Over the years, it's become usual practice to write "Gone but not forgotten" pieces for players in the couple of days after they've moved on to pastures new or, in many cases, pastures unknown. The benefit is an immediate reaction, and one less thing on the "stuff to do" list.

This time, I'm writing about Jermaine Pennant nearly a month after his return to Arsenal. Mainly, that's because it was unclear whether he had gone, as Luca Vialli was clearly keen to bring him back for a further loan period after he'd served a three-match suspension for an understandable, if unnecessary, red card against Grimsby. But, in many ways, the extra perspective is useful here.

Back in January, it seemed as if a few weeks of Jermaine Pennant was about as much as we could hope for. The season was going nowhere in no particular hurry, the performances ranged from disgraceful to merely drab. The prospect of watching Pennant, every inch a class act (apart from the beard), do his thing was rather like getting to borrow your mate's swanky new remote control car to cheer you up after the school bully's nicked all your sweets again. Some consolation.

Even if he finally tired of being kicked around by First Division cloggers and lashed out at Grimsby's Gallimore, he was frequently fabulous. Signed by Arsenal for £17m while he was still in nappies (or something), his reputation preceded him and proved to be well-founded. Quick, astonishingly skilful and pleasingly competitive, he managed to hide his inexperience well for the most part, carving great holes in several defences and working hard for the side even when he could make no headway himself. A luxurious, sparkling lining for our thunderous black cloud.

Really, that seemed to be it. A bit of a treat, a firework display to ooh and aah at. Someone to applaud rather than boo, and therefore an exception at the time. The results were almost entirely dreadful during his short stay, the mood uniformly bleak. He gave us something to smile about, which was much less than we could've asked for but about all we were going to get....

Except not, as it turned out. For Jermaine Pennant's most significant contribution may have been in the last half hour of his Watford career, as the Hornets attempted an improbable, and unsuccessful, comeback at St Andrews. The momentum continued after he'd left, as a revitalised Watford steam-rollered Norwich three days afterwards and later treated West Brom, Palace and Coventry to equally potent, muscular performances. At the time of writing, it's impossible to say where it'll all lead...but the point is that it matters again, that there are gigantic roars of celebration where once there was just a smattering of polite applause.

It seems like a long time since Jermaine Pennant's handful of appearances, really. And, enjoyable and occasionally thrilling as his short visit was, it has to be said that another current loan signing is having a far greater impact.

You could build a team around a player like Wayne Brown. Unless you've got similar quality throughout, you can only decorate it with a player like Jermaine Pennant.