12 months ago, Tottenham fans were fortunate enough to have arguably the best strike partnership in the Premier League. Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov provided 46 of the side’s goals last season, a number of assists and played some dazzling football along the way. In a role consisting of sporadic cameos, 16.5 million pound-man Darren Bent also chipped in with 8 goals with Jermaine Jenas and Steed Malbranque in similar supporting roles getting another 13 between them. Tottenham’s soon-to-be £50 million strike-force managed to help blast the team to a Carling Cup success and another season of European football.
Just outside this picture, Jermain Defoe found himself isolated from first-team football under both Dutchman Martin Jol and his successor, Juande Ramos. Despite a strong record for Spurs (43 goals in 139 games), the England international was unable to compete with the dynamic partnership formed between Berbatov and Keane, his poachers instinct no match for the guile, craft and footballing intelligence displayed on a weekly basis by the duo who, at times, almost single-handedly kept Spurs afloat. When Portsmouth came knocking with a sizeable bid and the offer of first team football, it didn’t take Nostradamus to predict what would happen.
At the time minimal fuss was made about Defoe’s departure. There was certainly an appreciation of what the diminutive forward had done for the club but it was accepted that he was now surplus to requirements, what with the greater quality the squad now appeared to have. The money was good, and Spurs fans were otherwise distracted with the useful acquisitions of defenders Jonathan Woodgate and Alan Hutton.
Fast forward a year, and the welcome home for Defoe upon his return to Spurs at Tuesday night’s Carling Cup semi-final first leg against Burnley was nothing short of reverential. Spurs have just experienced a Christmas so lean it could have been written by Dickens and the hunger for a goal-scorer was clear for all to see.
But what will Defoe bring to Spurs that they don’t have? Well, the North London club have definitely found a goal-scorer as the striker’s record will testify, but Darren Bent and Roman Pavlyuchenko are also not to be found wanting in that area. What Defoe does have is quick feet, a directness and a low centre of gravity that makes him much more nimble and lithe than his new team-mates. This will give Spurs a dimension they have lacked since the departure of their mercurial strike-pairing, a player who can quite happily have ball at feet and perhaps create a chance for himself, rather than rely solely on the service of others.
The acquisition of Defoe will also give Harry Redknapp the options he has so sorely missed since his arrival at the club. Bent, Pavlyuchenko and the Manchester United loanee Fraizer Campbell all sing from a very similar hymn-sheet and Redknapp has long-required an alternative to give his side a viable plan b in times of trouble. The likes of Luka Modric, David Bentley and Tom Huddlestone will also look forward to the opportunity of linking up with a player who can do more than merely chase hopeful balls over the top.
On the other side of the coin, many fans will not have forgotten Defoe’s ‘relaxed’ work-rate and his tendency to go through somewhat streaky patches of goalscoring form. Furthermore, the fee paid (which may require Vorderman-esque levels of mathematical skill to clarify) appears to be somewhat more than the club sold the player for a short time ago and may take funds away from other areas that also need urgent attention. This is perhaps indicative of Sky pundit Andy Gray’s recent observation that “it’s a good time to be an average centre forward”, which certainly make sense when considering the fees paid for both Keane and Berbatov by the club in recent years.
Defoe will certainly want to prove a point. His record at Portsmouth was impressive, but he missed out on the club’s F.A. Cup success and the disappointment of that experience could have only been compounded by his former club’s success in English football’s other cup competition. However, with Spurs comfortable victory against Burnley in the first leg of this year’s Carling Cup semi-final, it looks likely that Defoe will have a chance to impress at Wembley this season. Add that to the fact that he was seen as dispensable only a year ago, and the 26 year-old will surely want to firmly cement himself in Tottenham folklore alongside two of the most famous recent striking greats to have returned to White Hart Lane for a second spell - Teddy Sheringham and Jurgen Klinsmann.
Defoe’s arrival will not allay the ghosts of Keane and Berbatov, but he will provide an excellent goal-scoring option to a limited strike-force that has struggled to find the back of the net recently. Given service and support, Defoe can make sure his second spell at Spurs can be much more fruitful, and long-lasting.