[al][/al]...Source: Daily Mail

He is again showing, with 11 goals in his last 10 starts, that he is one of the most natural English goalscorers of his generation. But Jermain Defoe remains a great enigma of the Premiership.

Even at Tottenham, where you would expect him to be worshipped, opinion on the striker who left both Charlton and West Ham in acrimonious circumstances is sharply divided.

To some, his burgeoning partnership with Dimitar Berbatov is seen as the catalyst that could propel Spurs into the Champions League. To others he is a selfish operator who is still only keeping the injured Robbie Keane's shirt warm and would jump ship at the first hint of interest from a "big four" club.

The evidence should be compelling in his favour. When Defoe has a consistent run of games he scores goals. Two seasons ago he was on fire, hitting 22 in Jol's first season in charge.

Now he is doing it again, his double strike against Aston Villa on Boxing Day with both right and left feet emphasising not only his deadly ability in front of goal but also his multi-dimensional skills. Conversely, when he was given just 23 starts last season he managed only a paltry nine goals.

So, why was Sven Goran Eriksson so opposed to Defoe that he left him out of his World Cup squad and picked a 17-year-old who had never made a Premiership start in Theo Walcott and two injured strikers in Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen? He was also the last man to be 'cut' from the last European Championships squad.

Spurs manager Martin Jol, too, has always appeared to prefer Keane and gives the impression that he wishes his long standing courtship of Dirk Kuyt had borne fruit before his fellow Dutchman had moved to Saturday's opponents, Liverpool.

When Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez said last summer that Spurs were "desperate" to offload Defoe Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy was publicly outraged. Many in football, meanwhile, nodded their agreement and privately said they were convinced that Benitez was right.

The answer to the apparent dichotomy, it seems, is in his single-minded nature. Defoe is hardly renowned for his work off the ball.

He can be a luxury if he is not finding the net, rarely creates chances for others, can sulk when things are not going his way and disappear when the going gets tough. One ex-Spurs team-mate says that Defoe is not interested in his team's results, only if he scores.

Whenever he has been paired with Keane the partnership has simply not worked and the Irishman offers more in terms of all-round play and commitment, particularly away from home.

Yet Keane invariably needs three or four chances to find the net while Defoe, when on song, barely needs a sniff of an opportunity before he capitalises and the difference now is that, with Keane injured, he knows he has the full 90 minutes to get on the scoresheet. He has prospered as a result.

A seven-minute cameo in last season's 2-1 defeat by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge epitomised the Defoe debate. He was thrown on as a substitute with the score at 1-1 and Spurs looking good value for a point.

Yet he barely broke sweat in those closing moments, failed in his basic substitute's duty of at least running hard and making it difficult for the champions to force a win on their home patch and was a virtual bystander as William Gallas stole forward to score a last-ditch winner. Defoe seemed uninterested, a man apart.

Accusations of "selfishness" have punctuated his career. Charlton fans have never forgiven him for the way he walked out of the club as a prolific youngster while he remains a reviled figure at West Ham, behind only Paul Ince and Frank Lampard in the unpopularity charts of ex-players after putting in a transfer request the day after the Hammers were relegated.

Even while at Spurs he was said to have been spotted, when in his pomp two seasons ago, in his local pizza restaurant in Chingford talking enthusiastically to his agent about how many goals he could score for Chelsea if only given the chance.

The playboy image hasn't helped. He likes a nightclub - The Embassy and the Funky Buddha are particular favourites - and can come across as arrogant even though he is religious and remains extremely close to the mother who brought him up.

Defoe provided a fascinating analysis of his situation and season after the defeat of Villa, the latest club to be linked with him. "You want to be playing and show everybody what you can do," said Defoe. "You just want to be part of it, especially when the club's going places. You want to contribute and I feel I'm doing that.

"When it's stop start, and you're in and out of the team, sometimes it's difficult to get a rhythm. But now I've got a rhythm it seems I'm getting the chances to score. When you're scoring goals and you feel sharp and fit, it's great.

"I'm enjoying playing with Berba (Berbatov). We've an understanding in matches and it keeps getting better. Everybody wants to play and, when you're not, it's difficult."

There is no question that there are no shortage of other managers who would be perfectly happy to ensure Defoe played every week. Portsmouth's Harry Redknapp, who nurtured Defoe at West Ham, told Sportsmail: "He needs to play regularly.

"If he was here he'd be a superstar. He'd play every week in my team. He'd be scoring goals. he's in and out at Tottenham. They like a big un and a little un and when Keane's fit Defoe always seems to be surplus. He's one of those boys who needs to feel really important."

Maybe Defoe has matured. His professionalism when he was taken to Germany with the World Cup squad only to be discarded at the last minute was said to be impeccable, Defoe going to every member of the team and wishing them well before he had to fly home.

He is also said to have settled down with long-standing girlfriend Charlotte Mears and, intriguingly, was the only Spurs player to attend a recent birthday party thrown by his captain Ledley King at Cougar Pinks.

The crunch will come when Keane regains fitness, possibly in time for next week's FA Cup tie at Cardiff. Will Jol, who insisted this week that he would "never" sell Defoe, leave the Defoe-Berbatov axis in tact or will he go back to the rotation policy which, frankly, did not do Spurs any favours during their poor start to the season.

The answer will demonstrate whether Defoe has a long-term future at Spurs or whether he is destined to leave for one of his many high profile suitors.

Much of this article gives totally the opposite view from that given in recent Defoe interviews. I guess we have to take into account that the daily mail is a gooner rag.