Jermaine Pennant is delighted to have joined what he sees as a strong Stoke squad and not ruling out a permanent stay at the Britannia Stadium.

Pennant joined Stoke on loan from Real Zaragoza until January on transfer deadline day, along with Marc Wilson and Eidur Gudjohnsen.

The Potters had already captured Kenwyne Jones and Jon Walters ahead of the last-gasp action and Pennant was only too happy to join the revolution.

He told Stoke City Player: “My agent always told me Stoke were always interested and tried to sign me last season. But it was literally on the last day.

“I was in Spain watching Sky Sports News and I saw Eidur (Gudjohnsen) had flown into Stoke and I was thinking ‘ that’s a good signing’, but I didn’t know at that time I was on my way there too.

“Then I got the call from my agent and it was a very attractive move and my agent told me Tony Pulis will definitely get the best out of me.”

Pennant is likely to be deployed on the right wing by Pulis and, with a clutch of other new forwards in the squad, the former Liverpool man feels the Potters can make waves in the Premier League.

“We’re looking very strong and this is probably the best Stoke City team the Premier League has ever seen,” added the 27-year-old.

“If you look at the strikeforce there isn’t many better out there, with Kenwyne Jones and Eidur Gudjohnsen. That’s a great frontline and with the new additions like myself, plus Matthew Etherington on the other wing, we’ve got pace.”

Pennant has already spent two days training with his new side and he has been impressed by the facilities at the club’s newly-developed Clayton Woods complex.

“They’ve only been in here a week and it’s an impressive place, just as good as at Arsenal and Liverpool so Stoke are definitely moving in the right direction.

“Now I can’t wait for the first game, if selected or on the bench. I’m usually used to getting abuse but I’m sure now I’m a Stoke player the fans will get behind me all the way.”

Marc-Antoine Fortune insists West Brom are in a much better position to avoid relegation than they were two years ago.

Fortune re-signed for the club on Friday after spending time there on loan during their disappointing 2008/09 season in the top-flight.

We have new players now and we’re ready.

Marc-Antoine Fortune

He said that the team stood a better chance of avoiding relegation this time around.

West Brom are 2.10 to be relegated from the Premier League this season while Blackpool remain fancied at 1.33 to make an instant return to the Championship.

“We know the mistakes we made,” Fortune said.

“We have new players now and we’re ready. It will be difficult but if we don’t give up we’ll be okay.”

Fortune says one of the main reasons for his confidence is head coach Roberto Di Matteo and his tougher training regime.

“The gaffer has a different way of managing the team (to Tony Mowbray),” he said.

“I’ve only been here for one week, but I can see that the way we train and the way the manager wants to play is different.

“We have to be at 100% every training session. If we train hard like that we can be ready for every game.

“We also know that we have to be good defensively. We made mistakes in the past that we have to avoid now.”

Midfielder Paul Scharner, a veteran of five Premier League seasons with Wigan, said that avoiding relegation is as much mental as it is physical.

On West Brom’s last season in the Premier League, he said: “Maybe the belief was missing.

“Most of the small teams, they don’t believe that they can get something out of the big stages.

Scharner added that he hoped to bring more mental strength to the club.

“To stay in the division it’s one of the biggest points,” he said.

“It’s time to roll up our sleeves and fight to stay in the league.”

Di Matteo said that Fortune and Scharner will add to the top-flight know-how in his squad.

“They will bring quality to our team, and some experience as well,” he said.

“They have both played in the Premiership before.

“We were looking to strengthen down the spine of our team, and I think with these two players we have managed to do that.”

The Baggies are next in action on Saturday 11th September when they host Tottenham. Full Time Result betting has West Brom at 3.75 to pick up all three points, Spurs are on offer at 1.90 while the draw is 3.25.

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New Tottenham midfielder Rafael van der Vaart has revealed he did not leave Real Madrid a year ago because his wife developed breast cancer.

