11. Away From Home

Jermain Defoe: Outside The Box

The penultimate episode of Outside the Box begins on the day job for Jermain and another session with the under-18's. But after eight months at Spurs, how's he getting on? His manager Stuart Lewis gives us a status update on his progress so far.

A week on from visiting the north east and the family of Bradley Lowery, Jermain reflects on some much needed perspective that the trip offered him. Coaching helps, but so does the opportunity to reflect on other aspects of his career that he regrets, notably the way his time in the MLS ended. He discusses what went wrong in Toronto in 2014, how he feels for the fans and the club, and how much he'd like to go back and coach the team. All that gets him thinking about managing abroad and so he reaches out to the former Scotland manager Alex McLeish to discuss his time with Genk in Belgium and Zamalek in Egypt.

From there, he heads back to one of his old clubs - West Ham United - to speak to an old friend. Paul Konchesky played with Jermain at England and after retiring form the game in 2016, began working at the Hammers academy. In 2022 he took over as first team manager of West Ham's women's team who are currently 7th in the WSL table. It gives Jermain the opportunity to find out more about the women's game and whether that could garner him the experience he needs to pad his coaching resume.

Before he heads home, he gets an important phone call which may help shape his future in the game.