Bournemouth striker Sam Surridge was close to a deadline day move to Jack Ross' League One promotion chasers, as revealed in an interview with the Bournemouth Daily Echo.

The 20-year-old has enjoyed loan spells with Yeovil and Oldham in the last 18 months, impressing on both occasions, and he was poised for a move to the north east on deadline day. Instead, Eddie Howe decided he wanted the forward to remain with the Cherries and push for a first team place.

"With the Sunderland situation, I was ready to go until Thursday (deadline day) but we did not know if I was going to be allowed out,"  said Surridge.

"It was one of those things I put at the back of my mind. If it happened, it happened but the gaffer wanted me to stay and I wanted to stay. I wanted to keep pushing myself and see what I could do."

The lure of playing for a huge club like Sunderland clearly had the youngster interested, but he went on to reveal how his preference was to remain at the Vitality Stadium and battle for a possible Premier League debut in the near future.

"The main thing I wanted when I came back was to stay at Bournemouth and prove myself. I have trained well and the gaffer wanted to keep me. If I ended up out on loan it would have been great but it was even better to stay here for the rest of the season."

Surridge scored 12 goals in 20 outings for Oldham, last appearing for them in the FA Cup as they shocked Premier League side Oldham at Craven Cottage.

He's returned to a Cherries side siting 11th in the table, nine points clear of the bottom three.

The Verdict

Surridge is a promising talent, but you have to wonder if the facts here are as they've been presented. Would Sunderland have given him game time, knowing they were closing in on Grigg? They brought Sterling in from Spurs too, is he not likely to have been ahead of Surridge?

It seems to me that him staying put was best all round, unless he was going somewhere like Oxford where regular football would have been more assured.