Will Jermain Defoe be at Tottenham Next Season?

Jermain Defoe will have a major decision to make before the start of the season – Will he stay at Tottenham or move to another club where he is guaranteed first team football? This is a question which has been with Defoe for some time. If he remains at White Hart Lane he will have to impress the new manager and convince him that he deserves a regular place in the team each week. The past few weeks have been typical of Defoe’s recent past at Tottenham.

In the final two matches of the season, which Spurs needed to win to be guaranteed Champions League football next season, Defoe started among the substitutes, where he has spent much of the past two seasons. Against Aston Villa with Spurs down to ten men and trailing by a goal, Harry Redknapp prepared to make a substitution and bring on Jermain Defoe. As Defoe waited, Spurs scored so Redknapp delayed the decision to make any change to the team. Defoe waited and waited and then was told to sit down again. Once Redknapp knew that Newcastle has lost to Manchester City, he decided against making an attacking substitution in an effort to win the game. A week later against Fulham, Defoe was introduced after an hour and scored Tottenham’s second goal within three minutes. Defoe has now scored more goals (20) as a substitute than any other player in Premier League history.

In spite of his lack of first team football, Roy Hodgson selected Jermain Defoe for the England squad for Euro 2012, reportedly after his then manager, Harry Redknapp, put in a good word for him. It quickly became clear, however, that Hodgson saw Defoe as a bit part player. In the two internationals played before the England team left for the tournament, Defoe was the only out-field player not to be given time in the match against Norway and was only brought on with 24 minutes remaining against Belgium but did manage to hit the post in that short time. Defoe was fully committed to playing for England but had to cope with the death of his father while he was in Poland. He returned to England but was back with the England team in time to make a short appearance against France in the opening match. That was his only opportunity as Hodgson selected Danny Wellbeck, Andy Carroll and Ashley Young, the younger options ahead of the experienced Defoe.

The situation that Defoe has experienced in recent weeks is not unusual for him as managers often see him as the player most suited to make an impact as a late substitute against tiring opponents rather than a player to include in the starting line-up. It has happened frequently at Spurs in the last two years where Rafael Van der Vaart, playing a deeper role, has started ahead of Defoe.

Career

Defoe started as a schoolboy at Charlton Athletic but signed professional for West Ham United. He came to the attention of the media while on loan at Bournemouth where he scored in ten consecutive games. He finished as West Ham’s top scorer in 2002 having been used mostly as a substitute. West Ham were relegated the next season and following problems with the club he joined Tottenham  for a fee of £7 million in January, 2004 during the time that David Pleat was caretaker manager. He scored on his debut against Portsmouth and settled into the team, starting regularly alongside Robbie Keane. After Martin Jol took over, he tended to play a striking partnership with a ‘tall one and a small one’ so there was competition between Defoe and Keane to partner one other striker, Fredi Kanoute, Mido or Dimitar Berbatov. For a time Defoe got the chance ahead of Keane but then the Keane/Berbatov partnership proved successful and Defoe spent more time as a substitute. In January, 2008 Defoe was transferred to Portsmouth managed by Harry Redknapp who had previously been his manager for a period at West Ham. Defoe struck up a productive partnership with Peter Crouch the following season but returned to Spurs after twelve months, where Redknapp was now manager. During this second period at White Hart Lane there has again been a quartet of strikers competing for one or two places in the team with Defoe often on the bench. The arrival of Rafael Van der Vaart brought a change in formation with the Dutchman playing a deeper role where he struck up a good understanding with Peter Crouch who had followed Defoe from Portsmouth and later Emmanuel Adebayor. Defoe’s appearances were reduced to the substitute role.

Frustrating Season

Last season was a frustrating time for the striker especially as he was looking to ensure selection for the England team in Euro 2012. It was much about being a squad player at Tottenham, playing in Cup games and Europa League matches with only occasional starts in the Premier League. He still scored seventeen goals taking his total of goals during his time with Spurs to over one hundred in all competitions. His best performance was undoubtedly the five goals he scored against Wigan Athletic in 2009 when everything he touched turned into a goal in a 9 – 1 success.

Unfortunate Player

How unfortunate can you be? Defoe left Tottenham in January, 2008 and Spurs then won the Carling Cup. He signed for Portsmouth who won the FA Cup but was ineligible to play as he had appeared for Spurs in earlier rounds.

Jermain Defoe is possibly the most natural striker at Tottenham with an instinct for goals. At times, however, he suffered in his early days at White Hart Lane, as many Spurs strikers have, from a limited supply of chances. Frustratingly for him, in those days, he frequently toiled while Spurs laboured and then only introduced more creativity after he had been taken off. Now that Spurs have that attacking intent, he has been restricted to the bench with fleeting cameo appearances. At Tottenham, Defoe has never seemed able to develop a really productive striking partnership as of the days of old – Greaves and Gilzean, Chivers and Gilzean or Archibald and Crooks – which would have made him more part of the team rather than an individual.

Defoe to Leave?

Since the end of the season, two of Tottenham’s squad have opted to leave White Hart Lane in search of regular first team football. Vedran Corluka went on loan last January and has now completed a move to Lokomotiv Moscow in Russia, while Nik0 Kranjcar has left for Dynamo Kiev. Will Defoe be next to leave? At the end of the season, he admitted himself that he would have to consider his position – he had not asked to leave but would have to look at his options as he was at an age when he was wanting to play regular football. Now with a new manager about to be appointed, that decision may soon be addressed.

I would hope that Defoe will stay and be given the chance to show that he can play regularly in a successful team. It will, however, depend on whether the new manager’s style of play is compatible with a player whose number one purpose for being in the team is to score goals.

Will Jermain Defoe be at White Hart Lane next year and if not who would you want to replace him?