Jermain Defoe can leave Sunderland on a FREE TRANSFER… leaving boss David Moyes furious
Defoe penned a one-year extension last summer, but incredibly the Black Cats forgot to remove the clause
DAVID MOYES is furious Sunderland allowed Jermain Defoe to have a relegation release clause.
When the England striker joined the Black Cats on a three-and-a-half-year deal from Toronto in January 2015, it was written into his contract that he could leave on a free should they go down.
Club chiefs then failed to remove that clause when Defoe, 34, penned a one-year extension last summer, a month before Moyes took charge.
And the Black Cats boss admitted: “I am very surprised.
“I would hope if I was a manager, I would not have had a contract which would have allowed somebody to leave in that situation.
“What price might we have got for Jermain if we had gone down, albeit at his age? “There would have been a decent price on Jermain’s head and we have not got that.”
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Moyes, though, does not regret not cashing in on Defoe in January, when West Ham bid £6million.
The Scot said: “The money we were offered was not enough to turn our heads."
Moyes also confirmed that crock Jack Rodwell, who earns £60,000-a-week, will not suffer the same 40 per cent wage reduction as the rest of his relegated flops.
The midfielder, 26, escaped having the clause written into his contract when he signed from Manchester City for £10.25million in August 2014.
