Jermaine Pennant's career is reminiscent of an electric toy car that ran out of batteries sometime in 2007. Beginning like a house in fire with a record-breaking £2 million move to Highbury in 1999 as a 15 year old, he progressed the youth system before taking his first-team chance with aplomb. On his first league start against Southampton in May 2003, the England U21 international buried a sensational hat-trick in a 6-1 win for the club. With French winger Robert Pires also bagging a treble in the dress rehearsal for the FA Cup final, the 20 year old notched a header in between two clinical right-footed drives. It was certainly an afternoon to remember for the spritely winger, but it would be the only league goals he would ever register for the Gunners. At 31 years old, he has been without a club for the last nine months since being released from his contract at Stoke City in January. It's fair to say that things look bleak for a man who was once the most expensive teenager in British football, but at least he still has that happy memory in May 2003 when the world was seemingly at his feet. Within a couple of years, that world would have been replaced with an electronic tag. Perhaps that's some hint as to where things began to go wrong for Jermaine Pennant.