If the reaction of the Stoke supporters can be considered an accurate barometer, Wolves have done great business by landing Jermaine Pennant on loan.
No sooner had the winger dotted the i’s on a 3-month deal, angry Potters were voicing their displeasure. Here’s an interesting thread on one of their forums.
Many seem to assert that Pennant should not only be staying put, but that he’s been wrongly overlooked by Tony Pulis this season.
But their loss is our gain.
Pennant is a proven Premier League performer and will undoubtedly enhance what Ståle Solbakken already has available.
Both Ben and I stood in the away end at the Britannia a few years back when Wolves went down 3-0 to a rampant Stoke side. Pennant was chief tormentor in that game, so it’s funny to think that he’s now playing for us, in the division below.
It actually takes me back to a signing Mick McCarthy completed in 2008, when he drafted in Carlos Edwards as cover for the stricken Kightly and Jarvis. He didn’t pull up many trees but he did a solid job for us in a handful of games, which contributed to our eventual success.
We can and probably should expect more from a player of Pennant’s calibre.
Talent definitely isn’t a problem, as you’d expect for someone that’s played for Arsenal and Liverpool. The risk is attitude and application.
Any player that takes to Twitter to voice his displeasure and make public the conversations he’s had with a manager must be considered ‘high maintenance’.
And of course that’s exactly what Pennant did this morning before completing the move to Wolves.
I think we all saw first hand last season what a destructive tool social media can be in the hands of an emotional footballer.
Both Roger Johnson (and wife) and Jamie O’Hara upset and alienated sections of the support with comments made on Twitter, which certainly did little to aid the cause of a struggling team.
Lets hope that come January, we’re judging Jermaine Pennant on football and nothing else.
Because if that’s the case, this could prove to be one of the signings of the Championship season.
Welcome to Wolves.
A bloody good signing i hope. Has the potential to give us a boast where injury has laid us low
Solbakken will bring the best out of him, good astute signing, lets hope one or two more signings are on the way.
Well done Wolves…
More i think about it more i like it.He is also versatile enough to play in a narrower shape (if you know what i mean).As Thomas points out though he does come with a bit of a high maintenance reputation but this is something Stale (mobile spelling) will have to face.
Still think Frimpong could be on his way which would make us very strong should they both stay fit.
Would go as far as saying a Sako, Doumbia, Henry, Frimpong and Pennant midfield is better than what we put out last season in the prem!
By miles and Smiles.
Salivating at the thought of that line up! lets see how they cope with the pre xmas Jolly to Blackpool though!
Fantastic! This is the kind of stuff! At last. Hurrah for stale!
Wolves winning games and signing good players. What’s the world coming to? If we keep on at this rate I’ll have nothing to moan about.
Like others I was worried about this guys attitude, but to me the key thing is that SS is prepared to take him on. That is a measure of his confidence. Handling players is a part of the job that can not be shirked these days.
Pennant has not fulfilled his potentiol, I think he realises this looks potentiol win win to me.
Spot on
We know he can but the big question is will he want to.
If he comes in the big I am he may do more harm than good but if he wants to show Pulis what he’s missing then it could be a great bit of business.
The more I see of these players at this level the more I think it comes down to mental attitude and motivation more than outright skill.
As always time will tell
Risk versus reward. Absolutely right Thomas but when it’s just a 3 month loan, the risk is much less of course.
The worst that can happen is he doesn’t come up with the goods and we squander a few points. But we won’t be stuck with him. I’d be worried if we were signing him on a permanent deal but this makes sense and could turn out a clever piece of business.
Am I way off or did we have him as a youth?? Delighted to see him come. As I said before , the club needs these type of signings to raise the profile . A kinda”well if he went, I’ll go there mentality.” hopefully it snow balls so that by the time we go up ( hopefully) this year our squad will have plenty of pl experience and quality.happy days!!
there should be a sign at molineux PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EGO OUTSIDE . jermaine is welcome by all wolves fans if he creates and teases defences but big egos and digs at managerial decisions are not welcome WELCOMETO THE MOLINEUX JERMAINE YOU CAN BE A LEGEND IF YOU JUST WANT IT ENOUGH !!!!!
I am coming to trust Stole in just about everything he does for our club .
Roger Johnson , Berra, Ward et all…players most of us wouldn’t have minded seeing the back of .
SS knows how to get the best out players , make them love to play the game they’re gifted enough to make a career out of .
So , Pennant , welcome to the best boss you’ve met…see him fly l say !!
UTW
I read this as being an ’emergency loan.’ Is this the only type you’re allowed up until Jan?! I honestly don’t know and wonder if It affects us if we wanted someone like Frimpong too?
