Simon Cowell wants Leona Lewis to return to Syco.

Leona Lewis

Leona Lewis

The 'Bleeding Love' hitmaker broke away from the label last year following a number of disagreements and instead signed to Island Records, but after her new single 'Fire Under My Feet' flopped in the charts, her old boss has reached out to the estranged star with a potentially career-saving offer.

He said: "I have a real soft spot for Leona for so many reasons. I'd say to her, and I genuinely mean this, that the door will always be left open.

"Any time she ever thought, 'I want to come back to Syco' I'd welcome her back with open arms.

"When you've got talent as good as this and a voice as good as that, with the right song you can always have a hit."

And Simon believes his "enemies" were partly to blame for the open letter that Leona penned where she voiced her "frustrations" with his label.

He explained to The Sun newspaper: "She was being wound up. That just wasn't her. And I think she now understands that once you say something, it kind of creates your own momentum, but probably not in the right way."

The 30-year-old star - who will release her fifth studio album 'I Am' on September 11 2015 - won the third series of 'The X Factor' in 2006 but recently revealed she quit her record deal with Syco because she wanted a more approachable boss.

She said: "I wanted to go somewhere I had close personal relationships, the sort of place where I could phone the boss on a Sunday and ask him if one track - already finished - could have strings on it and he would not only take my call but say, 'Yes.'"