This is the wonder of having a blog. On my daily perusal of the same the same 5 websites (in no particular order: BBC, Sports Interactive, ESPN, Sky Sports and today's site in question, The Times) I stumbled over the musings of Tony Cascarino. I've never really cared for his opines greatly and do my best not to read his over-reactive and regrettably a la mode comments in general but couldn't help but gander at his comments regarding Jermain Defoe.
In the eyes of TC (the difference between Cascarino and my favourite TC, Top Cat, is that I'd pay to listen to the footballing judgements of a make-believe, television feline) Mr. Defoe should be leading the line for the English against Croatia on Wednesday night. He doesn't mention whether the Spurs striker should be the central '1' in the recently dominated Heskey/Carlton Cole role, or one of a forward pair in a more traditional 4-4-2 but, irrespective, is the impish forward the man to unlock Croatia? No. Sorry Jermain. Sorry Tony.
Defoe has had a prolific start to the season, 7 goals in all competitions highlighted by a strike against the Slovenians at Wembley on Saturday and two against the Dutch last month, have brought him to the attention of the media as of late but this guy is the same player that we have seen in the Premiership over the last few seasons.
I won't deny that Defoe is a goalscorer, nor that his current form has promoted his claims for a start, but he is under 5'7, lightweight, doesn't possess lightning pace nor elusive movement, isn't the ideal foil for Wayne Rooney and does little to make the players around him better. He has never scored more than 13 league goals in a season and his 11 International goals have featured 5 in friendly matches, 4 against Andorra, 1 against Kazakhstan and 1 against Poland - his first International goal.
Is he a capable Premiership scorer? No doubt. Could he play in the Champions League one day? Quite possibly. Will he be on the plane to South Africa next year? It would seem so. But, is he the man to EVER lead the line against a top opponent? Sorry Jermain. Sorry Tony. No.
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