Why Tottenham Would Be a Better Side with Jermain Defoe at the Club

Jermain Defoe will always be an iconic Tottenham player. 

His decade at the club, split over two five-year stints, yielded a host of records and a multitude of wonderful memories for Spurs fans. 

Few players provoke such genuinely warm responses from the supporters than Defoe. 

Only four players have scored more goals for Tottenham. Each of those—Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Smith, Cliff Jones and Martin Chivers—played during the glory days in the 1960s. 

The fact that he could accomplish so much at the club despite only rarely being a first-choice striker speaks to his evident qualities. 

No player has scored more often in European competition, and he twice finished as the club's top scorer (in 2004-05 and 2009-10). 

His astonishing five-goal haul against Wigan in the famous 9-1 victory serves as perhaps the greatest example of his qualities, and that season saw Defoe at his best. The 2009-10 campaign yielded 18 league goals for Defoe, his best-ever total, as he spearheaded the club's Champions League qualification. 

Spurs will face one of their favourite sons in Sunday's Premier League trip to the Stadium of Light, and his appearance prompts the obvious question, would they be better off with him in the squad? 

By his final season at White Hart Lane, Defoe was largely relegated to the secondary competitions despite scoring 10 goals in 22 games. 

In that wretched post-Gareth Bale season, Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado were preferred to Defoe. That decision, along with many others made in that fateful year, now seems laughable. 

Tottenham are short on quality in attack. 

They possess an excellent front three, but the reserves are, in the case of Clinton Njie, untested or, as Erik Lamela has consistently shown, not up to the job. 

Worse, there is no centre-forward at the club beyond the mercurial Harry Kane. 

Kane's talents are undeniable, but to ask him to repeat last season's heroics in this campaign is to put too much pressure on the shoulders of the 22-year-old. 

Mauricio Pochettino denied concerns that Kane is his only viable first-team striker, until January at least, in his joint statement with Daniel Levy at the conclusion of the summer transfer window.

His observation that modern football allows for flexible interpretations of the roles of players is intriguing and hints that the likes of Heung-Min Son and Nacer Chadli could be deployed centrally. 

Despite Pochettino's protestations, the rabid pursuit of Saido Berahino suggests Spurs are aware they lack strike-power, and Defoe's qualities are exactly those that are lacking. 

Defoe would be an excellent short-term strike partner for Harry Kane. 

Always confident and focused only on testing the goalkeeper, Defoe's aggression would give Kane the assistance that he needs. 

Defoe has a great relationship with Kane and bequeathed him his No. 18 shirt when he left to join the MLS. 

Matt Dunham/Associated Press

Of course, Defoe is not the player that he once was. 

At 32, he has lost much of his pace but his mentality remains razor-sharp. 

The attitude of a goalscorer, the knack of being in the right place and the single-minded focus on pushing for every half-chance, remain. 

Fans who remember the Defoe of his last campaign at Tottenham may struggle to recognise a striker reinvigorated by his American (Canadian technically) sojourn and a central role in Dick Advocaat's team. 

His goals helped keep the Black Cats in the Premier League last season, and he has already plundered five in this campaign. 

While he was capable of frustrating moments when his technical skill let him down, or when he seemed perpetually offside, Defoe is a born scorer of goals. 

His powerful strike and his self-confidence mark him out as such. 

Were he in Tottenham's squad on Sunday, there is every chance that he would be on the bench.

If Spurs needed a goal, though, they could do far worse than call on the proven veteran. 

Instead, he will don the red and white of Spurs' opposition, and those who once idolised him will know just how dangerous he can be.