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Ex-Player Watch Jermain Defoe

Oscar22

Well-Known Member
Apr 9, 2004
16,819
15,351
You also have to take into account the level the club was at around the time he was here, we weren’t a regular champions league club for much of his time and were instead in a battle for 6th.

Also, look at who he had around him, he often had people like Kanoute and Mido alongside him and worked well with a big man, when he was with Keane we often had discussions around d how the two didn’t work together both being smaller players however on each occasion he often had, Brown, Mendes, Edman, Lennon amongst others feeding him and I feel we were a completely different team then to now.

In fact, prime Defoe in this current team would actually be interesting to watch. I know in his later spells he had Bale, Modric etc feeding him as well, but I’m talking across his entire time here and to be fair as the team got better around him it coincided with him getting older.

I think overall if I was going to pick a player we’ve had who is over rated and never hit the heights expected I’d have a lot of names before I ever got to Defoe.
 

Thenewcat

Well-Known Member
Aug 8, 2019
2,970
10,275
You also have to take into account the level the club was at around the time he was here, we weren’t a regular champions league club for much of his time and were instead in a battle for 6th.

Also, look at who he had around him, he often had people like Kanoute and Mido alongside him and worked well with a big man, when he was with Keane we often had discussions around d how the two didn’t work together both being smaller players however on each occasion he often had, Brown, Mendes, Edman, Lennon amongst others feeding him and I feel we were a completely different team then to now.

In fact, prime Defoe in this current team would actually be interesting to watch. I know in his later spells he had Bale, Modric etc feeding him as well, but I’m talking across his entire time here and to be fair as the team got better around him it coincided with him getting older.

I think overall if I was going to pick a player we’ve had who is over rated and never hit the heights expected I’d have a lot of names before I ever got to Defoe.
Who would you mention ahead of Defoe? I’d argue the other way round - with a top striker we would have been in the champions league places in the first spell and we were very much that level in the second. No one had the depth they do now, and the likes of brown really only overlapped for one year. We were pretty good when JD was here. Swap him for a Sheringham (never mind a Kane) and we would have been in the mix for CL every year IMO
 

C1w8

Well-Known Member
Jan 21, 2011
567
1,075
20 is high but i honestly thought he would be that good. But I would have been shocked to learn he wouldn’t get 15-20, which he managed once. There’s a big gap between 13 (his second best season) and 20

The mention of Mido etc in another comment also reminded me of one more thing - Defoe made a lot of appearances off the bench for us. If you include his 90 or so sub appearances (nearly a third of his appearances for us) as half games his strike rate is 2.5 games per goal again with minimal pens.

He only started 25+ games per season 4 times so i think it's a bit harsh to consider him overrated because he didnt consistently get to 20 given the context of that game time.
 

Thenewcat

Well-Known Member
Aug 8, 2019
2,970
10,275
The mention of Mido etc in another comment also reminded me of one more thing - Defoe made a lot of appearances off the bench for us. If you include his 90 or so sub appearances (nearly a third of his appearances for us) as half games his strike rate is 2.5 games per goal again with minimal pens.

He only started 25+ games per season 4 times so i think it's a bit harsh to consider him overrated because he didnt consistently get to 20 given the context of that game time.
That’s a very fair point. The flip side is why wasn’t he considered good enough to start over the likes of Mido 😀
 

C1w8

Well-Known Member
Jan 21, 2011
567
1,075
Who would you mention ahead of Defoe? I’d argue the other way round - with a top striker we would have been in the champions league places in the first spell and we were very much that level in the second. No one had the depth they do now, and the likes of brown really only overlapped for one year. We were pretty good when JD was here. Swap him for a Sheringham (never mind a Kane) and we would have been in the mix for CL every year IMO

its a tough question when it comes to "rating" the player....in terms of popularity Dawson immediately springs to mind as I didnt personally think he was very good but he still managed 8-9 years in the team and is very popular, again it's the same era which is unsurprising as most contributors in the team during those years are looked upon fondly. Not sure if he really counts as overrated as i dnt think anyone considers him a world beater in the first place!

I'm going to be controversial and go with Dembele, mainly because the memory of demeble has become massively overplayed now, in my opinion. He was great, and the retrospective appreciation of what he brought to the team is definitely warranted, but i think its swung too much the other way now and we now overrate what he brought to the team so much so , to the point that hes rated a lot higher now than he was during the time he was actually playing.
 

easley91

Well-Known Member
Jan 27, 2011
18,721
53,768
Defoe is one of my favourites all time. He and several players from around that era were great for me. We had a solid group of strikers around then from Kanoute to Keane and Berbatov. Loves the club and scored some bangers. Can't hate the guy.

Thought the bump was to do with that case that was mentioned a while back.
 

mabolsa_ritchey

aka Hugh G Rection
Oct 23, 2005
1,411
1,535
Why has this been bumped? Have we signed him again?! He’d probably get more than Richarlison to be fair
 

Rob

The Boss
Admin
Jun 8, 2003
28,014
65,116
I never got over when he joined us, he described us a stepping stone.
 

Flashp

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
784
3,275
I never got over when he joined us, he described us a stepping stone.
To be fair to him, we were at best a mid table team at the time he signed. Without his goals in the second half of that season, we might even have been in serious relegation trouble.

I feel we grew with him as well as he grew with us, and in many ways his standard developed on the same trajectory as the clubs overall.
 

fishhhandaricecake

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2018
18,702
46,941
You also have to take into account the level the club was at around the time he was here, we weren’t a regular champions league club for much of his time and were instead in a battle for 6th.

Also, look at who he had around him, he often had people like Kanoute and Mido alongside him and worked well with a big man, when he was with Keane we often had discussions around d how the two didn’t work together both being smaller players however on each occasion he often had, Brown, Mendes, Edman, Lennon amongst others feeding him and I feel we were a completely different team then to now.

In fact, prime Defoe in this current team would actually be interesting to watch. I know in his later spells he had Bale, Modric etc feeding him as well, but I’m talking across his entire time here and to be fair as the team got better around him it coincided with him getting older.

I think overall if I was going to pick a player we’ve had who is over rated and never hit the heights expected I’d have a lot of names before I ever got to Defoe.
Good post and I’d say that Defoe was actually quite underrated
 
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