Darren Bent claims he never ‘really appreciated’ Jermain Defoe until he joined Tottenham

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Jermain Defoe had two spells at Tottenham Hotspur as he is now scoring goals for fun in the Scottish Premiership with Rangers.

Darren Bent has claimed that he didn’t ‘really appreciate’ Tottenham legend, Jermain Defoe until he joined the club and played alongside the current Rangers striker.

Bent represented Tottenham for a two-year period during the late noughties, as he would have played alongside Defoe just before his move to Portsmouth in 2008. The Englishman is now working his magic at Ibrox.

Nonetheless, during his time at White Hart Lane, Defoe played 346 games for the North London outfit, scoring a staggering 143 goals for the club in all competitions [transfermarkt].

Speaking to Drive on TalkSport (16/10/2019 at 4:40 pm), Bent shared that Defoe’s shooting ability in training used to leave him shocked as he lauded him as one of the top-six finishers he has ever seen.

“It’s the technique,” Bent told Drive on TalkSport. “The shot out of nothing. When defenders think they have got him, he would move the ball half a yard and then bang. Goal!

“It was not until I played with him at Spurs until I really appreciated him. I always knew he was a good finisher playing with him in the youth teams. When you see this guy and what he does in training, after training and even some times before training. Working on his technique on how to hit the ball, left and right foot.

“He had me in awe sometimes. We used to have finishing competitions. On his right foot, I’d be alright. We would be drawing or I’d be beating him. But as soon as he went to his left foot, he would hit it so hard. It was like ‘wow, how do you do that?’. As a natural finisher goes, he always used to hit the target. Always.”

Defoe has now taken his finishing expertise up to Scotland where he is hoping to help Rangers win the Scottish Premiership title this season.

He is working under the stewardship of his former England teammate, Steven Gerrard, and it is fair to say that he is delivering for his manager.

Defoe has played 14 games in all competitions this season for the Gers and has found the back of the net on 12 occasions for the current Premiership leaders [transfermarkt].