I kind of hope he leaves not because he's a bad player but because he can be playing week in week out elsewhere. I fee a bit sorry for him, alot of people dont even know the situation (myself included) yet so many people go by what certain people have said and he is rather hated among our fans, its a bit harsh.
The main reason i like him is he always tries, its rare you see him not bothered about the game/ team. He gets slated for things like not tracking back yet the same people claim at other times that he does track back but is a bad tackler, he cant really win. He had a very good spell where rafa was tipping him to break into the england team and alot of other people were too and that all seems to have been brushed under the carpet asif it never ever happened and all these claims of he has shown absolutely nothing since he joined, and people have even taken away from him the motm from our team in the CL final claiming he did nothing in that game.
I think its fair enough some people dont think he's good enough but some people do take it a little too far and act asif he does nothing on the field. Even good performances are just shot down to a level of it was average whereas with another player it would be considered better. People always tend to do it and its not just pennant, it happens with all fans and it is quite silly, if its a player they like a performance can be considered impressive but an identical performance from a player they like less isnt as impressive somehow just because of who it is.
When he had a run in the side i feel he did very well, the spell at the beginning of last season after the CL final, where he was being tipped for the england squad and even playing on the left hand side in games and still causing opposition all sorts of problems. Even rafa was praising him and you dont get that from doing nothing, we all know rafa isnt one to hand out praise in bundles and its hard to get from him because his expectation levels are at a high standard, so how did pennant manage to get praise ? From the way some people talk about him you would think he payed rafa to say it or something. He isnt all bad, he has good performances when he gets a run of games, its just sad to see any good performances belittled by certain fans because they seem to dislike a player, the abuse gets too much at times, its fair enough we are fans we are entitled to criticise but there is a difference.