Jermaine Defoe

oohaahmortimer said:

Croydon said:

He left us when we were at West Ham's level, even arguably better than them at the time. 

I checked on wiki and he joined us in 1997 and left in 1999

“ Defoe was spotted playing football by Charlton Athletic who enrolled him at the FA National School of Excellence at Lilleshall Hall in 1997.”

The way our fans cry (I would have been one of them) I thought he’d been with us for 5-6 years in the academy .

1999 we were relegated from the Prem and start of our promotion season West Ham finished 5th in 1999 and ninth the following season .

Sponsoring him through Lilleshall would have been a big investment.

As others have commented it was our success in getting boys from East London Bowyer,Jenkinson,Koncheskyand Shelvey to name four that irked the Hammers. We literally recruited in the shadows of Upton Park.

Does Jon jo Shelvey's father still run a Centre for us in Romford?

grumpyaddick said:

What I really like about this signing is that if we don't prosper in the Pizza Cup , Defoe along with Gunter, Watson and Pearce could form the spine of an Charlton OAP walking football squad. 

Can we not just sign someone who can play football, is under 30, over 6ft tall and not injured ?

Surely it can't be that difficult.  

Maybe there's a 5 aside league restarting, we used to be the bollox in that. 

Richard J said:

oohaahmortimer said:

Croydon said:

He left us when we were at West Ham's level, even arguably better than them at the time. 

I checked on wiki and he joined us in 1997 and left in 1999

“ Defoe was spotted playing football by Charlton Athletic who enrolled him at the FA National School of Excellence at Lilleshall Hall in 1997.”

The way our fans cry (I would have been one of them) I thought he’d been with us for 5-6 years in the academy .

1999 we were relegated from the Prem and start of our promotion season West Ham finished 5th in 1999 and ninth the following season .

Sponsoring him through Lilleshall would have been a big investment.

As others have commented it was our success in getting boys from East London Bowyer,Jenkinson,Koncheskyand Shelvey to name four that irked the Hammers. We literally recruited in the shadows of Upton Park.

Does Jon jo Shelvey's father still run a Centre for us in Romford?

Plus he scored 10 in 4 games at Lilleshall, so everybody was getting justifiably excited and then he was gone.

JustFloydRoad said:

Hope this puts to bed any rubbish rumours that Defoe is going to rejoin us. Ah well at least he’ll get a Charlton homecoming on March 5th.

I hope the crowd don't bother doing wanker Jermaine Defoe chants. 

It will result in Sunderland getting a rare 3 points against us

That’s why we were never really interested .. fans again creating but not knowing the full story .. well done SG 

Just listened to his podcasts (to date).

Once you get through the self love - and there is a lot of it - it becomes quite interesting.   Hardly a mention of Charlton, although Harry Rednapp admits that Charlton had better boys than West Ham at the time, which is why he nicked the coach as well as Defoe himself.

Another standout for me is the advice Defoe continually gets by pros in the game to choose a chairman over a club for his first job in management.  Could this be the reason so many managers fail at Charlton?

Anyway give it a go 'Outside the Box', Jermaine Defoe.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0f09s93

Defoe never spoke about loyalty did he?

I will never forget what he did for that young Sunderland fan and his family in the kids last few months. 

Did it cover his lottery win?

oohaahmortimer said:

he came to us at the age of 14 and left at 16 . 

By 11 he was at the Charlton academy – where Paul Rose and Steve Watts were huge influences on the young Jermain. Aged 14 he joined Lilleshall alongside future pros like Joe Cole and Danny Webber. At the age of 15 he was approached by West Ham. His move from Charlton was a controversial one, and went to a tribunal – meaning the teenager had to sit in on proceedings as if he was in court. It was an intimidating and unsettling moment for the youngster. But, despite the Hammers having to pay £1m in compensation to their London rivals, it ended up being worth it for the club… ( I believe the final compensation ending up totaling £2.5m, btw)

oohaahmortimer said:

supaclive said:

oohaahmortimer said:

he came to us at the age of 14 and left at 16 . 

By 11 he was at the Charlton academy – where Paul Rose and Steve Watts were huge influences on the young Jermain. Aged 14 he joined Lilleshall alongside future pros like Joe Cole and Danny Webber. At the age of 15 he was approached by West Ham. His move from Charlton was a controversial one, and went to a tribunal – meaning the teenager had to sit in on proceedings as if he was in court. It was an intimidating and unsettling moment for the youngster. But, despite the Hammers having to pay £1m in compensation to their London rivals, it ended up being worth it for the club… ( I believe the final compensation ending up totaling £2.5m, btw)

Can you update his wiki page please 

No, but his documentary that I am a producer on, will tell the full story! :-)

DaveMehmet said:

Shame he never got to play for us but West Ham and to a lesser extent, his family are the villains in this story, not the 16 year old kid. 

Spot on, it's weird people holding a 25 year old grudge over a kid moving clubs.