Holland star Van der Vaart was set to be sold by the Spanish giants last summer but refused to move on while model wife Sylvie was undergoing what proved to be successful treatment.

Van der Vaart also shed light on the discrepancy between Spurs boss Harry Redknapp’s claim that he had been the subject of an £18million bid from Bayern Munich last month, and Real’s insistence that he had not been, by confirming the German giants made an offer for him but that it was not “concrete”.

Atletico Madrid did try to buy the 27-year-old, however, but Real did not want to sell to their city rivals, instead accepting Tottenham’s last-gasp £8million bid on transfer deadline day.

Van der Vaart told Marca: “Thank God my wife is now perfectly okay.

“She had a very serious illness and it is true that she had to be treated at the Clinica Quiron.

“Last season, they wanted me to leave but I couldn’t leave for that reason.

“Now she is well and the only thing that happened was that Madrid wanted to sell and I wanted to get back to enjoying playing football, and Tottenham are a great team that are going to give me the football opportunities that I need.”

Of Bayern’s interest, he added: “The offer from Bayern never ended up being concrete.

“In the end, only Atletico Madrid pushed but neither I nor the club wanted me to go there.”

There have been suggestions new Real boss Jose Mourinho was reluctant to let Van der Vaart leave and that sporting director Jorge Valdano was behind his departure.

Van der Vaart said: “I don’t want to speak badly about anybody – I have too much respect for the club.”

The midfielder added that he would love to return to the Bernabeu in what is Spurs’ debut Champions League season.

“It’s a shame that some Madrid fans were sad that I was sold but I’m sure we will see each other again soon,” he said.

“It would be a dream to go back to the Bernabeu with Tottenham. I would feel at home.

“It was sad for me to leave. I have a lot of good friends in the dressing room. The fans have always treated me well and I have a great opinion of Mourinho. He has won everything.”

Meanwhile, Heurelho Gomes reckons Tottenham’s feelgood factor can help them continue their progress in the Premier League and on into Europe.

Spurs finished fourth last season and Redknapp then safely guided his men into the lucrative group stages of the Champions League and a place among the elite clubs of European football.

When Tottenham’s players return from the international break next weekend, they will be looking to prove a shock 1-0 home defeat to struggling Wigan was a minor blip ahead of the European trip to Werder Bremen and the small matter of a Carling Cup clash against old rivals Arsenal.

Brazil keeper Gomes feels White Hart Lane is a good place to be at the moment.

“I love the atmosphere here,” Gomes said in the September edition of the official club magazine, Hotspur.

“I try to build a good relationship with the supporters because I like to feel together as one with them. They make the club what it is.”

Gomes continued: “We operate in a very good atmosphere and that can only help.

“It ensures team unity and with it a feeling that anything and everything is possible. The team spirit here is great.

“It has to be that way because the Premier League is so tough. You must band together to succeed.”

Frank Lampard has dismissed suggestions Chelsea’s squad is past it – and is adamant there is more to come from the Barclays Premier League champions.

Carlo Ancelotti’s men have started the new campaign the way they finished the last one with three successive victories, including 6-0 demolitions of both West Brom and Wigan while they are yet to concede a goal.

Much has been made of the age of the Blues’ senior men, such as Lampard, 32, captain John Terry, 29, and striker Didier Drogba, who will be 33 in March.

However, England midfielder Lampard – who is currently sidelined by a hernia problem which forced him out of tonight’s opening Euro 2012 qualifier against Bulgaria at Wembley (England 1.25, Bulgaria 12.00, draw 5.50 Full Time Result) – rejects any suggestions the Chelsea players are over the hill.

Speaking to the October edition of the club’s official magazine, Lampard declared: “It is a load of rubbish when I hear talk about there only being one or two years left in our spine. This has been going on for a year or so.

Every year I set my goals again, I don’t lose any ambition or drive.

Frank Lampard

“Sometimes that is mind games from other managers or press talk and we proved them wrong last year.

