BOURNE AGAIN DEFOE

Jermain may be lured back to former club

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BOURNEMOUTH boss Eddie Howe has opened the door for Jermain Defoe to return to the club where he launched his career.

England ace Defoe, 34, will quit Sunderland in the summer unless David Moyes’ men can pull off a miracle relegation escape.

Defoe made his name at Bournemouth by scoring in 10 successive league games as a teenager on loan from West Ham.

Premier League Manager of the Month Howe (below), who played alongside Defoe during that recordbreaking run, said: “I don’t think you can ever rule out being attracted to goalscoring strikers.

“It sounds funny because that’s their job but they are so difficult to find. It’s difficult to say because it’s all so hypothetical but I would imagine there’s a lot of people interested in him. “He’s a player we respect obviously but he is a Sunderland player at this moment.

“I’ve said many times before when we’ve played Sunderland how good he is and it’s great to see him back in an England shirt scoring goals. “He is a Sunderland player in the middle of an important run of games and I would not want to say anything that disrupts that or disrespect them in any way.

“He is there and playing and they are fighting for points. Next season takes care of itself, in the summer.”

Bournemouth travel to south coast neighbours Southampton today looking for their first ever win at the St Mary’s Stadium to pull further clear of the survival scrap.

Howe, whose team have taken seven points from the last nine available, said: “It would be a really big thing for us as a football club to create history again.”

Howe has promised ex-Saint Andrew Surman a new contract ahead of his return to his boyhood club and values him ‘very, very highly’.