Some legendary strikers have played for both Manchester United and Tottenham over the years.
Teddy Sheringham and Dimitar Berbatov are legends at both Tottenham and Manchester United, while Alan Brazil and Garth Crooks are two very famous faces in the media who, once upon a time, led the line for Spurs and United.
Berbatov was a class act in his heyday, and now, one of Berbatov’s former Tottenham teammates has claimed that he once thought he was going to end up joining United.
Indeed, speaking to The Mirror, Jermain Defoe has been discussing his career path, and he says that he always had this nagging feeling during his career that he would end up playing for Manchester United at one point in his career.
Defoe was a top player in his pomp, and he felt like he was United-bound at one point.
Jermain Defoe thought he would sign for Manchester United
Defoe spoke about how United were interested in him before his £7m move to Spurs.
Defoe says he was linked to United, and throughout his career he always felt as though he would end up at Old Trafford.
However, it wasn’t to be as Defoe had stints with the likes of Tottenham, Portsmouth, Sunderland and Bournemouth but he never made his way to Manchester.
“Before you joined Spurs, I believe Man United were interested in you, what happened there?
“I don’t know. When you are young and you’re living the dream really, you’re grateful. I loved coming through at West Ham.
“I remember being linked with Man United. It’s not one of those where you’re knocking on the manager’s door asking to leave, but I always felt at some point that I would end up at Man United.
“I looked at Harry Redknapp and how much I loved Harry, and the next one was Alex Ferguson, I thought I would have loved to have played for him.
“It was almost like I was suited to that environment, now I speak to Roy Keane and Gary Neville, that mentality, I was always like that. It didn’t happen and I signed for Tottenham, I was buzzing, it was a special time for me.”
Rio Ferdinand wanted Jermain Defoe at Manchester United
Defoe never got his move to Manchester United, but, at one point, Alex Ferguson was told to sign the Spurs legend.
Indeed, according to Rio Ferdinand, speaking on his YouTube channel, he would often tell Ferguson to sign Defoe.
“The one player I always used to say to him if you want to buy someone from our England team, Defoe,” Ferdinand said.
“Because he wouldn’t have started for us [Manchester United] all the time, but it would’ve been another type of Chicharito [Javier Hernandez], that he comes on and all he cares about is scoring, and if we’re winning 5-0 he’ll want to make it 6-0.
“He’s got that inner, ‘I need goals, I live, smell and breathe goals’. We would’ve got him in so many positions to score it would’ve been a joke.”
Defoe, of course, played against United a number of times in his career, but he actually had quite a poor record against the Red Devils.
| Jermain Defoe record vs Manchester United | |
|---|---|
| 31 | |
| Goals | 5 |
| Assists | 0 |
Ultimately, United would always have a striker who was a level above Defoe during that period. Wayne Rooney was world-class when he was in his pomp, while Robin van Persie is one of the best finishers the Premier League has ever seen.
As Ferdinand said, Defoe probably would’ve scored plenty of goals against United, but he wouldn’t have been a starter for United around that time.