“We have got players here who are experienced and you can’t buy experience in football – look at Didier, he is a specimen and he will overpower any 24 or 25-year-old.

“People have been waxing lyrical about Paul Scholes, and rightly so, because if you take him out of the United team now, they will want to replace him and they probably won’t be able to.”

Lampard may have a trophy cabinet full of honours, but the former West Ham trainee maintains he is hungry for even more success.

“Every year I set my goals again, I don’t lose any ambition or drive,” Lampard insisted.

“I would love to win the Champions League one day, but I would love to win more Premier League titles as well, so it’s quite easy to self-motivate.

“I think also that, the older you get, the more you appreciate what you have got as a footballer.

“I think it’s one of my strong points that I always want to do more because you don’t play forever.

“If I can keep my level up to the way I am playing now I believe I can go on playing for many more years.”

With 14 goals from the opening three Premier League matches, things are certainly going to plan for Chelsea, who saw experienced midfielders Joe Cole and Michael Ballack leave the club on free transfers during the summer.

“I think our game feels more natural now – you can see that from the way we finished last season and started this one,” Lampard reflected.

“Don’t get me wrong, we had difficult moments last season when it wasn’t flowing, but it became more natural to us and after winning the Double and celebrating that, I think we came back here in the summer wanting to step up again to another level.”

Lampard paid tribute to Ancelotti, who delivered the club a historic Double in his first season.

“The manager is very involved – his method, his training, his personality and his calmness is something the players have related to more and more over the last year or so and that’s making us stronger as a unit,” the midfielder said.

You can back Chelsea to win the Premier League 2010/11 at odds of 2.20, while it’s 6.00 for the Blues to win the UEFA Champions League in 2011.

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Wigan manager Roberto Martinez has backed new signing Franco Di Santo to succeed in the Premier League despite the striker so far struggling to establish himself in England.

The Brazil Under-20 international joined the Latics on a three-year deal from Chelsea minutes before the transfer deadline closed on Tuesday.

It is important that from all the young players we are developing here we get rewards.

Roberto Martinez

His permanent move came as a surprise but Martinez said it benefited the Latics as he now had a player to work with long-term rather than just for one season.

“It is exciting because in any loan situation you do not have the bigger picture and the long-term ambition,” said the Spaniard.

“It is not just a matter of getting him up to speed and then losing at the end of a 12-month period.

“It is important that from all the young players we are developing here we get rewards.

“To have Franco here as a permanent player is a great signing for us as we can really focus on his development and fulfilling his potential so Wigan can get the rewards.

“It was a clear statement that we wanted the player for the long run to make sure he can have the best years of his career at Wigan.”

Di Santo signed for Chelsea in 2008 but made just 16 appearances for the London side and never started a game.

He went on loan to Blackburn last season, playing 22 times in the Barclays Premier League and scoring just once.

But Martinez said rather than being put off by that apparent failure to nail down a first-team place, he was encouraged by it.

“His spell at Blackburn was probably the reason why we were so certain about him,” added the Wigan manager.

“He needed that period as a young player. When you go into the Premier League the first 20 games are huge in terms of experience and knowing what to expect and preparing yourself for the next chapter.

“It is not about how he did in that chapter it is about how he matured and found a way to help his team.

“I just feel now he is ready to go into the Premier League and be himself and you only do that from experiences.

He is desperate to enjoy his football and be settled.

Roberto Martinez

“The hardest thing for a striker of the type of Franco is to have Premier League experience.

“For me the time he had at Blackburn was the final push to make the decision to sign him permanently.

“He now has 20-odd games in the Premier League and comes here as someone desperate to earn his place and be himself.

“If you speak with him he is desperate to enjoy his football and be settled.”

The Latics’ are next in action on the 11th September when they host Sunderland, Full Time Result betting has Wigan at 2.30 to get the win, Sunderland can be backed at 2.87 while the draw is 3.25.

Wigan are currently 2.00 to be relegated this season.

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