The poor wee soul and the man who could have saved him…
It was sad seeing Defoe on the bench at the weekend due to inelligibility. His little boy like enthusiasm stifled by the Portsmouth silly buying policy where no transfer is as easy as it seems. Portsmouth don’t like buying players the easy way, if it’s not blatant corruption then it’s at least some sort of oddly arranged half loan deal/half transfer.
The same little boy smile was stifled by Tottenham who had a silly buying policy of their own where they just enjoyed stockpiling strikers in case of the establishment of any rationing in the English Premier League.
Jermaine Defoe needs somebody looking out for him. His dad should have told him to sign for Newcastle. They would have had plenty of silly money to throw at him and I doubt Kevin Keegan would take much convincing to play a fourth striker. It is Keegan’s jumpers for goalposts mentality, which would have safeguarded Defoe’s little boy smile.
Kevin Keegan claimed that if there was a survey, regarding who watches the most games of any English Premier League manager and that he would watch more games than other manager. All well and good if there is a direct correlation between games watched and managerial ability. This is indicative of Keegan’s grass roots style where he believes watching games is the be all and end all while Wenger probably has a team of strategists analysing every single blade of grass run.
But if we only talk about watching games, how could Keegan not be besotted with Defoe. His smile is contagious and I imagine a meeting between Keegan and Defoe would devolve into some sort of Cheshire cat convention. They would hit it off without even saying a word.
As a player outside of his personality, Defoe is a good one. Not a great one, not a bad one, but a good one. This was overlooked by a Guardian Reporter in the Saturday Interview who claimed that Jermaine Defoe “Is like Marmite, you either love him or you hate him.” First of all, I couldn’t imagine a player any less like marmite than Jermaine Defoe; he is a decent, serviceable, pacey striker. He won’t carry a team but he will fill his role adequately. He won’t work in every system, but put him in the right system which utilises his talents and he’ll do a sterling job. Secondly, that metaphor is like marmite, either you are an idiot who loves using it despite how horribly clichéd and antiquated it is, or you a normal human being who realises that anybody who says it should be put down.
Jermaine Defoe, is a good, nice chap. If England are basically playing Beckham for his own sake, then let’s play Defoe for his own sake, his infectious smile deserves a bit of glory, and we need to see more of his post match issues which aren’t that far away from watching a child being given a sweetie.
