in january 2009, portsmouth chairman peter storrie revealed defoe's intentions to leave the club in the near future. this came after joining the club only in the same transfer window of the previous year. it was reported that defoe's former club tottenham made a formal approach for the striker, but no agreement was reached; spurs manager harry redknapp described the clubs as "miles apart in their valuation of the player", suggesting that portsmouth wanted "in excess of £20 million". after negotiations, portsmouth accepted a bid from tottenham thought to be around £15.75 million (including fees owed to tottenham for the previous transfers of younès kaboul and pedro mendes and waiving a £4 million sell-on clause that had also been negotiated during his transfer from spurs to portsmouth) on 6 january 2009. the player had agreed to a five-year contract and was confirmed as a tottenham player by his new club on 9 january 2009. defoe was presented at white hart lane with a carnival atmosphere before the start of spurs' league cup clash against burnley after his return to white hart lane.