Jermaine Pennant believes part of the reason he failed to
make the grade under Arsene Wenger at Arsenal is because he is
English. Pennant became the most expensive teenager in the country
when the Gunners invested £2million in his fledgling talents to
sign the 16-year-old from Notts County in January 1999. But he was
unable to force his way into Wenger's plans and, after rebuilding
his career with Birmingham, attracted the interest of Rafael
Benitez who brought him to Anfield in a £6.7million deal in summer
2006.
The winger, who will not be involved when the Reds take on his
former club on Sunday as he recovers from surgery on a stress
fracture to his right tibia, still feels the odds are stacked
against home-grown players under Wenger.
He told The Independent: "There has got to be something. If you
look now there are no English players in the squad, apart from Theo
(Walcott) and he's not a regular, even though he's been there for a
while now. "I always felt we got overlooked. The facts speak for
themselves. There are no English players in that team so he must
have something, not necessarily against them, but that they don't
fit into his philosophy. "He likes the foreign players more. Maybe
he believes their attributes are better. And that's his
choice."
