JERMAINE PENNANT has revealed that his former Billericay boss Glenn Tamplin had players singing R Kelly in the dressing room.
The former Liverpool and Arsenal star, now 41, joined the non-league side as a 34-year-old in 2017.
Pennant, who played in the Champions League final a decade earlier, was convinced to sign for Billericay by fellow former Premier League star Jamie O’Hara, who claimed that they were paying “League One wages”.
He lasted just four months with the Essex outfit, however, after finding Tamplin’s unorthodox methods difficult to work with.
Speaking at the launch of Ladbrokes’ “Gaffer of all Accas”, Pennant recounted his unusual experience.
He said: “Jamie told me they were going to be flying; the owner wanted to sign a load of ex-pros and try and climb up the leagues, and he said he reckoned the project could’ve taken the team up to the National League.
“I thought that sounded like a decent thing to be a part of, so decided to get involved.
“Then, after around six months I just thought ‘I need to get out of this.’ The manager, Glenn Tamplin, was just a bit of a fruitcake.
“You know, we’d be beating teams like Wingate & Finchley, on a Tuesday night, in the rain, maybe 3-0, and he’d come in screaming, because we hadn’t scored five or six goals.
“Because he had a load of ex-pros, he thought we should have been battering everyone 7-0. If I hadn’t scored three – even if I’d scored and set a couple up, or created a load of chances, he’d have a go; he just didn’t understand it.
BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKERS
“And I’m just there like ‘I’ve had Arsene Wenger coaching me, Steve Bruce, Rafa Benitez… and you’re telling me what’s good and what’s not?’
“I couldn’t listen to it, and so I just had to get out in the January.”
On one of Tamplin’s more unusual tactics, Pennant continued: “Sometimes, when we played big teams, he’d get us all in the dressing room singing R. Kelly – The World’s Greatest.
“I can remember looking around thinking ‘I’ve played in a Champions League final. What am I doing?’ I’m just looking at Kevin Foley, and Jamie, thinking ‘what am I doing?’
“You know; I couldn’t imagine Stevie Gerrard, in Athens, singing The World’s Greatest, before we played AC Milan! I was just like, oh my God… where’s my career gone?! How’ve I got to this point?!”
Prior to dropping down to non-league, Pennant had been playing in League One for Bury.
After leaving Billericay, the winger did not sign for another club, soon announcing his retirement.
‘I COULD HAVE GONE TO REAL MADRID’
A far cry from non-league, Pennant also revealed that he nearly signed for Real Madrid.
He said: “I had six months left on my contract at Liverpool, and I could have gone to Real Madrid. The manager at the time was Juande Ramos, I think. He cancelled the deal.
“It was more a deal the general manager and the hierarchy wanted to make happen; they wanted to bring in a right-winger because someone had got injured in the squad, and they spoke to my manager at the time.
“I was absolutely up for the move, because I was in the last year of my contract and I wasn’t playing at Liverpool.
“As we got nearer to agreeing everything, Juande cancelled the move, and they contacted me to tell me the manager wasn’t happy about it. They didn’t go to him first, and that had obviously bothered Ramos, and so they looked elsewhere.
“But, yeah, I’d got as far as learning a deal had been agreed – so of course I started to think about the idea of playing for Real Madrid… who doesn’t dream about that kind of move? Yeah, I got excited by it, but it didn’t happen, so I was like “alright… let’s go to Portsmouth!”
“I’m not holding it against Juande Ramos, but if I do ever see him, he’s going to get it; I’m going to tell him if we ever cross paths… I’ll ask him why he did that!”
