Huddlestone’s emergence puts Jenas in career crossroads
Huddlestone is flying at the moment
Jermaine Jenas was touted for big things after a debut season at Nottingham Forest that yielded 4 goals in 33 league games. He quickly secured a £5m move to St. James Park and his performances saw him pick up the PFA Young Player of the Year award but in his subsequent seasons, he failed to maintain such form and put in some pretty ordinary performances for Newcastle.
Becoming disillusioned with life on Tyneside (he compard it to living in a fish bowl), Jenas secured a £9m move to Tottenham on the transfer deadline day in August 2005.
In January of that same year Tottenham signed young promising central midfielder Tom Huddlestone from Derby for a reported fee of £3m. He remained with the Rams until the summer before joining Wolverhampton Wanderers on loan for a couple of months (ironically scoring his first league goal against his old club Derby). He returned to make his debut for the club in January 2006 in a defeat against Fulham but fast forward to December 2009 and Tottenham sit in 4th position with Huddlestone apparently fulfilling the promise he should as a 16 year old at Derby, forming a formidable midfield partnership with Wilson Palacios.
Due to his size, Huddlestone enhances Tottenham both offensively and defensively from set pieces, has a thunderous shot and has an awesome range of passing. Former Tottenham manager Martin Jol paid him the ultimate compliment, compairing him with German legend Franz Beckenbauer due to his playmaking, shot and versatility (although a central midfielder, Huddlestone has also been deployed as a center back).
This season has seen Huddlestone handed a proper extended run in the first team and he has grabbed it with both hands scoring 3 times in 15 appearances. It was not only Harry Redkanpp that recognised the step up Huddlestone had taken and in November, Fabio Capello handed him his first international cap against Brazil in a friendly in Doha.
But his rise to prominence has been at the expense of Jermaine Jenas.
Huddlestone’s partnership with Palacios has seen Jenas feature less and although doubts still hang over Huddlestone’s fitness, size (he would do well to lose a little weight), mobility and work rate, Palacios’ energy and the fact he gets himself about all over the pitch negates this.
Redknapp has expressed a wish to further reinforce his central midfield which would further put Jenas’ position at the club in doubt but as the potential sucessor (albeit a couple of years late) to Glen Hoddle and due to his versatility, Huddlestone has nothing to worry about. Redknapp is a fan of his ability and after the Burnley game where Huddlestone put in a good performance at the back he claimed,
“He started out playing at the back as a kid and he’s majestic when he plays there, he just has that air of confidence about him. When someone like that is so comfortable on the ball you never panic when he gets it, you think ‘it is okay, Tom’s got it’ and he reads the game so well as well.”
With Spurs flying and Huddlestone pulling the strings in the midfield as well as offering cover at the back his stock is only rising, whereas Jenas could possibly begin to worry about his future at White Hart Lane.
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Jenas’s as good as out at Spurs, clearly out of favour and the fans were never too fond of him anyway. He’ll want to move to get playing time and he’s not going to displace Huddlestone or Palacios any time soon
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As a Newcy supporter you can imagine I’m not a big Jenas fan with the whole ‘goldfish bowl’ incident.
Think he has done well to get as far as he has.
If Spurs are serious top 4 contenders, Jenas should not be in the 1st team in my opinion.
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Considering how good he was back in 02/03, he really hasn’t progressed as he should have done.
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Jenas is an enigma if ever there was one. I cannot think of another player who could’ve scored the sort of goals JJ has for us against our greatest enemy & yet still come under fire from the majority of fans. Normally, a relatively young player who scores a cracking 25 yard strike in the final second of a North London Derby to secure a draw would achieve instant hero status. Then add the fact that his brilliant goal began our 5-1 rout of Arsenal in the 2008 Carling Cup run & his superb solo effort helped spur our 4-4 comeback las season & you would think he should be regarded as a god by any typical Spurs fan. The fact he isn’t is testament to just how anonymous he makes himself the rest of the time. He has to be 1 of the most frustrating players ever. We all know how good he could be and yet far too often he only manages to show just how bad he is
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You mention that Capello rates Huddlestone and gave him his first cap, but it was Jenas he picked ahead of Huddlestone to start that match.
I think that Palacios and Jenas is our best CM pairing. Whilst Tommy’s played and done ok, you can’t exactly say Palacios has done well without Jenas alongside him. They were a huge part of why we did so well last season, and they haven’t been able to build on that partnership this season. People are quick to forget how well they did together, just because Jenas hasn’t played in a few games.
I think too many people judge Jenas on what they want him to do, rather than what he’s being asked to do. Against Brazil he was asked to mark Kaka, and keep him quiet, and that’s exactly what he did, yet eveyone afterwards says he had a poor game? Jenas’ job for us, is pretty much the same as Palacios’ – to do his share of the leg work, help out defensively, and then get forward when he can. And that’s what he does, yet when Palacios does he’s awesome, and when Jenas does it “he’s gone missing”.
Jenas clearly likes it at Tottenham, and Harry said he’s had the right attitude after the Wigan game when he didn’t start. At the end of the day, it’s only been 3 games he’s been a sub, I highly doubt Jenas will leave. What a shame for all you haters…
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