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The 6-1 win toward Southampton [in May 2003 when the only goals for the club of Pennant came through a burst that is dazzling in the first half]? This was my first-ever [Celtics] start for Arsenal, it was terrific." His hat-trick marked the first game in Arsenal's famous 49-game unbeaten streak that would carry the Invincibles into the title the next season. Yet Pennant made just 12 appearances for Arsenal during the six years. "Following the hat-trick I had been on the bench another game [a 4-0 win at Sunderland to complete the 2002-03 season]. I thought that was the beginning of it and I would kick on at Arsenal. However, I got more and more frustrated and it never happened and lost interest. I thought: 'This is going. '' "Yeah, I went off the tracks," Pennant says, recalling the way he smashed his Mercedes to a lamp-post while on the limit and still banned from driving. "My family was not around and, being so young, you make erroneous conclusions. "MX7232. I don't think I will ever ignore it. Me did change. But not a lot of individuals play in a Champions League final and experience that. I have got to take some credit for not letting it ruin me."

He recalls being doubted by Wenger's assistant spurred him on. "I definitely used it. My representative was told by him: 'He is not going to make it.' I don't know if my character was somewhat rich or if he had it in for me. He is Pat, old school, but I always thought I'd make it. To my agent, I said at Liverpool after playing in the Champions League final and scoring against Chelsea: 'I wonder if Pat watched the game tonight? '''It was rather frosty between us in the Britannia. That was a moment that is fantastic.
Yet Pennant hadn't sustained his early success at Liverpool. Liverpool was also. So it was terrific. When I got hurt the turning point with Rafa came. I had a stress fracture in my shin and the season. I had been out for three months. I did not play in my first game against Wigan because I tried to nurse it and rushed back. After that, I fought to get back into the group. Because I give 110%, I want to play. I do not if I am not playing. I now know that is wrong."

"Three years ago I would've said: 'No chance -- when I am finished playing that is it.' However, as you get older you know more. When you go through a spell 'Can I go on without soccer in my life? It.' You begin thinking you would miss the boys. You would miss celebrating a win or a goal. At least you a part of that. It is still a job and I want to make a living. Could there be a future training role in Billericay? "I am sure. If everything goes according to program and we jump the leagues my expertise and soccer IQ might be quite beneficial." "It's a difficult battle and it is sad to see within this time. However, Chris Powell and Chris Hughton are currently demonstrating that the minority are like anyone else. Brighton was taken by Chris Hughton. Have managers done that? It's terrific. It will open the eyes of partners and demonstrate your skin's color doesn't define your team is going to do. Wins. Being a director that is black makes you focused I guess. But I am not there yet. Right Now I am concentrating on playing at Billericay."



When Tamplin and I speak, while Pennant changes in a dressing room including other ex-Premier League players at Jamie O’Hara and Paul Konchesky, the Billericay proprietor and director reiterates that his celebrity signing will be provided coaching opportunities. "I do not judge anyone in their past," Tamplin says. "We have all gone through dark times. You've got to be at the pit of the devil. I had been in that devil's pit for four months [before using his wealth if Tamplin was depressed]. Jermaine has been through that pit but he is great. I am a businessman, a Christian and a great judge of character. Ambition means supporters deride the Essex club -- in salary £ 30,000 a week is being paid by Tamplin amid rumors. "No-one is becoming over a thousand a week. He made his debut against West Ham in a friendly and we had the audience in our history. 4,582. Top bins. Beautiful."

Pennant is much more understated. " I need to do really well for the group -- but there is pressure because I played at this high level so everybody expects me to evaluate a few goals every match and be amazing. However, it feels just like a room that is normal. I have known Paul, Jamie and Kevin Foley [who played for Wolves from the Premier League] for years that gelling was automatic. Same with the lads. It doesn't matter who has occupations or who's full-time. We're a team although I think some of these work on building sites. They'll provide you a bollocking if you are lazy. I would not expect. We are all equal. "My loved ones are just happy I'm playing soccer in this country. And what's great with my dad. Everything between us is how it ought to be between a son and a father. Pennant shows me one of the many tattoos. He reads the messages inked into his right arm: "Somewhere between religion and fortune lies destiny." "But I don't have any worries coming here. Not a lot of players play at the maximum level their lifetime. So this is one more avenue of my football life.

