The next big thing in English football that was going to take the world of football by storm but quickly faded out to become a punchline on the 'where are they nows' of the next ten to twenty years. We could be talking about David Bentley but we're not.
The former Spurs and Blackburn man has packed in the 'soccer' (his word not ours) to become a full time GAA sideshow. That's not strictly true but while Bentley has embraced the fact that he's fallen out of love with football, another one of British football's next big things is sticking around to get all the sexy money he can.
Jermaine Pennant has signed for Singapore S-League side Tampines Rovers in a deal that is thought to make him the best paid player in the league's 21 year history. Although the official terms were not disclosed, the club chairman, Krishna Ramachandra, did state that the former Arsenal and Liverpool winger would receive a 'sexy figure' for moving to Asia. We can only assume he means a monetary figure as opposed to offering him plastic surgery to tighten everything up where it could do with being tightened.
That's all well and good but it's another things that has piqued our interest thanks to Connor Phillips. Tampines Rovers have a rather familiar shirt sponsor.
I will now be closely following the career of Jermain Pennant! Proper GAA fans will get why... @ballsdotie pic.twitter.com/v2aaPIN7uX
— Connor Phillips (@ConnorPhillips) January 19, 2016
Oh the memories. They may well have been glorified painter's gloves but that didn't matter. As soon as you slapped a pair of those things on you were already half way to becoming a senior inter-county footballer.
But then things began to change for the worse. Take for example this photo shoot from 2004. Just look at this nonsense.
Ignore the fact that Trevor Giles looks like the leader of the a particularly flamboyant troupe of choir boys turned cabaret signers on their way to their first gig without their parents but just look at those gloves. They don't even have black bobbly bits of rubber on them. Scandalous.
Now this, this is GAA. The only sponsor in sight is Barry's Tea and the Japanese glory that is the Mikasa glove.
So here's to Jermaine Pennant, his sexy figure and his one man crusade to bring Mikasa back to global attention. Keep fighting the good fight Jermaine.
