Football fans would love to see Tottenham win a trophy, says Jermain Defoe | OneFootball

Former Tottenham Hotspur striker Jermain Defoe spoke to Squawka about the club’s injury issues this season.

Defoe gave his thoughts on what Tottenham should be aiming for this season, Ange Postecoglou’s future and gave insight on some young talent to look out for.

He also spoke about Thomas Tuchel preparing for his first international break as England manager, and where he might lead the Three Lions.

You can watch the full interview above, or read the quotes below.

Tottenham have had to use a lot of young players this season to deal with the injuries. Are there any more names that we should be looking out for, that you were aware of from your time as the under-18s coach?

Yeah, obviously (Lucas) Bergvall, (Archie) Gray and (Djed) Spence, Mikey Moore. Obviously they’re the ones that have come through and it’s just so nice to see, do you know what I mean? Because at the end of the day, that’s what the academy is there for, bringing players through. And obviously we saw Domola (Ajayi) come on in Europe and score. And there’s Callum Olusesi, who was on the bench a few times in the Premier League, I don’t think he’s featured yet. Malachi (Hardy), I think he was on the bench.

And there’s a player called Tyrese Hall. I’m quite surprised that he’s not featured yet, to be honest. An unbelievable talent. One of the best I’ve seen. From my two years in the academy, and even the teams that we played against, I’d put Tyrese up there in the top three players that I’ve seen of that age. He’s obviously with the under-23s now.

Listen, there are a few more that I’d love to see come through, but the names that I’ve mentioned, hopefully they’ll go on and have amazing careers because they’re all good kids as well. They all want to learn and, as coaches, it makes your job easy doesn’t it, when you’re coaching young players that are good players and good kids as well. So it’s good.

Sticking with injuries, obviously quite a hot topic for Tottenham at the moment. You spoke recently about Andre Villas-Boas and how he’d put pressure on the physios, and he’d put pressure on the doctor. Talk to us a bit more about that.

I remember one year I did my hamstring and the doctor, a guy called Shabaaz (Mughal), who I still speak to now – amazing guy, amazing doctor. I remember, he was doing an ultrasound in the office. I didn’t have to go to a doctor, I didn’t have to go to a hospital because everything was in-house. And I remember AVB coming in because he needed me to be fit. I remember him coming in, he sat down in the corner, and I thought ‘this is a little bit weird’. Harry (Redknapp), David Pleat signed me, Martin Jol, Jacques Santini, all these managers before would never do that.

At the time AVB was 36, a really intelligent guy, clued up on everything to be fair, it wasn’t just football. And I don’t know, I suppose he just wanted to see what was going on. And he actually sat in and there was pressure. There was pressure on the doctor, ‘how long is he going to be out? What does this look like?’ So that’s what I experienced at the time. And that’s why when I said it on Super Sunday, that’s what I mean about players when they’re injured. I don’t know if other managers do that, but I’ve had experiences where managers have actually put a lot of pressure on the doctor. And then sometimes players feel the pressure as well, and actually go out and they know they’re not 100% and they get the recurrence of the injuries.

It was a strange one, I suppose. It does sort of instill that trust.

Yeah it does. But I think when you say ‘strange’, sometimes if you’re a manager under pressure and you just need your top players back, sometimes maybe you act out of character. Maybe he didn’t do that at Chelsea or the other clubs after that he managed.

I think he wanted me back and so coming in, he probably didn’t look at it as a big deal to be fair. But maybe the doctor thought, ‘you are putting pressure on me, because if he’s injured, he’s injured’. But I don’t know, managers can just act that way when they’re under pressure.

Again, under pressure managers. I’m almost sorry to have to ask you this one. But Ange Postecoglou has obviously got the excuse of injuries, and we’ve seen some key members come back into the team and Tottenham have got results. So do you think he is the right man now? And more importantly, for the future?

I’d like to think so for him, because we hate seeing managers lose their jobs. A lot of people have come up to me and said ‘but what about when you didn’t have the injuries? And last season, the second part of last season because obviously the first two months were unbelievable, and the second part of last season you weren’t getting the results. You had all the top players fit.’

You look at some of the games, Ipswich at home, in the second half against Brighton, even though we had injuries they were still games on paper, when I look at the team, I thought we were still good enough to win the games. But, of course, it doesn’t help when you’ve got your key players out. Because, you can have injuries, but then the injuries are to key players. You talk about (Cristian) Romero and (Micky) Van de Ven, and then Dom Solanke – the spine of the team.

Obviously (James) Maddison was out for a couple of weeks, and then (Yves) Bissouma, and (Brennan) Johnson, so it was about 11 players. It’s like a starting XI. But I suppose that’s where the squad is important. Because Bournemouth have had a lot of injuries and they’ve managed to do well with it. But the names I’ve just mentioned, we spoke before about the team I played in, if I played in a team where (Heurelho) Gomes was injured and Ledley King was injured, and (Michael) Dawson was injured, and then I was injured, Gareth (Bale) was injured, (Aaron) Lennon was injured, (Peter) Crouchy was. Of course it’s going to be difficult for the players. Especially the players that haven’t played and that get to come in and keep the club at that sort of level. So we understand that. But there’s still an opportunity to win a trophy.