Not absolutely sure about this but think only real difference between emergency loan and ordinary loan is that the players club can recall them at any time after 28 days.Wolves can still take more players on loan if they want to come !
Good news. Thanks Colin! Imagine if we could snare Kenwyn Jones as well (not that we are being linked with him). We are still a target man short for me.
Think we have got more financial clout than some of our championship rivals and i hope Steve Morgan has got the will to make that count.At the end of the international break still think there is a chance of us being Frimponged.
Hope we can go straight back up even if it turns out to be bit of a struggle again – every sky pay cheque puts distance between us and all those clubs that cant quite get back.
Totally agree about us lacking a target man Ben. We could potentially be playing with the two best crossers of the ball in the division on either wing and we don’t really have a striker that thrives on crosses. The Nouble signing was clearly set up before the SS regime kicked in and he blatantly doesn’t fancy him. From what I’ve seen of him, his first touch is slightly worse that yours used to be mate.
Where’s the dislike button you cheeky git?! I’m coming down training on Tuesday!
I’ll believe that when I see it!
This is an excellent signing from a manager that has so far proved, to me at least, that he knows what he is doing. I am convinced that Staale (note the aa, an accepted substitution in Swedish anyway!) will be able to handle any ego issues, should problems arise. He did take on the manager’s job at 1.FC Köln, which shows that he is not easily scared, he has even cheated death.
Like many of you, I think that we can look forward to a better future. Do we have to moan ?
It just goes to show that Ståle means business and the will is there to maintain our winning start and above all send a message out to the rest of CH that WW mean business. Let’s hope that JP can help our cause and at the same time enhance his reputation. I hope he’s up to the challenge because this will be the making of him in our eyes. Past performances are history. He could be a hero !!!
UTW.
Great news! I think he’d be instrumental in Wolves being top of the table (or close to) come January. Great job Ståle!
Had Pennant in my Fantasy League team last year, from what I remember he was more than reliable. Geee, didn’t know Ståle was taking notes on that, ha.
Regarding his Twit account. What was that old expression? Let your football do the talking.
Regarding him as a player? Time will tell, never been a big fan, but let’s give him a chance.
Does he still have to wear that ankle bracelet? Maybe thats how he bamboozled defenders, coz he was leaning all over the place and his balance, or lack of it, wasnt natural and confused full backs. In Ward’s case that would not be difficult!!
Been a long day in Houston and I’m sick of this 90 degree weather. Give us some cold and some rain.
FOwb
Let’s hope Stale has met Jermaine and looked into his eyes to whether he could be a quality influence on the squad or be a destructive force given his history. However, very good player – particularly for the championship – so if has the right attitude then could add value. Let’s give the las a chance to prove himself.
Looking at his twitter most fans would have cause for concern. I for one am really excited about this one. It seems as though he has a desire to prove Pulis wrong.
Something Solbakken will definitely work on.
Fire him up and watch him fly.
Why can’t international break be over already?!
Just been checking on his stats and it looks like we shouldn’t expect much help on the goals front. 15 in total in 13 years and 279 games. He’s had a few assists for Stoke in the last 2 or 3 seasons but not a huge amount.
Maybe the championship will be more his level.
At least rog’ my round’ johnson will have a new drinking buddy. Have you seen pennants charge sheet. I think he has a bad attitude and all these managers cant be wrong. If stale manages to get the best out of him, then i salute him even more.
Most players who have problems with their attitude tend to show their worse colours when things are going badly. However, on the face of it, Pennant is coming into a club winning matches where confidence is high and in himself undoubtedly bringing quality to improve that already pretty positive situation. If we were bringing him into a relegation battle I’d be concerned but my gut instinct is that this could be a trmendous signing.
One reason and one reason only we got pennant. Pulis doesnt want him. That means pulis thinks kightley is a better player. I hope im wrong about pennant and he is the spark on the right wing we havent had for several seasons
Nobody is saying he’s better than Kightly. Kightly is playing in the prem, we’re in the championship. Is Pennant better than our current right mid options? E.g. Edwards, Forde, an out of position Foley. For me, the answer is an unequivocal yes.
I wish I could share the general optimism but to be honest I am pleased this signing is probably only short term. We do need someone with the injuries we have suffered and he is probably as good and certainly more experienced than what we have left in the way of cover.
As for a long term signing I am not so sure. He isn’t good enough for Stoke, (the same can be said of Kenwyn Jones), a mediocre Premiership club, so would he be good enough for us if we get promoted. He seems typical of the players we already have who have struggled to make an impact in the prem.
Never met the guy so can’t really comment on his attitude and ego but I suspect his twitter account tells you all you need to know. As always, I hope to be proved wrong.
Frimpers is another story and I’d welcome him with open arms. That is one guy I’d like to see here permanently.
