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Jermain The Legend Defoe

5 min read
by The Fighting Cock
Jermain Defoe is pure Tottenham Marmite, splitting opinion more often than he scores goals.  There are two clear camps, you either love the diminutive striker, or you don’t. I fall squarely in the latter category, however I do appreciate  his  role as an excellent sub, alternative and backup. I just don’t want him leading our line too […]

Jermain Defoe is pure Tottenham Marmite, splitting opinion more often than he scores goals.  There are two clear camps, you either love the diminutive striker, or you don’t. I fall squarely in the latter category, however I do appreciate  his  role as an excellent sub, alternative and backup. I just don’t want him leading our line too often.

Defoe Aston VillaHowever after he scored against Sheriff and broke a 40-year-old record, suddenly I feel compelled to see him in a different light.

Have I misjudged him?

Is Defoe a Tottenham legend?

Any of you who are regular users of The Fighting Cock Forum will know, there is currently a discussion raging on who should be called a Tottenham legend. As you can imagine the answers range from the sublime to the outright ridiculous.

There are a few legends at Spurs whose place on this list is secure. Unfortunately given my age and the lack of decent footage of them, I know them but they remain this mysterious part of Spurs’ past.

No matter how many books I read, or how many times their names are mentioned, they will never truly belong to me. They are an important part of the club I support but I cant get a grip on them, therefore of course I have to turn towards the Spurs of recent years. This is where the issue of Spurs Legend become opaque, this is where someone like Defoe stakes a claim for himself.

One trait that has emerged from the Forum post is the very term legend is a complicated one. The requirements to be deemed a legend depend on a variety of factors, each unique to the person giving the opinion.

Football players come to define a part of time in an individuals life. Each Spurs fan has one Spurs player who is important to them, a player who perhaps turned them to Tottenham, or brought them joy on a difficult day.

Personally my set of requirements of what constitutes a legend are three fold. The player needs to have had an affect on the team and the supporters emotionally, he needs to have shown loyalty to the club and most importantly achieved something on the field.

[linequote]The requirements to be deemed a legend depend on a variety of factors, each unique to the person giving the opinion[/linequote]

Growing up it was the exploits of Paul Gascoigne, Gary Lineker and Gary Mabbutt that solidified my love for Spurs. As FA Cup Winners in 1991, the last time we collected the old jug, they are firmly on my list as legends. It was their influence and spirit that helped Spurs reach that glorious day, and in their own way, each of them showed a loyalty to Spurs, even if it wasn’t reciprocated by the club.

Achieving something at Spurs has proved a task rather difficult for many players for almost a generation. We have seen false dawns, promises and train tickets waved in our face, but very little silverware. It is the lack of silverware that makes classifying what is a modern legend very difficult.

Players such as Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Rafa Van der Vaart, marvellous as they were at the time, fail to be classified legends due to a failure in loyalty or actually achieving anything bar the Wenger Cup.

Dimitar Berbatov a player who won something, captivated the crowd and was on the path to legendary status but he fell short when the Red Devils came calling. More than Luka and Gareth leaving, the loss of Berbatov hurt me.

The players who have shown loyalty to us over the years and walked away with a trophy are very few. Steffen Freund, David Ginola, Robbie Keane and Ledley King, are a few who can stake a claim to legendary status, but one of these was fundamentally limited, the other a three season cameo, one ditched us for his “boyhood club” and the final one was let down by his own body.

However, for King I think an exception can be made. Despite the failings of his body and despite being associated with Spurs during some dark days, he belongs on the legend list. Any Spurs captain, who collects a trophy at Wembley and shows us loyalty (ruling out the Arsenal trainee coach) deserves his slot.

[linequote]Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Rafa Van der Vaart, marvellous as they were at the time, fail to be classified legends due to a failure in loyalty or actually achieving anything bar the Wenger Cup[/linequote]

This brings us back to Defoe, a player who has yet to win anything in a Spurs shirt. Can he be classified a legend along the like of Gascoigne, Lineker, King et al?

First of all for a player to be a legend we need to comprehend that they don’t need to be the greatest footballer ever. Lineker an amazing goal poacher, was a flawed striker, King as we have already mentioned had his flaws, as did Mabbutt. Not every legend needs to be Danny Blanchflower or Jimmy Greaves (had his own demons), legend status rewards those that give all, not have all.

Defoe stands as the fifth highest goal scorer in our history, behind only some of the true legends of yesteryear. When Spurs thrashed Wigan 9-1 at home, Defoe became one of only five players in PL history to score five goals in a game, and broke the record of most goals in one half.

The England striker has donned the Lillywhite in over 350 games and has a goals to game ratio of 0.42, this stands up to the very best Spurs has to offer. In European competition he is level with Martin Chivers with 22 goals, and with home ties against Sheriff and Anzhi to come, that record will surely belong solely to him in the next few weeks.

As its stands we as Spurs supporters are busy debating whether or not he should start, but surely with those stats, the debate on whether he can be classified a legend is over? All that is missing from his CV is a slice of Spurs silverware.

Regardless though of whether or not Defoe ever secures that winners medal his stats speak for themselves.

Despite his faults, despite his failings and despite never being the best striker at Spurs, Defoe has shown incredible heart and desire to overcome all of these. Like it or not, he is a Tottenham Legend.

[author name=”ARLombardi” avatar=”https://si0.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000190788876/b1d0a1120760e39338a815ea5827d7f8.jpeg” twitter=”ARLombardi” website=”arlombardi.com” tag=”ARLombardi[/linequote]

All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.

4 Comments

  1. Slasher
    26/10/2013 @ 1:46 pm

    Agreed

  2. Bozo
    26/10/2013 @ 2:36 pm

    He’s a Legend for his loyalty and desire and his not too shabby goal scoring feats but like Robbie Keane, he could have scored a shit load more… love Defoe but Soldado brings more in the current system… and Defoe, he just never seemed to find the perfect partner up front to play with and he is a wee bit selfish… still a Leg though

  3. Garbonza
    26/10/2013 @ 10:11 pm

    Some pretty shakey, arbitrary criteria in judging a legend. By your lights, Pat Jennings should have dropped dead playing for Spurs at 45 — or waited till the club discarded him at whim when his value had gone — even though they took him for granted after 13 years of sterling loyalty. Instead, he’s generally looked on as a half-pariah who has to apologize for the rest of his life when all he did was sensibly extend his career, albeit with the wrong club. Other Spurs players would have had to be dead-heads to stay on with the club in their own personal circumstances. We all pick our own Spurs legends.

  4. max
    27/10/2013 @ 5:26 am

    watch all of jermain defoes goals for spurs in chronological order in one sitting then say hes not a legend.

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