Now 23, Pennant was the Walcott of his day, plucked from lower-league obscurity at 15 for a head-turning fee of £2m and hyped as a potential world-beater. He scored a hat-trick for Arsenal on his first full appearance in the league, after which it was, he says, “downhill all the way”. Left to his own devices — “ignored” is the word he uses — and with too much time and money at his disposal, the boy from the mean streets of Nottingham was seduced by the bright lights of the big city and ended up in jail.
It was a horrible, life-changing experience, but it taught young Pennant the error of his ways and Arsenal a lesson when it comes to pastoral care. Walcott has not been left to fend for himself. The club has brought his father from Southampton to stay with him for a settling-in period, after which there is talk of the £12m prodigy living with one of the senior players. Just as Ryan Giggs benefited from the mistakes Manchester United made with George Best, so Pennant’s loss is to be Walcott’s gain.
Meeting the Blue with a shady past is a pleasant surprise. He may have been Jack the Lad once, but that changed the day they sent him to prison. Sentenced to three months for drink-driving, he served 31 days in March last year and can remember every one of them vividly. Strip-searches and cleaning toilets will bring the most recalcitrant young offender to his senses, and the new Pennant is the most diligent, well-adjusted pro in the Birmingham dressing room.
Pennant, who resumed playing for Birmingham while out on licence, says: “I still get stick about it from opposing fans, mainly ‘Where’s your tag gone?’ But it’s not going to put me off my game. I have a chuckle with them, turn round and give them a smile.”
These days nothing is allowed to distract him from his football, which is good enough to merit serious consideration for England. Stats are for trainspotters, but it is surely significant that no other player in the Premiership has supplied as many crosses as Pennant this season, three-quarters of them finding their target. Nobody even comes close, and it is to make better use of this service that Birmingham have signed Chris Sutton. Capped 24 times at under-21 level, Pennant, who will face West Ham today, is convinced that he would have already had his chance at senior level but for that chequered past. “Prison has probably got a bit to do with it,” he concedes. “It seems that to play for England these days you’ve got to be an outstanding role model, and, after what’s happened, I’m hardly going to be the first choice. I can understand that my record will have worked against me, but you can’t hold things like that against a player for ever. If I continue to play well, and I’m not in the press for the wrong reasons, I think I should get my chance.”
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After celebrating his first Arsenal start with three goals against Southampton, he disappeared off the radar. “Scoring a hat-trick on your full debut, you think: ‘Right, here we go’, but it just never happened for me,” he says. “It was downhill after that.”
Wenger never told him why he was continually overlooked, and Pennant admits he lacked the “bottle” to ask — until that last day.
“I explained why I thought I’d gone off the rails and told him what he could have done better to prevent it,” he says. “He listened and said he understood, but then added that he had a big squad with some great players, and that I’d made things difficult for myself.
“Maybe Arsenal will take better care of Walcott. If he asked my advice, I’d say to him, ‘You’ve got to be patient and not get frustrated, like I did, when you don’t get as many games as you’d like’.”