So the speculation – now confirmed by the club – is that Kenwyne Jones is on his way out of the Stadium of Light. Good thing, bad thing? We’ve promoted the story back to the top of the site because of the interest it has generated …
Looking back, we can allow ourselves to say what a shame we didn’t accept silly money from Spurs for Kenwyne Jones. The papers said £20m was offered. That may have been an exaggeration but certainly a great deal of money was at stake.
And odd flashes aside, what has he done for us since then?
With dissenting voices, Salut! Sunderland strongly supported Kenwyne, believing – as Steve Bruce did – that on his day he was, indeed, a £20m player. Those days, sadly, became rarities and, while we know too much cannot be deduced from the pre-season friendlies Bruce hates so much, he has been awful by all accounts.
It is no surprise, then, if his market value has shrunk. At £9m from Stoke, assuming that to be an accurate figure (though the £7m quoted elsewhere begins to trigger alarm bells) , we are probably getting more than we’d be likely to expect again.
That said, Sunderland simply cannot afford to rely on Darren Bent reproducing his goalscoring heroics of last season. Lose Jones and we have painfully thin strike support, Fraizer Campbell’s promising warm-up apart. And with Bent struggling with injury, the first game against Birmingham begins to look difficult.
Unless.
Unless Bruce has someone lined up, whose arrival is a pre-condition of Jones’s exit. That someone could be Danny Welbeck from Manchester United, and we’ll have to see a) if he comes and b) if he is close to being the finished product.
And Kenwyne Jones? A “friend” has rubbished the reported claim of another “friend” that he “no longer feels that Sunderland’s ambitions match his own”, saying: “Kenwyne is furious that someone would say his ambitions don’t match Sunderland’s.”
So we should be able to leave aside the humorous suggestion that Stoke may be regarded as a bigger, more ambitious club. He just wants away.
Good luck to him if he goes – provided he doesn’t do that old ex-Sunderland player trick of waiting until he plays us to show himself at his best.
And are you listening, Steve, about the need for strike power in his place?
Colin Randall
* Usual thanks to A Love Supreme for consent to reproduce the caricature
Jones out – Onuoha and Mensah in. Looks like we are shoring up the back 14 and as there’s no need for Kenwynne to fill in at centre half anymore he was surplus to requirements. DB injured and not playing tonight for Crapello’s Crowd has me speculating on the team sheet. I am looking forward to taking my seat at the SSoL on Saturday to cast my eye over our new strike force of Ferdinand and Bardsley. Shame Turner’s suspended because then we could have pushed Brambell up front too.
Reading between the widely spaced lines of SB’s comments looks like Kenwynne had been auditioning for his part in the A Team movie – that of BA (Bad Attitude) Baracus and so it looks like £8 or 9 million represents a good deal. But as others have pointed out who is stepping into his boots?
Rumours of Santa Cruz abound. If they are true then Salut must take the credit/blame for initiating the Ha’way Paraguay campaign! 🙂
Not to be defeatist but let’s also remember there’s little more than a big question-mark keeping goal for us right now.
Iain’s right — very depressing to see Stoke as a rival. And when is Riveros actually going to show up at the SoL?
You don’t sell one of your players to a rival club (how depressing is it to see Stoke as a rival club?) without a better replacement lined up, that’s a simple fact, unless you’re a selling club with no ambition apart from staying in the premier league. The transfers to date don’t inspire a great deal of confidence: Riveros in, but we lose Cana, so no great improvement in squad depth there, a young untried Egyptian, untold defenders and now we’re selling one of our 3 first team forwards. Bruce had better come up with something quick and pray Campbell comes good, or it’s a long, hard season ahead.
I respect Jeremy’s long-held view, and the piece he wrote here last season was quite even-handed, acknowledging KJ’s obvious qualities, but DaveyB has it spot on – when applied to those games when he did play well. The question is whether we have ever really see Kenwyne playing well enough, terrorising defences as he can (and even putting in a decent shift at the back), often enough. Also, it can happen to anyone but he was caught badly in possession on at least two occasions i remember last season that led to crucial goals for the opposition (Burney away springs to mind and there was another, ver similar one).
I also share DaveyB’s concern about how far £9m will go for the replacement.
It’s nice to see the topic generating so much interest on here .
