It could all be hearsay, but if Tottenham Hotspur are willing to sell Jermain Defoe then they’re nuttier than a fruitcake being dipped in hazelnut coffee by the hands of David Icke. If the club get rid of Defoe then they will be in the same situation that they’ve found themselves in since the dark old days of employing Gary Doherty as an emergency striker.
The club have purchased Roberto Soldado, but even if they keep Defoe, they are still short of a forward, particularly after the sale of Clint Dempsey and the expected exit of Emmanuel Adebayor.
It’s the same old story with Tottenham. Even when they qualified for the Champions League in 2011-12 with Defoe, Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko on their books you couldn’t help wondering how higher they would have finished if they had had another forward to fall back on, which is exactly what most of their supporters have been feeling since.
Apart from Adebayor, the last campaign brought no transfer action in terms of out-and-out strikers and successful clubs in England often have four of them – look at Manchester United and Manchester City – but if they don’t then the goals needed are often made up elsewhere on the pitch.
Being short on supplies up front played a big part in Chelsea being unable to make a serious assault on the Premiership and Champions League last season, but they still won the Europa League, so it was a campaign that was rewarded even if they didn’t get their hands on exactly what they wanted. They also have players like Frank Lampard and Juan Mata who get into double figures when they get the games, along with Roman Lukaku back from his loan spell with West Brom, and new signing Andre Schurrle, not to mention the possibility of a certain Mr. Rooney strutting his stuff with the Blues.
Aside from Gareth Bale (who, I don’t know if you’ve heard, has been linked with Real Madrid lately), Defoe and now Soldado, it’s hard to see anyone else in the squad getting into double figures. Adebayor’s one season expiry date for reliability has passed whereby he will achieve his target of getting a transfer in order to gain yet another hike in wages (all for his people back in Togo you understand).
Dempsey, who has occasionally been deployed up-front has now gone, so why the hell would Spurs want to get rid of Defoe? If they do, they will need a further two players of a similar ilk at least, whether or not Andre Villas-Boas employs his favourite 4-2-3-1 formation for the majority of the upcoming campaign. Or the 4-3-3 system that Soldado thrived under at Valencia, although Boas used that only once last season.
Defoe’s form in the second half the campaign was nowhere near as prolific as the first half (injuries that thwarted his stride didn’t help), but he is still one of the most reliable finishers in the country, who many clubs, Premiership and beyond, would love to have in their team. Rumours of him leaving Spurs may be unfounded, but if they are true and he leaves without replacements being brought in, then the club will only have themselves to blame should they fail to reach the Champions League, and/or finish behind Arsenal yet again.
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Sell him. He will never hit 20+ a season. Bid for Huntleaar. Huntleaar Bale and Soldado up front.
Sell Sell Sell he has under performed for years he might score three past lesser teams and then go months with out a goal, i recall five past Wigan then tumble weed for weeks , so over his talk of how he cant wait to start scoring again to many years . Give someone with fight in there belly a chance
The little man needs to stay not to start but can be used as an impact sub we’ll have over 50+ games this season, we still need another striker as we cant rely on Ade, Kane tries hard but simply not good enough and Soldado cannot be expected to start and finish every game he will need a rest at some point during the season.
JD gets alot of stick for being selfish but apart from Bale who else shoots? For a 30yr old his pace, passion and movement is exceptional he has even encouraged the club to sign strikers! What other forward has done that?
if we sold him we’ll all be soon singing his name when we are losing. He has:-
Never refused to play/train – Berbatov
Never demanded the captaincy – Keane
Never asked for payrise only on £65k a week
Never moaned or sulked – Pav, Bent, Rebrov, Postiga
Never asked for transfer we sold him to pompey.
He prefers the big man combo (Crouch + Heskey) that is when he is most productive no point playing him in a 4-5-1 and expect him to hold up play or Daws just pumps up long balls to him in the air?
Currently the 8th all time highest spurs scorer in our history and 5 goals off 5th place he deserves more respect for 10years service and 400+ games plus called upon endless england squads.
Nuff said.
Well said, Bill Nicholson. Why the haste to part with him before he has even kicked a ball in anger, this season? Even if it’s true that he’s only good for half a season, then, it makes more sense to wait until January before reconsidering. The possibility is that he will thrive on the competition that Soldado offers – and anyone who thinks a solitary striker can play 50 games without suffering injury, suspension or loss of form, is deluding himself. Soldado gets goals. He also has a career record of a yellow card every four games (53 in 212). We have no cover for him, other than Defoe, given the efforts being made to offload Adebayor, If anything, we need to keep him and add a minimum of one more. If Bale goes to Madrid, then Levy has to ensure the “one more” is Alvaro Morata. If not, then he (Bale), either has to play as a second striker, or we have to go into the market and find someone. So far, Soldado is the only one we could persuade to come here. It’s a little reckless to be talking about getting rid of someone who has scored well over 100 goals for the Club and who is fit, again. And he loves the Club…
Defoe might fit the bill as an impact sub but definitely not as a first team choice. For me Defoe would be a third choice striker as things stand.