Andre Villas-Boas Says Defoe Is Going Nowhere Amid Newcastle United Interest

 

Alan Pardew has declared an interest in signing Tottenham Hotspur and England striker Jermain Defoe, but doubts the former West Ham player would move to the North East.

Defoe, 31, has found minutes hard to come by this season despite the poor form of summer signing Roberto Soldado and Pardew believes he is too good to be sitting on the bench at White Hart Lane.
“When the ball comes to into him, whether it is left foot or right, he is hugely effective.”

“I worked with Jermain at West Ham and I think that he’s a fantastic player.” said Pardew.
However, with Defoe spending most of his career based in the capital, the Newcastle United manager feels the player is probably beyond him at this point.

“He’s a terrific player, but I’m not sure he would want to come to this football club.”

Even if Defoe wanted to join the Magpies, it seems like Andre Villas-Boas would be unwilling to part with his man after declaring Spurs’ all-time leading scorer in Europe has a role to play at White Hart Lane.
“We’ve been rotating,” Villas-Boas said.
“What has been happening is we have given opportunities for players who have played in the Europa League to break into the Premier League team.

“A couple of them have received a vote of confidence to continue to play and Jermain played in the game against West Ham and then we went back to Soldado playing in the Premier League.”
Soldado, though, has struggled to get going in the Premier League, scoring only 1 goal from open-play and again finding life tough against a tough Newcastle defence this weekend. \\

If his performances don’t start to improve soon and Defoe still finds himself out of the team then AVB may have no other option than to let the striker leave the club as he targets a place in Roy Hodgson’s World Cup squad next summer.