FOOTBALL bad boy Jermaine Pennant has given his gorgeous lover the boot after a stormy 10 months together.
The Liverpool winger admits he and topless model Amii Grove “fought like cat and dog”.
And Pennant, 24, finally decided their explosive live-in relationship had to finish, for both their sakes.
He is desperate to be part of the England squad for the Euro 2008 tournament and feared his fiery romance with Amii was making him take his eye off the ball.
Birmingham babe Amii, 22, nicknamed “the Bum from Brum”, said Jermaine’s busy schedule and love of nights out with the lads meant she hardly saw him.
She has now packed up and left his £1.3million home in Hale Village, near Runcorn, Cheshire.
It is not the first time he has tried to end it. In March, the Daily Star revealed how Amii threw his belongings out of a window and smashed her Peugeot car through a closed gate after he told her to leave. The couple later kissed and made up.
At the weekend, Pennant was involved in another fracas on a lads’ bash at Bournemouth.
The boozy ace fell over in a nightclub. Tempers then frayed at a pizza takeaway, which ended with the arrest of his Charlton Athletic pal Jerome Thomas, 24.
A girl claimed Thomas hit her in the face with his elbow after trying to jump the queue. He was held for eight hours but released without charge.
Pennant insists he tried to act as peacemaker.
But he has never been far from controversy.
The former Arsenal and Birmingham star became the first Premiership player to wear an electronic tag during a match after serving a jail stint for drink-driving.
And two months ago he was arrested for an alleged public order offence.
A Liverpool source said that Pennant felt he had to dump Amii if he was to focus on his career.
He added: “You can’t compete at this level if you are burdened with problems in your domestic life. We think he has made the right decision.”
In 2007, Amii Grove enjoyed a lengthy relationship with Jermaine Pennant - she even moved into his home to provide brief distractions during the moments when the footballer wasn’t training, in a nightclub or playing Xbox. Things turned sour, however, when she caught the Liverpool winger cheating on her via the CCTV cameras in his mansion. Amii promptly caused £200,000 worth of damage and profited by selling her story to any newspaper that would listen.
Since then, the “Kop love rat” has been at it with foxy Hollyoaks star Jennifer Metcalfe, but the tragic death of Amii’s brother has brought the pair closer together again. Jermaine recently brought flowers and a card to pay his respects at his burial site, and discovered that the best way to get a lady to forgive a man for cheating is to catch them at their weakest possible moment, and propose in the least appropriate setting:
“We went to visit Lee’s grave and I was kneeling down laying some flowers when Jermaine bent down next to me and asked, ‘Do you want to get married to me?’.
“It’s been a tough year for the family. Getting engaged to Jermaine is probably a bit of good news that we needed. Lee would have been so happy for us. I never stopped thinking about Jermaine after we split up - and he feels the same way.”
It honestly sounds like the plot of a bad daytime soap opera, so don’t be surprised to hear that it was actually Jermaine Pennant’s evil twin who proposed, or that Amii is actually a robot from the future or something.
Over Christmas 2008, the pair amicably split.
“Although we’re both upset, I’m looking forward to what the future holds and pursuing some exciting work opportunities in 2009.”
The winger also confirmed that their engagement is off, telling another newspaper: "She’s a lovely girl, but sadly I can’t give her what she wants.
“So it’s only fair that I let her go so she can get on with her life.”