I totally agree in being pleased it’s only short term. But it is, which in my opinion is what makes it a pretty clever signing!
This is for you Clive the Stephen Ward north bank.
http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad255/macmanyoung/molineux_stephen_ward.jpg
That is fantastic!
It is exactly where Ward should be, on match days, in the stands and far away from the team!
Now can we get the other 3 sides to feature Berra, Zubar and Henry???
That is funny! Cornflakes everywhere! I think Morgan should stump up for that, worth every penny! Any ideas who else’s face shoulds appear on the other stands? I’m going John DeWolf, Derek Dugan and Jody Craddock.
Afternoon Thomas.
Call me old fashioned (and most people do including the wife) but I’ve just followed your link to Pennant’s twitter page and it just underlines my feeling that twitter is a complete waste of cyber space and anyone’s time who bothers to record their tedious little everyday non-events or shows enough interest to read about them.
The only time you hear about what someone has written is when they’ve written something contentious or stupid.
But to your main point. I think he is certainly worth a punt for three months. He has the ability to rip up most defences and could earn us quite a few points before it all goes tits up.
And who knows, given the right man management, it might just turn into a long term relationship.
Agree 100% about twits, as well as facebook and myspace and all the other bollocks that is out there.
And texting should be outlawed, punishable by death, or season tickets to the sandwell crem.
And ipads.
Spent the evening with 2 friends the other week, and they were on their pads more than talking, showing pix and stuff.
What happened to the art of conversation and drinking with mates and ogling the women?
Nah, progress is not always good.
Bring back hanging, flogging and debtors prison.
And don’t forget talking utter tripe on football blogs Clive!
Who can you possibly be refering to?
I was going to suggest that your mates were on their pads because they didn’t think your conversation was interesting enough – but then I remembered who I was talking to!
Afternoon Doog.
If you base your opinion of twitter on what the football players are writing then it’s a lot like when someone writes off football on the basis of the diving.
There is more to it than that.
As a rule of thumb, don’t follow celebrities on there, unless they are more cerebral ones such as Stephen Fry.
Do follow journalists, politicians, google good people to follow in your areas of interest, be it football, politics, music, gardening, quantum physics, kite flying, your vocation, whatever. And then stay abrest of the latest developments in that field.
Hi sleachy.
Yes, I hear what you are saying and take your point. I’m in the communications industry so I suppose I should be championing Twitter and the like.
I went to a lecture about social media a few years ago when twitter was in it’s infancy and the speaker said that it was going to become a hugely important medium for learning and business networking.
For a while it was, but then every Tom Dick and Harry picked up on it and it seemed to turn into a means of spreading gossip or slagging people off without having the nerve to do it face to face.
I based my rant on the people who tweet before engaging their brains or are just not the brightest of buttons in the first place (I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a lot of them are sportsmen and more particularly footballers).
Arguably it now looks like in Sako, Henry, Doumbia and Pennant we’re going to be fielding a stronger midfield quartet in the Championship than we ever did in the Premier League. Frustrating, but very exciting.
Yes Tallwolf that looks pretty strong on paper, all we want now is for KH to engage his brain before allowing himself to get booked yet again. He’ll be missing again against H at the weekend so there’s disruption to midfield, that’s very frustrating !!!
On the other hand we wouldn’t want to cramp his aggressive style but he must take responsibility for his actions on the pitch, after all it’s not as if he’s a youngster learning the ropes. I seem to remember this happening on a number of occasions over the years and then he’s missing for the next couple of games. It’s just not good enough !!!
Sorry to bang on a bit but this is the source of much of our displeasure with players who do not or will not accept responsibility for their actions on the pitch.
As ever UTW.
On the subject of loans, I’d like to take a quick moment to say congratulations to Jake Cassidy. League 1 Player of the Month after scoring 7 goals in 6 games in September . Hope you’re doing the same in old gold and black soon!!
The sooner the better in my opinion.
Particularly as we’ve now got a couple of players who can cross the ball!
I agree Tettenhall Wolf, but I suspect the jump from Tranmere to what will be expected from him at WW may be too much at this moment in time. I’d rather WW scoured the loans market for another proven goalscorer or midfielder like JP and bring them in. I think JC is still work in progress. I’d expect a loanee to hit the ground running whereas JC may need time to settle back in, and time is of the essence especially when a winning streak needs to be continued. Don’t forget what we expect from a loan signing is exactly what TR expect from JC, and he’s coming up with the goods for them as we hope JP will for us. He’s definitely one for later in the season, I hope.
As ever UTW.
hitting the ground running is what Sylvan does ! Wish we could have Fletcher back to knock in all the crosses from Pennant and Sako.
Fatty Blake just hits the ground, and then struggles to get up!!!
