Tag Archives: jermain defoe

Is Jermain Defoe up to the Task?

Posted by on August 16, 2012 5 comments

There is always much debate surrounding the merits of Jermain Defoe. Twitter is awash with comments about him being a flat track bully and is nothing more than an impact sub. While I agree with some of the criticism levelled at him, I don’t think Defoe has had enough opportunities at Tottenham to judge him without some level of doubt. If given the chance to lead the line for a full season, would he be able to produce sufficient quality performances and ultimately goals?

Defoe scored the winning goal for England last night and was well backed by the betting public to get on the score sheet. Sportsbook reviews and more sports information on Defoe’s chances of scoring against the Toon Army this weekend tell us he is amongst the favourites to net again. However, I’m sure a large proportion of the Spurs faithful wouldn’t dream of backing him to get the winner away from White Hart Lane.

While some aspects of his personal life are questionable, Defoe has suffered multiple personal tragedies over the last few years but he has continued to be a model professional where Tottenham are concerned. Jermain has never quite hit the heights expected of him earlier in his career and at 29 years of age, it’s now or never as far as fulfilling this promise is concerned. With Spurs light on strikers currently, Defoe has the perfect opportunity to prove all the doubters wrong and become AVB’s main man. It will be interesting to see whether Villas Boas gives him the opportunities that Redknapp did not.

I accept that some of his all round play is lacking, but what Jermain Defoe is all about is goals. If he’s finding the back of the net with enough regularity, the rest quite simply won’t matter. Given a decent run in the side this season, I’m confident that the man who is arguably the best finisher in the Premier League can play a key role in helping Tottenham to achieve great things.

Could we fare better than Arsenal?

Posted by on March 11, 2011 6 comments

So, the dream has become a reality and Spurs have made it to the Quarter Finals of the Champions League. After being three nil down against those pesky Young Boys in the first qualifying round, Harry Redknapp and his European soldiers are now just four games away from the final of Europe’s biggest football competition.

While the away leg at the San Siro was an assured professional performance the likes I haven’t seen from a Tottenham side before, Wednesday’s home game was an uncomfortable ninety minutes where our players dug in, defended well and secured their passage into the last eight.

Jermain Defoe’s big talk at the start of the season about Tottenham progressing further than the Gunners in the Champions League no longer sounds so stupid. The question now is can they fare any better than Arsenal against the Catalan Giants? Should we draw them in the quarter finals, I won’t be too despondent. While I think it will be a near impossible task over two legs against Barca, anything is possible in football. We have the players to hit them on the break with better effect than Arsenal could manage. Lennon and Bale give us an outlet that Arsenal didn’t have.

While avoiding Barcelona in the next round would be preferable, no side left in the competition is going to be an easy touch. Admittedly Milan aren’t as good as they once were but they are no mugs. Spurs have proven they can mix it with the best sides in European football and appear to have the confidence to take on any team. Our league form may have suffered a little as the results against Blackpool and Wolves illustrate but I’m willing to swallow it if it means this European adventure can continue for a bit longer…

Absolute
I’ll be on Ian Wright’s show on Absolute Radio sometime between five and six tomorrow if anyone wants to hear me talk more nonsense about Spurs!

Sunderland

Posted by on November 6, 2009 3 comments

So, are we going to bounce back from our lacklustre display against the old enemy or will the players put in another shocker against Steve Bruce’s men?

The defeat against Stoke doesn’t worry me. We played well, it was just unfortunate. Even more unfortunate it came before a big game but I think we would have lost at Arsenal in those circumstances 99 times out of 100.

A number of Spurs fans have a theory that we can still make the top 4 by winning the majority of our game against the lesser opposition even if we always get thumped by the current top 3.

While I can kind of see where they are coming from, constantly being shown up against the big clubs won’t do our confidence any good. Fortunately, our rivals for 4th place are all dropping points as well.

If we are going to be up there come the end of the season, Sunderland at home is a must win game, especially Sunderland at home coming on the back of two defeats.

Sunderland are without Kenwyne Jones and Lorik Cana due to suspensions, as well as long term injury Lee Cattermole. Spurs have better news with the return of Jermain Defoe and possibly Aaron Lennon. I just hope Defoe has his mind on the game and not going out afterwards for some laffy taffy now he’s binned Imogen.

I fancy a 2-1 Spurs victory with Darren Bent getting a consolation for the visitors.

Check out Salut Sunderland for an interview I did about the match.

Was Harry right?