"I have seen things I do not think anybody else has seen in soccer," Jermaine Pennant says on a late day streaked with fading sunshine in Essex. We sit on a bench behind a collection of pitches that nurture boys in the West Ham Academy's soccer dreams, however, now, provides the training ground for Pennant team that is new. Billericay Town plays at the Bostik Premier League, a branch of clubs that occupy the tier of English soccer. "It is another step and I have had a taste of what soccer can throw at you ... the highs, the lows, the in-betweens. I am able to bring everything I have learned to what I do here." Billericay is different to everything else -- from the bleak Meadows property in Nottingham where he lost his mum to cancer at age three, to getting the most expensive teenage footballer in Britain when he was purchased for £ 2m by Arsenal as a 15-year-old, to his father being jailed for dealing heroin and crack, to Pennant himself end up in prison, to confronting Milan in the Olympic Stadium in Athens at the 2007 Champions League final, to playing for clubs in settings as varied as Stoke, Singapore, India, Wigan and Bury.

Pennant worries that Billericay isn't the last resort for an aging footballer frequently accused of wasting his talent by those who have never met him. "There were so many alternatives," he says after loving Edinburgh throughout his month-long trial in Hibernian in June. "It wasn't only Hibs. This was not the bargain on offer. Individuals would not bat an eyelid when I moved in Cyprus or Turkey to the branch but that is all about the big picture. When I had the offer from Glenn Tamplin [Billericay's millionaire now and owner manager] it could not turn down. There might be opportunities here in order to prepare for management or coaching." sbobet casino

The private life of pennant, featuring relationships was splashed across the tabloids. He now considers about football and life with far more depth and clarity. "Definitely. I am taking everything because you can not play. You have got to develop. You have got to be a man and take care of your loved ones and business. Obviously, many mistakes were made by me. You have a whole lot of money and pleasures and the duties. You are in the public eye and I just enjoyed it and not realizing I was a role model. But I am different now."



"I was with my father from age three. He moved with girls, on occasions, changing and constantly chopping. I am the oldest of four. It's two sisters, 1 brother and me. They remained with their mums. So it was just my father and me and I went he went. I never had that half and mommy figure of my problems came from there. I did not have a dad. There was a large gap in my early-to-mid-teens where I did not have either." A precocious and fragile teenager might have been rescued -- but Arsène Wenger's patience ran out. Before detailing his career unraveled Pennant praises Wenger. "Of all the directors I played under, Arsène had the maximum impact. That is where I learned my tricks of the trade.

"But he never really gave me the chance. This was frustrating but Arsène is strict and he will not give you that opportunity if your mindset isn't right. That was the reason why my attitude was perfect. I played for the reserves but it was like he had lost faith in me. It seemed as if would not get that opportunity. Because we had an excellent team, it was hard. The Invincibles. I was pleased to train with that group daily.

Southampton has approved that the Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng has finished a multi-million-pound takeover of the team, obtaining an 80% stake for approximately £ 210m after successfully passing the applicable checks, such as the Premier League's owners and directors evaluation. The deal ends over 12 months of discussions between the Gao family and the south coast club. Gao and his daughter Nelly is making personally the investment instead of being chased through Lander Sports, as mooted. Hangzhou-based Lander is the business arm, which develops, constructs and manages sports websites of your family. We knows the decision to change the structure of the deal to use his wealth of Gao was because of desire. This deal is structured to the one completed by the late businessman Markus Liebherr, when Saints were rescued by him, then from the government in 2009, in League One. He purchased the club not, and for about £ 14m via his group of technology companies, Mali Holdings.

Southampton is convinced the Gao family will continue to build upon the progress made under the present management arrangement, which has sustained football. "As a team, we'll try to build upon the strong foundation that's set up towards sustainable long-term success," Liebherr said in a declaration issued to fans on Monday. "Today is the beginning of a new and exciting chapter for our team. Mrs. Nelly Gao, his daughter and Mr. Jisheng Gao, with whom a relationship that is close has been built by me, discuss ambitions and our values. We wholeheartedly support their strategies to follow 'the Southampton manner' in the years ahead." In January, in a rare public utterance issued to fans, Liebherr stated: "The Premier League is competitive, we will need to keep moving ahead and look to new markets for industrial expansion, innovation and also to share our journey." agen sbobet

"I'm honored and humbled to be an associate of Southampton football club alongside Katharina Liebherr, who, unitedly with her father, has been such a wonderful steward of the club, its success, and growth," Gao, the 64-year-old new majority stakeholder, stated. Southampton would be the next Premier League club to draw major Chinese investment, with West Bromwich Albion offered to a group headed by the entrepreneur Guochuan Lai last September. Manchester City offered a stake to a consortium of investors that were Chinese.



A Premier League spokesperson stated: "As with any change of management in a Premier League club, we've assessed the sources and sufficiency of funding in place to get the shares and be presented with a detailed business plan showing the new owners may sustain the club moving forward. We also have run the Owners' and Managers' Test which includes background checks on any person proposing to be a manager on the club's board or to acquire over 30% of stocks in a club. This is a very rigorous process and we've worked with Katharina Liebherr and her advisors to make sure all Premier League rules are adhered to."