Good evening Thomas. I was also at the Brittania that night when Pennant (joining a very long list of other pacey wide men) gave our hapless out of his depth lacking in mobility and pace left back a real roasting.
While watching England the other night in an Irish bar in Cyprus, enjoying the local lager, when visiting the gents i saw some lads watching the Irish humiliation against the Germans. Oh and guess who was playing left back and looking hopelessly off the pace, our Mr Ward.
Even Keogh came on and actually scored, now if MM realised Keogh wasn`t up to it, how come he didn`t find the same conclusion about Ward.
I like what the new manager is doing, but with other left backs on loan, broken ankles, how can now some 5 years or so have gone by and the same issue remains.
Baffled, but at least another championship club haven`t got Pennant, its a great signing for us, and Ward who won`t have Pennant torturing him before Christmas.
Hopefully when Mick finally gets a job he will come back for his favourites like Ward, and at that point hopefully they’ll go.
In fact I don’t particularly have a problem with Ward being a squad player, but I imagine Staale will be doing more business in Jan, as he seems to at least be aware that certain parts of the team (like defence) need strengthening, unlike Mick.
There’s no reason that the right defence with the right coaching can step up to the Prem and perform, take Swansea for instance. So I hope that Staale can continue to find some gems in that area too.
JP is one of those players who has played at the top level for certain clubs, but then reached a point in their careers when decisions have caused them to move on. He has undoubtedly been a top man but we should consider why has he moved, his choice or was he moved on ?? As a follower of PL football he has always been in the news, either for playing extremely well or more likely for misbehaving or tweeting something stupid and inappropriate. I suspect that Ståle knows the risks of this type of “sparky “individual and the possible disruption that they can bring to a new club and no doubt he has done his own little CRB check with his usual level of careful, professional thought. I for one am quite happy to trust Ståle’s opinion as I’ve believed in his vision from the word go. He has brought a much needed breath of fresh air to a stagnant and overpowering atmosphere which had descended upon WW behind the scenes and on the terraces over the previous 12-18 months.
As ever UTW.
I think its a clever bit of business.
3 months to cover our shortfall.
He has something to play for to put himself in the shop window, win/win.
We are short of quality in that area win/win.
Our record with loan signings: Ohara, Mancienne, Frimpong, Huddlestone, Aliadiere…………… lose/lose.
Im sure we all agree that Ohara looked great on loan, then we signed him. We would have loved to keep Frimps and Huddles but things conspired against us. Im sure you understand my point.
Im sure he can do a job for us,
I think its a case of “a Pennant is only for Xmas……”
Caught up with the goals I missed while I was holiday last night, and saw the Palace goals. Well deja f****n vue, more evidence if any was needed that we need a left back offering mobility and pace. Saw on Sky last night Wardy was dropped by Ireland for the very difficult game against the Faroe Islands. Get that lad back from Coventry and give hima go for gods sake.
Even if Ward is as good as his most ardent supporter might suggest (and i doubt that), it amazes me that we still do not have even a back-up LB, now that Elokobi’s out long term. There’s never even any suggestion now that we might need strengthening in this position, whereas i would have thought another emergency loan was the order of the day.
What is it with this guy? He seems to be untouchable for some reason.
While greasel’s wife’s sister’s best friend’s cousin’s dog’s auntie is still married to Connor, there is still the long hand of the McCarthy connection, and however tenuous, greasel will
not risk the wrath of a wife by selling or sacking Ward.
He was signed as a striker, and by god, he strikes!!!…..once a season.
Unfortunately his one goal this term has been and gone.
There is no logical footballing reason why this complete and utter plonker ever gets near The Mol, let alone pull on a Wolves jersey.
If he is so magical as to be undroppable, why doesnt he wave his magic wand over his head and disappear up his own arsehole???
Dont care how diehard a McCarthy fan anyone is, they cannot deny this legacy is one we neither want nor need. Please get another job soon, Mick, so you will re sign your bum boy!
FOwb
Here’s one for you Clive.
There was a left full back called Ward
Who’s defence was quite fatally flawed
Each time he was picked
He got his arse kicked
By the winger who skinned him and scored
Here’s another one:
There once was a full back named Ward,
Who was absolutely fucking useless at whatever position he played,
And this doesnt rhyme and I dont give a shit!!!
Funny thing is, Ward is part of a defence looking to keep their 4th consecutive clean sheet away from home…
Despite Ward, not because of him.
Ireland 1 Germany 6, and as your dad sez, then dropped for the tough match against The Faries.
I case my rest.
Very happy with that signing, pity it couldn’t be for the season.
He’s a proven Premiership regular and even has overseas and lots of England U21 experience, so on paper he’s probably one of the best players in the team!