Jermain Defoe has already shown how Sunderland's young forwards can learn from him

After a transfer window where a move to bring Jermain Defoe back to the Stadium of Light was rumoured and hoped for throughout, Sunderland completed and announced the signing of the former England striker late into the night on deadline day.

The 39-year-old will be hoping to contribute on the field and score the goals to reignite the Black Cats' automatic promotion bid after scoring 26 goals in 2,411 minutes played for Rangers in the Scottish Premiership. This equates to 0.97 goals per 90 minutes played, showing that while he might be in the twilight of his career, he can still be a lethal goalscorer.

As well as what he can add with his goalscoring, Defoe has already spoken about giving something back to the club in terms of helping to develop youth players in his second stint on Wearside.

“Of course it’s a strong squad,” he said following his move on Monday night. “I keep mentioning that belief but that’s the key thing and I’m looking forward to working with the younger players.

“Hopefully I can give them a lot, I’ll always be approachable, they can always come up to me and speak about anything. I’ll obviously keep them on their toes, make sure we’re all in it together, make sure everyone’s working because the reward is so big.

“All the sacrifices and the hard work are for something that’s special at the end so I want to give something back and help the younger lads to push the club back to where it should be.”

Sunderland fans, of course, won't be surprised to hear him say this, after Defoe helped to nurture the talents of Joel Asoro and Josh Maja in his previous spell at the club.

Both went on to move play for the first team before moves away - to Swansea and Bordeaux respectively - but Defoe spotted their talents