All January long, Tottenham fans were crying out for their beloved leader, Daniel Levy to dip into the January transfer market and pluck out a striker.
And all they got was a talented young German midfielder to add to an area of their squad that was already packed to brimming.
I’d say that Andre Villas-Boas needs to get his priorities right. I won’t pretend to be privy to the amount that the Portuguese manager had to spend this January, but surely, given the oh-so-pressing need, the funds could have been freed up?
With Emmanuel Adebayor doing his thing at the African Cup of Nations, it’s been up to Jermaine Defoe to lead the Spurs line for a month or so now. Even before then, the lanky Togo troublemaker wasn’t really pulling his weight.
Whilst Jermaine has looked calm and assured in front of goal this season, Emmanuel Adebayor has looked lackadaisical and cumbersome in the penalty area and doesn’t seem to have found his shooting boots just yet. Even before he jetted off to Africa, AVB must surely have been on the lookout for a new striker.
And as luck would have it, the moment the January transfer window has slammed shut, Defoe has picked up an injury. Isn’t football strangely predictable sometimes?
The English forward sustained an ankle injury against West Brom last Sunday and will be out for two-to-three weeks. That’s not a particularly long period of time, but it will seem like a life-time for Tottenham given their other options. AVB has tried to keep level-headed:
“We have a lot of trust in our medical department and their ability to make this recover process even shorter. Anyway, the team has a lot of goals and we are able to adapt. [Not signing a striker in January] was a risk we were willing to take. We don’t have control over injuries. They happen when you least expect them to.
Gareth Bale played a role in the middle from the start, so we have options. We have solutions. We don’t always have to be with a striker.” (Source: TalkSPORT)
I’m not surprised it’s come back to bite them. I can only hope it doesn’t trigger yet another late-season collapse and cost Spurs fourth place.
What’s your take? How big a loss is Jermaine Defoe for Tottenham? Can they hold on to a top four slot?
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Assured in front of goal? Defoe? You must be jokin he’s utterly average needs 10 chances to score 1 not nearly good enough
Defoe has not scored in about 10 games. We need someone who scores.
Can Spurs cope without Defoe?? Well they have for the last ten games have,nt they? He may have played but he failed to score ah?? Yes we should have invested in a striker (invest is a business expression Mr Levy!!) but we did,nt. What do we do now? we take a deep breath and bloody get on with it. Leave team selection to the man in charge, get behind the team and pray like hell we get over that line into wonderland champions league, in third place preferably!!!!!! Do that and this articles headline will be irrelevent!!!
Although Jermaine has scored 10 or so goals this season ,he is not the answer.ade is unplayable for about 2 games a season ,he is not the answer. We’ve needed a top striker for too long , if we want to be a top team were going to need more than 2 forwards.