Alex Neil has admitted that Jermain Defoe's sudden retirement was a surprise, and spoke about his immediate reaction to the announcement...
GREAT CAREER
“I think it's difficult particularly with somebody like Jermain with the career that he’s had and what he’s done."
TIME TO RETIRE
"You know as a player when you feel as if it’s time. Unfortunately for Jermain he got to that point."
SHOCK
“I’ll be honest with you, it was a bit of a surprise, it was a bit of a shock."
TRAINED WELL
“There wasn’t a lot of conversations prior to it, he had trained that day and trained well, he was fine. The next minute we got word that he wanted to call it a day. I have certainly spoken to him since but at the time it was a bit of a shock I think for everybody."
BEHIND THE SCENES
“It certainly wasn’t something that was getting spoken about regularly, maybe behind the scenes, but it wasn’t a natural conversation that me and him had had."
MOVING ON
“He has made the decision, we’ve got to respect that, naturally we wish him all the best but we’ve got to move on and try to win these remaining games.”