Posted by on October 19, 2009 12 comments

Harry Redknapp gave Jermain Defoe a dressing down in front of his team mates after his sending off against Pompey on Saturday. Nothing wrong with that as far as I’m concerned, especially when he already warned him to cool it at half time.

Redknapp said: “Yes. He’s sorry for what’s done. For sure. I gave him a rollicking in front of all the lads, to be fair.”

“He can be a bit like that,”

“At times, he has to learn to curb that. I couldn’t have told him more. I sat him down at half-time and said to him ‘don’t do anything silly. We can’t afford to go down to 10 men here. We have to have 11 on the pitch. Don’t let us down’.

“He let himself down, he let us down as well. He could have cost us the game. The way he reacted, it was disappointing.”

The only problem I have with it is the fact Harry felt the need to tell the press. These things should be kept in house; disciplining players isn’t a matter that needs to be discussed in The Sun. I appreciate Harry being straight with us but all he needed to say was Defoe had been stupid and he’s told him as much or the matter is being dealt with by the club, not that he told him off in front of his team mates.

Doing things this way makes Defoe look like a naughty little kid. He doesn’t need any help looking stupid. Suing the police for being racist and going out with some shocking women springs to mind.

The fact is Jermain got the winner. Yes he was impetuous stamping on Mokoena but I like that he has a bit of fire in his game and he was obviously very wound up from the treatment he’d been getting from the Portsmouth players. There’s no excuse for it but there’s also no excuse for telling the world he got a telling off in front of his team mates.

Sol, Sick Chelsea Fans and Super Crouch

Posted by on September 24, 2009 26 comments

I know as soon as I dare to mention Sol Campbell’s name, hundreds of people get straight on the comments to jump to his defence, but the bloke is seriously unbalanced. He’s gone from one of the best defenders in the country to one of the biggest jokes in a relatively short space of time. I doubt he’d sign for Arsenal if he could have his time again; it all started going wrong from that point! Thankfully Harry has come out and said he would never sign him for Spurs although I doubt anyone with half a brain thought that was even a slight possibility.

I’m assuming most people know about the sick Jermain Defoe song a large proportion of the Chelsea fans were singing on Sunday. I won’t repeat the lyrics here but suffice to say it involves his brother. I know there are a lot of songs that are near the mark but this is too much as far as I’m concerned. If this had been a song directed at Sol, the majority of the Chelsea fans would be behind bars by now!

5-1 victories are a nice habit to be getting into, especially away from home. Hull, Doncaster and now Preston have all been on the end of Spurs’ new favourite score line. I thought it would be a tight nervy encounter last night, not only because of PNE’s solid record but also our makeshift defence, but it proved to be an easy passage into the 4th round of the Carling Cup for Tottenham.

Harry has a bit of a problem with who starts on Saturday with Crouch in such great form. I’d imagine he’ll go with the Keane out of position and Crouch and Defoe starting together option again. I’d prefer to see one of the three on the bench to give us a better balance in midfield but whatever the starting line up, I’m quietly confident Burnley will be the game that sees us get back to winning ways in the league.

Hull v Tottenham – Live discussion

Posted by on August 19, 2009 41 comments

Link to live pictures (cheers Danny)

I thought this might be interesting, feel free to get involved. If it works I’ll make it a regular thing during games.

Teams
Spurs
1. Heurelho Gomes
2. Alan Hutton
22. Vedran Corluka
19. Sebastien Bassong
32. Benoit Assou-Ekotto
7. Aaron Lennon
12. Wilson Palacios
6. Tom Huddlestone
14. Luka Modric
10. Robbie Keane
18. Jermain Defoe

SUBS
23. Carlo Cudicini (GK)
5. David Bentley
9. Roman Pavlyuchenko
15. Peter Crouch
16. Kyle Naughton
21. Pascal Chimbonda
24. Jamie O’Hara

Hull
1. Boaz Myhill
19. Steven Mouyokolo
6. Michael Turner
5. Anthony Gardner
3. Andy Dawson
15. Bernard Mendy
20. George Boateng
44. Seyi Olofinjana
11. Stephen Hunt
18. Caleb Folan
25. Daniel Cousin

SUBS
12. Matt Duke (GK)
8. Nick Barmby
10. Deiberson Geovanni
16. Peter Halmosi
17. Kevin Kilbane
23. Kamel Fathi Ghilas
24. Kamil Zayatte

Bar Hutton in for Ledley, it’s the same side that beat Liverpool on Sunday, fingers crossed for another positive result, COYS!