Chelsea are understood to be keeping a watchful eye on the Defoe situation. Since breaking into the England team at the beginning of the year, the 22-year-old has been aware that he is currently among the lowest earners at the club. He currently receives a basic salary of £12,500 a week.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho's number one target is AC Milan's European Footballer of the Year Andrei Shevchenko, but the one advantage for Chelsea that a successful bid for Defoe would have is the small matter of Defoe not being cup-tied for European competition this season, unlike the Ukranian. Defoe, who has scored 11 goals for Spurs already this season, is believed to have held preliminary talks over a move to Stamford Bridge during the summer but Chelsea did not progress their interest.
If he does remain at White Hart Lane however, Defoe could team up with the latest star of the Under-21 side Dean Ashton, who continues to set the Championship alight with 18 goals for Crewe Alexandra this season. Ashton would be a comparative steal at £2.5m despite not having any experience at the highest level.
Spurs have an estimated £14m to spend in the transfer market in January, and the capture of Ashton would take the number of international strikers at the club to four.
Tottenham have again been linked with Southampton's James Beattie and are also understood to have shown an interest in Russian international striker Alexander Kerzhakov. The pacy 22-year-old scored 18 goals for Zenit St Petersburg who finished the Russian league season in fourth place.
Paris St Germain have also watched Kerzhakov, but Zenit's Czech coach Vlastimil Petrzhela said, "Tottenham is highly interested in Kerzhakov and they are ready to pay a very big sum for him, fantastic money for Russia. However I feel he still has the possibility of growing with Zenit."