technically he ever belonged to West Ham is a delicate topic, but he was playing for them when we signed him - even if on loan. But it's hardly a great sales pitch for that particular policy of signing from English clubs.

As for Crouch, he didn't "produce the goods for us" as much as your sweeping statement might suggest. He had his moments, scored a few goals but if he "produced the goods for us" then I doubt Rafa could have sold him and more people would still be furious about it. He didn't reach Liverpool standards, that's not to dismiss his contribution entirely, but so did other players have their moments - Benayoun has two hat-tricks to his name in a Liverpool shirt, I don't recall too many under Rafa from any others bar Torres and possibly Gerrard

[GYBS]

What do you class as not producing goods then ? he helped us win an FA Cup and best finish in prem (points wise) also helped us to a cl final ? he was sold cause he didnt want to be backup not because rafa didnt want him.

[Owzat]

What do you class as not producing goods then ? he helped us win an FA Cup and best finish in prem (points wise) also helped us to a cl final ? he was sold cause he didnt want to be backup not because rafa didnt want him.

Torres produces the goods, Gerrard produces the goods. Even Kuyt scores important goals, the fact of the matter is anyone who scores a few important goals "produces the goods" in your apparent definition (not cited, but looking that way)

So Luis Garcia was a top signing who "produced the goods" was he? Sinama Pongolle scored very important goals and Crouch wouldn't have scored THAT FA Cup goal if Sinama Pongolle hadn't turned around the Luton tie. But maybe you're just a Crouch fan trying to defend him when in fact the best finish required a whole TEAM and not just Crouch.

In that 2005/2006 season Crouch took NINETEEN games to get off the mark and scored just THIRTEEN goals all season of which only EIGHT were in the Premiership. I'd hardly call eight goals a significant contribution to the Premiership campaign. GERRARD scored 23 goals that season of which ten were in the Premiership. Even Luis Garcia scored seven Premiership goals in 2005/2006

As for the Champions League campaign of 2006/2007, Crouch scored twice in the 4-0 win over PSV in the easy last sixteen win, none thereafter (limited chance admittedly) but most of his goals were in the qualifier/groups. Yes he contributed, just like he did in the FA Cup the previous season and towards the league - it would be surprising if he hadn't and stayed at Anfield that long - but his contribution was not quite what you're trying to dress it up as.

He would have played a lot more had Rafa rated him, he went from almost ever present to sub in three seasons

05/06 Crouch 13 goals in 49 appearances
06/07 Crouch 18 goals in 49 appearances
07/08 Crouch 11 goals in 36 appearances

And I've just realised someone is bound to come on and start arguing over presentation of commonly accepted standard stats for strikers 

In fact why does someone have to drag up a Crouch debate any time I mention him? Even when it was a general observation that the players we sign from English clubs tend not to be up to Liverpool quality. Give it a rest people, you don't agree with my views on Crouch and I really couldn't give a sh 1 t if you don't. I only let myself get dragged into this is because you try and dress things up to make his contributions look pivotal like claims (summarised) - "Crouch was important in the 2006 FA Cup win, 05/06 league finish and reaching the CL final in 2007" - which is true of anyone who scored a goal in any of those campaigns and not in any way dependant on Crouch's contribution. Maybe that wasn't the intention, but if you link three of the clubs bigger achievements to one player then people will assume he was supposedly pivotal, even though he happened to be at the club at the time and anyone who played in those competitions could lay some claim to a contribution as much as him.

[Owzat]

Back to Pennant, as the subject matter is PENNANT and that isn't spelled C-R-O-U-C-H

I read on another forum that Blackburn made a late bid but he "priced himself out of a move". That will be the hard part of offloading him, that and taking a hit on his fee. Maybe if we shave a few hundred thou off the asking price then the bidding club can add that to his stupid wages

[radun5]

Owzat, Torres was bought from a team that was either in the UEFA Cup or not in european competitions.

A lot of good/great players were bought by Mancs or by Chelski from lesser clubs. I can give you Vidic, Evra, Anelka and Joe Cole in a minute, and I am pretty sure there are even better examples we can dig out.

So your proposed policy "let's not buy from clubs outside the top 4 or from UEFA Cup" is just not right.