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Pennant desperate to stay at Anfield

Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant insists he wants to remain at Anfield and fight for his place despite Rafa Benitez being happy to let him leave.

Pennant is subject to interest from Blackburn as a replacement for David Bentley, with a £7m bid being reported by some of the media and has been linked with a move away from Anfield all summer.

He hasn’t been involved in any of Liverpool’s opening fixtures and is clearly out of favour with striker Dirk Kuyt preferred to start on the right of Liverpool’s midfield, and youngster Nabil El Zhar featuring as substitute in each of the Reds’ opening three fixtures. Benitez is reportedly keen to sell Pennant, along with Andriy Voronin, in order to raise more funds for more signings.

But Pennant insists he intends to remain at the club, saying “I’m not going anywhere. I want to stay at Liverpool and fight for my place ‘“ this is where I want to be. The manager just needs to give me a chance and a run in the team so that I can show what I can do.”

He certainly gets one thing right about a departure from Liverpool; “Once you leave a club like Liverpool the only place you are going is down. I’m desperate to stay here and get back to my best.”