Sam Allardyce says he will be rejecting all bids for Jermain Defoe – unless Sunderland owner Ellis Short intervenes and tells him otherwise.
There has been talk of Bournemouth lining up a £6million move for the 33-year-old, but any offer would have to be significantly north of that figure for the Black Cats to consider selling their nine-goal leading scorer.
Indeed, Defoe netted a decisive double in last weekend’s 3-1 victory over Aston Villa to revive Sunderland’s survival hopes.
Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce has issued a hands-off warning to Bournemouth over Jermain Defoe
Defoe (centre) will not be allowed to leave the Black Cats unless Ellis Short gives the deal the green light
And Allardyce said: ‘We haven’t had any bids for Jermain, and I suppose if there had been a bid for him, I would have turned it down.
‘Unless it had been that big that the owners told me, “This bid is so big Sam, we can’t afford to turn it down”.
‘Every club has that scenario, but we haven’t had a bid for Jermain and we don’t want to sell him.’
Defoe himself does not envisage moving in the January window and insists he is fully signed up to Sunderland’s relegation fight.
‘Of course I’m committed,’ he said. ‘I am at the age of 33 now and over the years I have always been involved in something (transfer wise).
‘But I have not really seen my name about this time, and that is nice.’
Allardyce, upon taking charge in October, was unsure about how best to use Defoe and only started him in six of his first 12 games in charge.
But the manager now sees him as his No 1 marksman.
Defoe scored a brace in Sunderland's 3-1 win over fellow Premier League relegation candidates Aston Villa
‘There has always been a belief that maybe Jermain can’t play up front on his own, but he’s done that a couple of times now and I’m more than willing to continue down that line,’ he said.
‘If Jermain came to me and said, “It’s really not working for me up there on my own – you’ve got to stick someone up there with me”, that would be the only time I would consider not doing it.
‘If he can carry on and continue being as good as he was last weekend, and certainly be as clinical as he was, then long may it last.’
Allardyce has revealed his club are yet to receive any offers for Defoe despite widespread speculation
Meanwhile, Sunderland have completed the £1m signing of Bayern Munich defender Jan Kirchhoff.
However, the £5m deal for Lorient centre back Lamine Kone has been scrapped after the player failed to agree terms with the club.
Allardyce said: ‘I’ve worked in this month for many years now, and it’s never easy to do business.
‘But it’s nice to have something in place this early because many things have to drop into place to make a signing. But we’ve done a lot of negotiations in December so we know where we stand, and thankfully it looks as though we’ve got the first one in.’
Allardyce has made Bayern Munich defender Jan Kirchhoff his first signing of the winter transfer window
New Sunderland signing Kirchhoff will wear squad No 27 at the Stadium of Light during his 18-month deal
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét