Sunderland favourite delivers verdict on shock Jermain Defoe news

Listen, like most, I was a little bit excited by his return to the Stadium of Light in the January transfer window.

After everything he did in his previous spell for Sunderland on Wearside, it was hard not to be buoyant about his return to the club.

However, taking the romance away from everything he was a 39-year-old player who hadn’t hardly kicked a ball in a long time.

When you get that bit older you need to be playing some sort of games, as it’s difficult to keep that sharpness there.

Even, if like Defoe, who looks like he keeps himself in prime condition, you need to be playing games to be scoring.

I know he has played at a much better level for the majority of his career than League One but this level is still very competitive and I think he realised that in the cameos he had.

He said as much when he announced his retirement that he didn’t feel like his body was where his mind was.

I would guess that having a career like he has had, this would have been very frustrating for him.

Whether you think it was the right thing to do or not I think we should all just appreciate what he did for the game and for this football club in particular and wish him nothing but the best for whatever lies ahead for him.

He was the perfect goalscorer and one that Sunderland were very lucky to have for a successful period.

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