Reporter Joe Nicholson has been delivering an insight into Jermain Defoe following his return to Sunderland on The Roar podcast.
In the final minutes of Deadline Day, Sunderland managed to secure the signing of former striker Jermain Defoe as a free agent, which completed an emotional and memorable homecoming for the 39-year old.
Should Defoe start for Sunderland?
Yes!
No!
Defoe had seen his minutes restricted at Rangers earlier this season and decided to leave the club, cutting his contract short after winning one league title and netting 32 goals for the Gers. While the striker was not present on the pitch very often, he was still highly thought of.
Nicholson offered an insight into what people at Rangers thought of Defoe.
“Speaking to people up there, Defoe obviously has only played two games this season, but they seem to think that he’s still the best finisher at the club, and that’s not going to leave him.
“So even if he’s just coming off the bench for the last 20 minutes, half an hour – if Sunderland need a goal, you’d want the chances to drop to Jermain Defoe because there aren’t many better finishers in the game than him.”
TIF Thoughts on Defoe’s move to Sunderland…
At 39 years old and the fact that Ross Stewart has been in red-hot form this season with 18 league goals, it’s very unlikely that Defoe will be starting many games, however, like Nicholson said, if it gets into the latter stages of a game and a chance falls to anyone, a lot of people would back the man with 284 career goals to his name to slot it away.
Sunderland still have a great chance of achieving automatic promotion as they currently sit third in League One just five points behind leaders Rotherham. Although they have played an extra game, they will be hoping that the addition of Defoe will give them that extra edge both on and off the pitch.
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