by matrix » Wed Jul 26, 2006 6:48 am
Pennant ready to join Liverpool for £6m
Dominic Fifield and Stuart James
Wednesday July 26, 2006
The Guardian
Liverpool will complete the signing of the Birmingham City winger Jermaine Pennant today after an improved bid worth about £6m for the player proved more acceptable to the Championship club's board.
The former England Under-21 midfielder was due at Melwood for a medical last night and, provided the tests show up no problems, will complete negotiations over personal terms today before travelling to Switzerland to join his new team-mates for their pre-season training camp and tour. A proportion of the fee is expected to be linked to appearances and Pennant could make his debut in Saturday's friendly against Kaiserslautern in Liechtenstein.
Article continues
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The signing ends a torturous pursuit of a right-sided midfielder by Rafael Benítez, who has been attempting to strengthen his side's flank virtually since his appointment at the club, with the lack of options in the position forcing him to use Steven Gerrard there for much of last term. The Spaniard's first choice had been to Sevilla's Daniel Alves but talks reached deadlock, with the Uefa Cup winners' refusal to drop their original £10m valuation of the Brazilian eventually ending Benítez's hopes completing that signing.
There were initially similar problems with Birmingham over Pennant when the opening bid of £3.5m was quickly dismissed; City must pay 25% of any fee for the 23-year-old to his former club, Arsenal, under the terms of the deal that took the former Notts County trainee long-term from Highbury to St Andrew's a year ago. City will rest a little easier now that they will eventually make a profit of £1.5m on a player who showed flashes of his quality last season, even if he was ultimately unable to prevent their relegation from the Premiership.
Like another of the new signings this summer, Craig Bellamy, Pennant will arrive at Anfield with much to prove. Secured as a 15-year-old from County by Arsenal for £2m, a record fee for a trainee at the time, his impact was blunted by a succession of disciplinary problems. Even a hat-trick on his Premiership debut for the Gunners, in 2003, failed to convince Arsène Wenger that his was a talent worth pursuing and loan spells at Watford, Leeds and Birmingham followed before he signed for City last summer.
That transfer went through despite Pennant's arrest for drink-driving after he crashed his Mercedes into a lamp-post in Aylesbury while serving a 16-month driving ban, an offence which saw him sentenced to 90 days in prison. He was eventually released on parole after 30 days and played with an electronic tag on his ankle.
Pennant will travel to Switzerland once the deal is complete, with Benítez still hopeful of adding another player, most likely the Dutch international forward Dirk Kuyt, to his squad before the new season. The club hope to make some progress in pursuit of that deal before the weekend.
just seen this... a medical last night... im still waiting for news from our own website...
