Pennant exhausts Arsenal's patience

His latest misdemenour came on the morning of a match day for the first team - the Gunners played Newcastle on Sunday afternoon. That could have been cause in itself for terminating his contract. "He is a member of the first team squad. What if he had been needed against Newcastle in an emergency?" said a Highbury source.

It is not only Wenger who has helped Pennant. His agent Sky Andrew could not have done more. Andrew was convinced about Pennant's talent and strived harder than anyone to help him to fulfil it. "He has learned his lesson," Andrew insisted. The problem was he had to say it too often.

He even arranged for Pennant to move to a flat near to Ashley Cole in the hope that Cole's positive influence would have an effect.

Cole has shown what is possible at Arsenal. He has come through the ranks, emerged as a first team regular, become the PFA representative at Arsenal and has been tipped as a future captain of club and country. He talked to Pennant, cajoled and did everything in his power to help him. He warned him of the danger of social excesses. All to no avail.

Pennant was too easily led. His latest escapade came, it is said, because he felt he should have been in the squad for the last two matches at Bolton and Newcastle. When he wasn't, he listened to hangerson rather than the advice that Wenger had given him and this time it has cost him a career at one of the most prestigious clubs in Europe.

He found little sympathy at Arsenal if he ever tried to play the "I have had it hard growing up" card among the first team squad at Highbury.

True, the Meadows area of Nottingham where he spent his formative years doesn't figure in the must see section of the Nottinghamshire tourist board.

But neither does the tough immigrant town of Trappes just outside Paris where Patrick Vieira grew up. Or Tower Hamlets where Cole had to find his feet. Or the Andalucian suburb of Seville where Jose Antonio Reyes lived in a house with a roof that leaked when it rained. It was also no doddle for Gilberto Silva in Brazil where, as the oldest son, he had to give up football for two years to bring money into the home by working in a local factory.

They all have much in common with Pennant with their respective backgrounds and, like him, they have the talent to play at the highest level. But there, however, the similarity ends. They overcame the setbacks. Pennant needed little excuse to indulge in the social scene whenever he felt wronged.

When Sunday's news reached the Arsenal hierarchy, there was only one decision to make.