Pennant taking his chance

Andy Mitten, Spanish Football Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 21. 2009 10:42PM UAE / November 21. 2009 6:42PM GMT

English footballers are not renowned for travelling well. The transfer that raised the most eyebrows in the summer was Jermaine Pennant’s from Liverpool to Real Zaragoza.

The 26 year-old English winger , who counts a cameo appearance in the 2007 Champions League Final and an apprenticeship served with Arsenal’s invincibles of 2003-04 on his CV, has experienced several highs and lows in a career which has already taken in seven clubs.

He would have been one of several English players in Spain’s Primera Liga five years ago. Now he is the only one.

Much was made of his transfer and the money involved. Foreign Primera Liga players have been paying 24 per cent tax against a new rate of 50 per cent in the Premier League next season. No English club would have been able to justify the £80,000-a-week (Dh490,00) the side from Spain’s fifth biggest city of 600,000 are paying Pennant, but due to the strength of the euro cost was within Zaragoza’s budget.

The choice of Zaragoza, the place where Samuel Eto’o was racially abused by home fans four years ago, was still surprising. The side from the Aragonese capital may sit ninth in the all-time Spanish league table and famously won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1995 with Nayim’s goal from the halfway line. They won the Copa del Rey in 2001 and 2004, when they defeated Real Madrid’s Galacticos 3-2 in an epic final, but two relegations this decade stunned the 34,000 who regularly watch games at La Romereda.

In 2007-08, Zaragoza, boasting the balletic Pablo Aimar, were among the favourites to qualify for the Champions League after a sixth-place finish the previous season. Another Argentinian, the fleet-heeled Diego Milito, scored 23 league goals, while the sleek Catalan Gerrard Pique, on loan from Manchester United, was outstanding in defence or midfield. Gabriel, the other Milito brother, excelled in defence until Barcelona paid €20 million (Dh108m) for him, though the Argentine influence at the club – which also included former Portsmouth midfielder Andres d’Alessandro – was boosted by the arrival of the mighty defender Roberto Ayala from Valencia. Zaragoza were managed by locally-born Victor Fernandez – the man who dared to replace Jose Mourinho at Porto – who was back at the club he led to that Cup Winners’ Cup success over Arsenal.

Zaragoza looked like they were going places. Instead, they were relegated and only returned from the second division this summer, when they signed Pennant.

The Nottingham-born winger was not an obvious choice, if only because of his troubled career so far which saw him sent home from an England Under 21 trip because he broke a curfew and he was twice convicted of a drink driving offence, the second time which saw him jailed for 30 days.

He was released on the condition he wore an electronic tag at all times, including on the pitch.

Pennant claims that his troubles were: “100 per cent connected to my frustrations in football. If my mind was in the right place I wouldn’t have put myself in those situations, I’d have looked after myself more responsibly, I’d have been thinking, ‘I’ve got a big game next week, I’ve got training.’

“But I let myself go. Now I’m 26, I’m at the stage where I can put all that behind me and know I’ve learned from it. I’ve got some regrets, and wonder if I hadn’t done certain things, would I be I here or there now. But I’m here and I’m going to make the most of it.”

Zaragoza are 13th in the division and tonight play at bottom-of-the-table Malaga. Pennant has settled in well. His performances have shown potential, but he needs a goal. He is enjoying the freedom which comes from his coach Marcelino Garcia Toral expressing the desire for him to get crosses into the middle and drift into the centre if he feels that is warranted. Pennant also claims you get a split second more time on the ball in Spain than England.

Pennant harbours strong ambitions to play for England in the World Cup, but on current form it is unrealistic for him to be chosen ahead of Theo Walcott, Aaron Lennon, Shaun Wright-Phillips and David Beckham on the right flank. Still, he will have worthy platforms against Barcelona and Madrid this season to show Fabio Capello otherwise.

amitten@thenational.ae

Malaga v Zaragoza, KO 10pm, Al Jazeera Sport + 2