Jermain Defoe is back at the Lane then and was paraded in front of the Spurs faithful before tonight’s Carling Cup drubbing of Championship Burnley.
According to reports, Spurs agreed a fee of just £9 million for their former striker. The final fee involves all kinds of sell-on clauses and funds owed as part of the original transfer to from Spurs. Let’s leave that to the bean-counters though and instead assess his potential now he is back on the fantasy radar…
Defoe is undoubtedly a quality striker who was attracting plenty of fantasy interest whilst under the watchful eye of Redknapp at Pompey earlier this season. He notched seven goals for Portsmouth before Harry left Fratton Park. Since then, Defoe has visibly struggled has has found the net just once since Adams took the helm. The penalty miss against West Ham over Christmas was a clear indication that Defoe’s heart and mind was elsewhere.
Re-united with Redknapp and the Spurs fans in front of which he scored 64 goals in 177 games, Defoe will surely flourish again. He’ll be expected to hit the ground running too. Defoe has the incredible record of scoring on his debut for each of his clubs and the bookies already have him a 2/1 to do so again on his second coming at Spurs.
Just when that debut will be is in doubt. As reported (thanks Skilla) Spurs will need written permission from the Premier League before the player can be registered with the same club in a 12-month period. It isn’t believed that this will be a major obstacle but it it’s anyone’s guess when this paperwork will be in place. According to the Premier League, this will be discussed at the “earliest convenience”. Right. Nice one.
Spurs go to Wigan this weekend and after that, you’ll never guess, they host Portsmouth at White Hart Lane. It will be a week then before Defoe comes under serious consideration in fantasy terms but, with his price dropping to just 8.1 in the Fantasy Premier League game, interest will be high as soon as clearance for his debut comes through.
That leaves us to ponder just how Defoe will fit into the Spurs lineup. Having suffered a frustrating first stay in the shadow of Keane and Berbatov, this time around he is a certain starter. Against Burnley, Redknapp again employed a 4-4-2 and this is surely the formation he’ll go with now that Defoe has been captured.
The main issue here is the role of Modric. He has previously been employed just behind a lone striker in a 4-5-1. However, in the previous two matches the Croatian has played in central midfield with Zokora his protector. In the first-half against Burnley tonight however, Spurs looked second best in midfield and it remains to be seen if Redknapp can afford Modric in a central role in the long-term. That’s before we’ve even considered the futures of Bent and Jenas. In fantasy terms – they look even bleaker for Defoe’s arrival.