Jol raps Benitez over 'ludicrous' Defoe sale talk
Furious Tottenham coach Martin Jol has condemned Liverpool coach Rafael Benitez for the row over claims that the London club were desperate to sell England striker Jermain Defoe.
Jol has spoken to the Spurs striker on two occasions since the Liverpool boss told a press conference that Spurs were ‘desperate to sell Defoe’.
His comments sparked a bust-up between the clubs and forced Spurs chairman Daniel Levy to condemn Benitez in a strongly-worded statement on Friday.
Now Jol, preparing his side for Monday night’s live TV clash with struggling West Brom at White Hart Lane, has blasted talk of a Defoe sale as ‘ludicrous’.
Jol insists the England striker remains a vital part of his set-up and angrily hit back at the Liverpool coach.
“Why should I have my players upset in this manner?,” fumed Jol.
“It is unbelievable. It is bad enough when agents talk and spread rumours, but this was totally unnecessarily coming from a club. I would never deliberately upset another team’s player like this.
“It’s also ludicrous to suggest we are scurrying around trying to sell one of our best players. And I hear there are suggestions that we tried to swap Jermain for Cisse in January and keep trying to – I have never heard such rubbish.
“Why on earth would we have been interested in letting a striker as good as Jermain go in January when we were actually looking to ADD another striker?
“If other managers are interested in my players – and let’s face it they will be, I have good players and Jermain is one of them – then they know the proper way to go about asking. And we can politely say no. There is a way to do things and a way not to do things.
“No disrespect to Cisse, he is a good second striker but we don’t need this type of player now, end of story.”
Jol made it clear Defoe has more than played his part in the club’s season - and will continue to do so.
“Jermain has been involved in 30 matches,” he said. “Robbie Keane has also been involved in 30 matches. As a matter of fact, Jermain has played more minutes than Keane.
“Jermain has done wonderfully well,” continued Jol. “I always say if you play more than 25 games at this club you do well and we’re happy with you.
“He is up for it and will give everything. Somebody said to me he could lack rhythm, but he has played in four out of the last six matches – nobody knows the facts.
“He has scored and made a lot of important goals for us – I have three strikers and they have scored 30 goals between them and that for me is the important statistic. Not many top teams can match this.
“He’s scored his goals and made another against Sunderland for Keane. It was a scrappy game against Birmingham last week but who made the first goal? Defoe. So there’s no problem at all.”
| Related Stories: |
|