You mentioned Dominic Solanke. What have you thought of his first season, has he settled in?

I thought that he started a little bit slow, which is normal. And then people were sort of questioning it. I was like, you’ve got to give him a chance. He’s just come to a new club, big move, big price tag. Give him a chance. We’ve seen that he can score goals because he did last season at Bournemouth, consistently.

And I think he’s more than just a goalscorer as well. The energy that he brings and how the team want to play. And then I think he’s shown people, he’s shut a lot of people up with the goals that he has scored. Big goals as well, some top finishes. Got into the England squad. It’s just unfortunate that he’s got the injury. But hopefully he’s back soon and he finishes the season strong.

He was at Chelsea and Liverpool, and then he was in the Championship, and it didn’t happen for him. But it’s good that he’s come to Tottenham, a big club. He came with a reputation because he scored goals at Bournemouth, he scored a lot of goals. So you expect him to score goals, because he’s shown that. Like I said, it’s just unfortunate that he’s got the injury, which is normal at this stage of the season, you’re always going to pick up little knocks and stuff like that, but hopefully he’s not out too long. And then once he gets back, he can just keep scoring goals for the club, because obviously it will help the team. And his presence, I keep saying he’s more than just a goalscorer. He brings so much more to the team.

Another Tottenham forward in Timo Werner, just hasn’t really got up and running at Tottenham. It doesn’t look like he’ll be staying past the summer. So what do you think it is? He’s had two stints in England now and it’s never quite clicked for him.

I think it’s goals. When you go to a new club and you’ve nicked a few goals, you get confident. I think maybe it’s because he’s missed a few chances in the games that he’s played in. And you get different characters. Some players, it doesn’t really bother them. Of course it’s going to bother you, but you’ve sort of got that mentality where ‘okay, the next one. Score the next one’.

I think everything starts from training. If I were to speak to the team, I’d tell him to just keep working hard, keep getting into the positions where you’re going to score. Keep training, keep doing your extras after training, so you’ve got those good habits, just so that your instincts can kick in and you’re not thinking too much. And then take it from there. But it has been difficult for him, because he’s not managed to get those sorts of numbers of goals and assists that you probably would expect from an experienced player.

He’s going to get chances, because he’s so dynamic and quick. So he’s always going to get into areas where he could score. But I think it’s just about being calm. Because he always seems to get there, it’s just about being calm and executing in that moment. But it’s been difficult for him.

Given Tottenham’s current standing in the Premier League, do you think all attention should now be going on the Europa League and the Champions League spot that goes with it?

Yeah, it has to. I think you’d obviously like to improve on their league form, from where we are at the minute.

No. You can’t get relegated. I think that would be a disaster, with the direction that the club is trying to go in. I know there’s obviously been a lot of noise around the club at the minute, but when you look at the infrastructure, they’ve got one of the best training grounds, the best stadium. And the direction that the club’s trying to go in, relegation is not going to happen.

It’s never easy to win a major trophy is it? Whether that’s the Europa League or the Premier League or a cup. It’s always going to be difficult. And it’s shown over the years with Tottenham, even when I was there, just to get over the line. Even though I was part of the group that won the League Cup in 2008. But, at the same time, we should have won a lot more.

Of course we’d love to see it, not just Tottenham fans, I think football fans too. A lot of football fans would love to see Tottenham [win something]. Gary Neville said it on the telly, someone who was in a team that dominated English football and won loads of trophies and he even said he’d love to see it. But, of course, it’s never going to be easy.

Thomas Tuchel is taking charge of England for the first time in March. How do you rate that appointment?

Again there was a lot of noise around it, because obviously people were saying the English manager should be English, and all that sort of stuff. I played under Sven (Goran Eriksson) and (Fabio) Capello, and as players you never looked at him and thought ‘well, Capello is Italian’. I just looked at him and thought, ‘this is Fabio Capello’. His CV speaks for itself.

It’s the same with Tuchel. I think when you look at cup competitions, he’s always done well. So hopefully he’s the man to get us over the line, because we’ve come so close. We’ve got the players and I think if we win a major tournament, as English people we’re not going to sit there and be like, ‘You know what? No, we’re not going to celebrate this because he’s German’.

So it is what it is, and we’ve just got to support him. He’s a top coach. When you speak to Harry Kane about him, Harry says he’s unbelievable. I remember before Ange came to Tottenham, there was a lot of noise internally with the staff and the coaches, like ‘imagine if we got Tuchel’. He’s so respected in that sense. So hopefully he’s the one to bring that trophy home, because it’s been a long time.

What do you think he’s going to bring that Gareth Southgate didn’t have? Is it just that experience of getting over the line?

Yeah, of course. Because we’ve come so close. Then you look at it and think, ‘okay, what does he need to do?’ He would probably know I think you’d have to be a manager or a coach at that level, to look at it and be like, ‘you know what, I need to do this, this or this to get over the line’.

But yeah, like I said, it would be amazing wouldn’t it? Can you imagine the celebrations? Even when we got to the final, and came so close. Of course it was a disappointment, but even so, the country was mad. So can you imagine what it’s going to be like when we actually win? And hopefully, it’s soon.

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