The modern footballer comes in for sizeable criticism in todays mass money-orientated game and understandably so.
Gone are the days when players will get their hands dirty in their spare time as the late Emlyn Hughes did during the close season in the 1970s at his father's tarmac laying business in Barrow-in-Furness.
Instead, most top flight players' leisure time is consumed by living the lifestyle of an international Playboy with the traditional quiet evenings in being replaced with evenings stood on the red carpet at showbiz award ceremonies and 3am fracas in nightclubs.
Despite developments in the past few days, Steven Gerrard is not the focus of this piece. Instead it is his Liverpool team mate Jermaine Pennant who will bear the brunt of a traditionalist’s view.
Pennant arrived at Anfield from Birmingham City in July 2006, a transfer which was deemed risky given his conviction for drink driving whilst on loan at the St Andrews club. On 23 January 2005 he was arrested and charged after crashing his Mercedes into a lamppost in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire whilst he was serving a 16-month driving ban. The midfielder spent 30 days of a 90-day sentence inside and was ordered to wear an electronic tag at all times, including during games for Birmingham.
When Pennant moved to Anfield two and a half years ago, he could not speak highly enough of his love for his boyhood heroes. “I'm over the moon. I've dreamt about this since I was a little boy so to actually be here and to be able to wear a Liverpool shirt and play at Anfield is a dream come true,” he said.
“My family have always supported Liverpool and I grew up watching videos of them on the television. My grandad and grandma came here in the seventies and I think Liverpool must have caught their eyes. The love of the club has spread through the family ever since.
“I actually got my first Liverpool kit when I was about four years of age. John Barnes was my idol when I first started watching Liverpool but then as I got older I loved Robbie Fowler.”
The Arsenal graduate was also very clear about his motivation for moving to Merseyside by adding: “I've come here to be successful and it'd be a great feeling if I can win trophies as a Liverpool player. He added,“Moving to Liverpool will only help me. Playing with players of the quality at this club can only be good for my career. I couldn't be more excited."
However it has been the bright lights of Liverpool’s upmarket bars and clubs in which Pennant has been seen plying his trade rather than under the floodlights of Anfield. The winger has appeared only 55 times for the Reds during his two-and-a-half years at the club and has acted every inch an unprofessional footballer. Aside from a highly-acclaimed performance in the 2007 Champions League final, he has failed to match the expectations laid down by his £6.7 million price tag.
In late 2006 he was in the media spotlight for appearing to have a profile on social networking website MySpace which contained several personal pictures of the midfielder as well as a quote saying "I love women I think they are a fanatsic [sic] specimen!!!"
Pennant was again in the headlines in July 2007 when he was was arrested for a Section 5 public order offence relating to threatening behaviour and forced to pay a fixed penalty fine and appeared regularly in the daily tabloids in stories referring to his relationship with Hollyoaks actress Jennifer Metcalfe, which ended in January 2008. In October of that year he announced his engagement to Page Three model Amii Groves who later sold her story to the Sun newspaper which is still reviled by Liverpool supporters following their reporting of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. At the beginning of last month the four-bedroom house he shares with Groves in Hale was targeted by burglars who ram-raided the gates to the player’s home but left empty-handed.
A shock move to Real Madrid was on the cards up until the last few days of 2008 when the Spanish giants ended talks following reports that Pennant was refusing to compromise his £60,000 per week salary to meet Real’s offer of £30,000. It is also believed that Madrid manager Juande Ramos did not rate the midfielder’s chances of making the grade in La Liga.Speaking prior to talks ending, Pennant said: I cannot imagine playing for another Premier League team after Liverpool.
He said: "I know Real Madrid made an offer for me. Real Madrid is a great club, so is Liverpool.
"I am not sure of the situation now; I am flattered that a club as huge as Real has shown interest in me, so we will have to see.
"I just want to play regular football and one of my dreams is to be able to do it in Spain one day. I love the way teams like Sevilla, Barcelona, Valencia or Real play.
"I think my style of football will suit La Liga."
Despite this the midfielder is still a wanted man amongst the Premiership’s lesser clubs with Wigan Athletic and Stoke City reported to be interested as well an admittance from Hull City boss Phil Brown that he intends to make a move for the player.
"I would be very interested in Jermaine Pennant if he was available at the right price,” said Brown.
“We will be making enquiries."
The behaviour of Pennant throughout his career in the top flight is highly typical of the new breed of modern day footballer. It would be anything but harsh to rank him amongst Liverpool’s class of 1996, nicknamed the Spice Boys by the national press for their off field antics.
Similarly, Chelsea’s Ashley Cole also possesses all the hallmarks of a spoiled brat as he proved when he responded to Arsenal’s offer of a new contract with an additional £5,000 per week wage.
"When I heard Jonathan [Cole’s agent Jonathan Barnett] repeat the figure of £55,000," Cole wrote in his autobiography.
"I nearly swerved off the road. 'He is taking the **** Jonathan!' I yelled down the phone. I was so incensed. I was trembling with anger. I couldn't believe what I'd heard."
Perhaps these players should hire the officer in the film Top Gun to shock them into shape with the immortal words, "Son, your ego's writing cheques your body can't cash". Similarly Dire Strait’s Mark Knopfler once sang, “That ain’t workin,’ that’s the way you do it - get your money for nothin’ get your chicks for free”.
Surely there has never been a truer word said about the modern day footballer.
