Nigel Worthington’s Norwich City has a striker crisis ahead of their game with Spurs at Carrow Road on Boxing Day. Former Spurs utility player Gary Doherty could resume attacking duty for the Canaries against his old club. Worthington will be without Mathias Svensson, the hero in their win against Bolton a fortnight ago. The 30-year-old Swede has medial knee ligament trouble from the early exchanges at Chelsea last Saturday.
Doherty was called upon by David Pleat to fill the gaps in that department at Spurs but one goal in 20 appearances says much about the player’s scoring potential. The Republic of Ireland player recently said that he wants to concentrate on being a defender for Norwich.
Since the Canaries came to White Hart Lane back in September for the 0-0 stalemate with Jacques Santini’s Tottenham, events have seen Spurs now under Martin Jol change slowly but surely.
Nowadays t everyone at the club is showing admiration for the form of the three strikers Defoe, Keane and Kanoute, especially Jermain Defoe whose tally in the league now stands at nine for the season.
"Like Thierry Henry, Jermain Defoe can turn a game on his own. If you're going to be successful you have to keep your best players. If we are going in the direction the board, the manager and sporting director want, players like Jermain have got to stay at the club," says Spurs goalkeeper Paul Robinson.
"Jermain Defoe doesn't want to leave, and we want him here, he's a terrific player," said Jol.
The Tottenham coach has left all three on the bench at some stage in recent games - only the kind of team selection Worthington can hope Santa leaves him under the tree this Christmas.
A new face could soon feature in the Tottenham squad during the January transfer window. Dean Ashton, scorer of 18 goals in the Championship this season, and 21-year-old Hibernian striker Derek Riordan are stirring interest from the north Londoners."I probably could do with another striker, maybe not a senior one but someone young who is full of promise and who won't mind sitting on the bench. When you have four seniors of high quality, it does become very difficult to keep them all happy as they can't all play every week," says Jol.