Jermain Defoe Has to Move on from Spurs Following Roberto Soldado Signing

Tottenham Hotspur's capture of Spanish international striker Roberto Soldado should provide the North London club with a big boost as they look to get back into the top four of the Premier League next season, but it will come at a cost to current striker Jermain Defoe.

The English international is in his second spell at White Hart Lane and has scored 47 league goals since arriving back in 2009.

Last season he largely led the line himself, with only Emmanuel Adebayor in the squad as senior cover or competition, and ended the campaign with 11 goals from 34 appearances in the Premier League. Despite finishing the season as Spurs' second-highest league scorer behind Gareth Bale, there remained an overriding feeling that the club could have achieved more if they'd had a top-class striker.

Manager Andre Villas-Boas apparently agreed, hence the arrival of Soldado—meaning Defoe should surely be moving on.

Soldado the New No. 9

Having spent £26 million on their new Spanish international, Spurs are unlikely to leave him sitting on the bench for long.

Villas-Boas typically operates with one centre-forward and an array of attacking support players, meaning Defoe, not exactly a versatile player, is going to be left on the sidelines.

Soldado is taller than Defoe, stronger physically and more adept at quickly linking up outside the penalty area with his midfielders and then finding himself space in the box—not to mention his vastly superior strike rate over the past couple of seasons.

Defoe simply isn't going to get a look-in during the Premier League—in terms of starting games, at least.

Never Quite First Choice

A common problem for Defoe is he's never quite managed to make himself an undisputed first choice. Sure, he starts a lot of games, but there's always an inkling of "could do better" and it's rare that Defoe regularly completes the full 90 minutes.

Now 30 years old, if Defoe hasn't made himself a definite starter at a top level team by this point, the chances are that he's not going to.

Last season he managed to play the entirety of the match in just half of his league appearances. In 2011-12, he completed just nine 90-minute appearances. The same figure goes for 2010-11, and in that campaign he managed just 16 starts and four goals in the league.

At international level, he only just in this most recent season managed to play his first ever 90 minutes for England—in what was his 50th cap.

Pace, finishing ability, movement, confidence. Defoe is pretty good at a lot of things a striker needs, but world class at none. In other words, for many coaches, it seems he's the perfect second-choice forward—capable of having an impact, good enough to start, but not quite good enough to rely upon time after time.

England and the World Cup

For Defoe, next summer will arguably be his final chance to have a big impact on the international stage.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil will take place just four months before he turns 32, meaning it's likely to be his last competition—the likes of Andy Carroll, Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck are all younger than him—and he'll have a plethora of talented young wide forwards to compete with, like Raheem Sterling and Wilfried Zaha.

If Defoe wants to make the plane, assuming England does go on to qualify, he's going to have to be playing regularly and scoring goals.

And, more than likely, doing it in the top flight—which makes a rumoured move to Championship side QPR, as per Mirror Football's Darren Lewis, all the more perplexing and probably less appealing to the player.

Defoe will have to decide whether it's more important to be playing with a chance of going to next year's World Cup, or merely getting out of town wherever somebody will give him a starting role.

In all probability though, he'll get neither at Spurs next season.

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