He was the wonder kid who went to Bayern... but now Dale Jennings can’t even find a club
WHEN Dale Jennings was signed by Bayern Munich in 2011 the eyes of world football turned on this unknown 18-year- old from Tranmere Rovers.
The winger had been released by Liverpool aged 15 owing to his poor attitude. But after a year out of the game he joined Tranmere, won League One scholar of the year ahead of Southampton’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and caught the eye of the Bundesliga giants.
Bayern Munich were so desperate to sign him that they sent Dietmar Hamman to his home to persuade him — not that he took much convincing. Jennings recalled: ‘He was saying “They’ll look after you”.
He was considered a brighter prospect than team-mate Emre Can, now at Liverpool. But just five years later, Jennings is sitting at the Crowne Plaza Hotel next to Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport without a club after being released by MK Dons.
The 23- year- old is discussing being overweight, his mental torment and his desire to find a club before the March 24 deadline for out- of- contract players. How did it come to this?
Bayern Munich told Jennings he had a future in the first team at a time when Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben were tormenting full backs. He would stay behind after training at their Säbener Strasse base to watch two of the world’s best. ‘They were quick players anyway, but they used to do a lot of sprint work, crossing, finishing, taking players on,’ he said. ‘Any young player would look at them and want to be like them.’
World Cup winner Philipp Lahm took part in some of Jennings’ training sessions and Jennings scored in a couple of first-team friendlies. ‘Lahm was brilliant with the young kids, encouraging us,’ he said.
But, for Jennings, something was not quite right. ‘I used to just look down at the badge on my training kit and think “What am I doing here”?’ he says.
He was one of manager Jupp Heynckes’ first signings, for a fee that reached £1.8million. He joined just after Louis van Gaal departed and just before Pep Guardiola arrived, but by that stage he was so unhappy not even the game’s greatest manager could tempt him to stay.
Injuries played a big part — he had two operations before he kicked a ball there — and he had difficulty learning the language despite numerous teachers and even employing a Scouse language tutor at one stage. He found it hard in a new country where he could barely understand what his teammates were talking about. Jennings had moved away from his family in Liverpool for the first time and was homesick. He lived alone in a Munich flat and, not used to cooking for himself, the bad dietary habits slipped in. Youth coach Mehmet Scholl assured Jennings there was a future for him in Bayern’s first team, but, with a year still left on his contract in 2013, Jennings packed up his belongings and flew home. ‘I wasn’t professional enough. I didn’t take it as seriously as I should have done,’ he admitted. ‘I didn’t dedicate myself to my diet and my work ethic. I’d never cooked a meal in my life, never done my own washing, it was hard being thrown in at the deep end.’
Jennings does not have an eating disorder but, admits that he ‘eats c**p’ and has not kept his weight under control. He is undoubtedly talented but his struggles with food and at times mental problems have prevented that talent from flourishing. He often wonders why he cannot get it right — ‘I think about it every day’ — and has visited a psychologist.
The problems go back to a difficult upbringing. Jennings’ mother Donna brought up her son and his older brother Michael on her own in Kensington, Liverpool — a rough area in which, as Jennings explains, he learned to be a fighter and stuck up for himself. A life of crime with his friends was on the cards. He would often rather be with them than play football.
But then, at 15, his mother sat in front of him with tears streaming down her face and warned him he could end up in prison.
‘My mum raised us — me and my brother,’ he said. ‘She did her best but we didn’t always have everything we needed. Some of my mates who I grew up with are in jail.
‘Where I was brought up, it was either football or be like that, and I realised I didn’t want to be like that. Football was my way out.
‘I was up to no good. I’d got into trouble a couple of times and I could have ended up in jail. It’s not good to see your mum crying. It was a horrible thing to see.’
Since returning to England Jennings has had spells at Barnsley and MK Dons, but managers at both clubs — Lee Johnson and Karl Robinson — publicly questioned his weight and fitness.
Robinson was a youth coach at Liverpool when Jennings was there and knew there was talent, but gave up on him at the end of January.
‘I’m not going to lie, I am a bit overweight,’ admitted Jennings. ‘I need to lose weight and get fit. I’m using the time off now to work hard every day. I feel like I’ve let my family down and the likes of Karl and my managers at Barnsley and the fans who have supported me.
‘I’ve got to pay back my family and the people who have been there for me, so I need to work hard and get back where I should be.’
Jennings and his agent Neil Sang have had offers, but they are determined he gets fit before he signs for a club. He has a young family: partner Abby and two-yearold daughter Mila, with another baby on the way.
‘You don’t want to be unemployed when you have got a family,’ he said. ‘You’ve got to support them and if that doesn’t give you motivation, I don’t know what will.’
Sang, who Jennings also considers family, is trying to get the right people around him — working with nutritionists and personal trainers, getting him running, working in the gym, boxing and doing yoga, while maintaining a healthy diet.
‘I have been snappy,’ admitted Jennings. ‘I’ve been off with my family. I go on little tantrums. But I’m getting over that now. Mentally I’ve got to be stronger. Not think, “It’s all right to eat this” — I can’t do that, I can’t train three times a day for a week then go and eat something c**p. It’s a waste.
‘I want to be the best I can be and play at the highest level I can and there’s only one way to do that.’
Jennings draws inspiration from Charlie Austin and Jamie Vardy, who are enjoying Premier League football and England call-ups later in their career.
‘I look at those players and think if they can do it, so can I,’ he said. ‘I want to do it for myself, but I want to do it for all the people who put the time and effort in for me.
‘I’d like to play in the Premier League. I don’t think anything is impossible in football. I know this is my last chance. I know what needs to be done.’
“I was up to no good and could have ended up in prison...”