Defoe alludes that he will be leaving at the end of the season; Khazri says "the fans are unbelievable"

Defoe off?

Jermain Defoe featured in an interview with American news channel CNN earlier this week to talk about his hear-warming relationship with young Sunderland supporter Bradley Lowery, and within it he may well have given his biggest hint yet that he is all set to leave the club at the end of the season.

And whilst it won't come as a shock to anybody should the England international forward leave Wearside once this current campaign is over, nothing much yet has been officially said about the forward's contract and the clauses in which it contains - though plenty of rumours about the intricate details of Defoe's agreement with the club have been talked about for many months now.

It is believed that Defoe's deal with Sunderland contains a relegation release clause which will allow him to speak to other clubs and join them on a free transfer. And now that our descent into the Championship is all but confirmed, it wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest that Defoe will already be attracting attention from a host of clubs across the world.

In fact, just earlier this week it was claimed that Defoe is poised for a move to his former club Bournemouth - former Skysports reporter Graham Bailey has alleged that the Cherries are confident that they will sign the former Spurs forward in the summer, once he becomes officially available to transfer to other clubs.

In Defoe's interview with CNN - which can be watched below - he says when talking about his relationship with Bradley:

... all I can do is try and spend as much time with him as possible.. and that's what I'm going to try and do between now and the end of the season.

Skip to 4:45 to make your own mind up on what Defoe says, and whether or not you feel that he gives us the strongest hint yet that he'll be leaving the North East this summer.

Wahbi Khazri loves the fans

Forgotten man Wahbi Khazri has been speaking to SAFC.com about what lies ahead for Sunderland as we head towards the end of the season, and acknowledged the support he has been given by the fans, calling them 'unbelievable'.

Talking to the club website, the Tunisian playmaker said:

I like this team and I like this club – the fans are unbelievable – so we need to fight and give 100%.

It was a good game [on Saturday] and West Ham are not a bad team, they have some good players so it wasn’t a bad result, but it also wasn’t a good one.

We are nine points behind Hull City and if we win at Middlesbrough we can cut that gap to six, so we need to keep the faith and fight for all 38 games.

And when asked about whether or not he thinks that he'll start in the Tees-Wear derby next Wednesday, he remarked: “I hope so, it’s my job."

Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

And we hope so too, Wahbi.

Khazri's performance last weekend against West Ham was arguably his finest game in a Sunderland shirt, and whilst it it patently obvious that David Moyes isn't a fan of him - hence not starting him in a single game since October up until this past Saturday - you'll be hard pressed to find a single Sunderland supporter that doesn't think that the former Bordeaux man deserves to retain his place in the side for the visit to the Riverside next week.