I still think we need a big , strong target man – not sure 9m would buy us much quality – when you see 20m + bandied about for Adebuyou (excuse the spelling) , Jones seems a snip at 9m
last season’s home fixture against Man City , says it all for me, first half Jones was tremendous , winning everything in the air , holding the ball up , giving us options in attack . 2nd half without Jones – we hardly got out of our own penalty area , let alone half – and it was only a matter of time before City scored – although we nearly managed to see it through .
I wouldn’t want to lose Jones if it meant we were bringing in Danny Welbeck. I’m not here to watch us develop other teams players, I’d rather we signed someone if that was the case.
Bit of a rumour that Jones goes form £9m and we bring in Dortmund’s Paraguyan striker Nelson Valdez for about £4m. That ticks all the buzz word boxes such as “financial outlay” and “net profit” that seem to be all the rage at the minute. Who knows?
I don’t know if there’s as much in this Kenwyne deal as we’ve been lead to believe so far, but it certainly has gathered steam – and quickly, too, so there could be something in it. I’d expect him to be in the squad on Saturday, though.
Jones looked unplayable for about three games a couple of seasons ago and he’s done nothing since worthy of note. 9 million? Champion! Take their hands off! Welbeck may not be the answer. Two goals for Preston? I’d like to think that we are going to do a little bit better than this. Let’s wait and see.
£9 million would be a great price for a striker who doesn’t do it in front of goal – missing more cahnces than a £9 million striker should ever miss. Last season (or the one before) he was through on goal, one on one, against Liverpool and he fluffed it. Any decent striker should be putting those away for fun. I would have loved him to be a talismanic forward for us – but sadly it wasn’t going to happen. He has been given every chance. Since we lost the chance to make a real financial killing flogging him to dodgy Harry and the club (I think) significantly upped his salary, he hasn’t been the same. Sorry, no loss.
(That was a harsh comment about Thurrock Services in Sixer’s thread btw. Next time you are there – RING ME!)
i am very disappointed, i think Jones is a good player, and teams see him as a danger man, if we only bring wellbeck in then other teams will have a lot more focus on darren bent this season than they did last season, surely bruce has someone else lined up!
Jones had his final chance last season. The man has everything a striker should have bar one thing hunger. He is so lazy he can barely break into a run for most of a match. We may find it hard to get a player with comparable attributes but we cannot afford to keep one who has no intention of using those that Jones has, other than part time.
Jones reminds me of Joe Bugner a fighter who had virtually everything a boxer needed but who could never quite be bothered to put it together and so remained a poser.
It is hard to find any class players at the best of times but paying through the nose for those who will not deliver is pointless
Please, please let us SIGN a replacement for jones. I can’t help but feel we again seem to ponder around with loan deals, which are a good way to asses the talent but, like with hutton, if they perform too well we can’t afford them next season, the search then continues. Jones is not the class of bent and Campble has shown promise. waghorn will come good but is young and untested in the EPL. If bent is not fit for the opening fixture how great is our strike force. Answer unknown but I can’t see waghorn and campbell bullying the likes of john terry and co. £9million should be used to add to our attacking options.
To say Kenwyn Jones is inconsistent is like saying the sky is blue! Here’s what I like about Steve Bruce. He identifies players that don’t cut the mustard and ruthlessly ousts them. I can’t remember a single Sunderland manager to have done that before. Did anyone want Daryl to stay!! We always seem to keep hold of the dead wood. IF Jones goes, it will be a shame that we never saw him live up to his tag. But if he goes we need a recognised striker to fill his boots. But I fear that if Wellbeck comes, that will be it. SAF would not sanction a move if we buy another striker. Competing with Jones however, considering his form, would have been a breeze! We have a weaker team than last season, so if we are to remain true to our ambitions, Brucie needs to impress us with his acumen in the market until it closes. Riveros will not come good for a few months. We need a play-maker and a striker, otherwise it’s float above the bottom 3 and yet another whoop-dee-doo season!
How many games has Jones won for SAFC. Not enough I would suggest. Campbell had a better scoring record when played up front last season. 9 million has got to be a good deal, just lets hope it gets used wisely. If Stoke is his destination then my heart goes out to Pulis – he likes hard working players – he must think he can perform a miracle with Kenwyn. Pre season nerves seem to be setting in amongst the supporters once again – some things never change – it’s part of following SAFC. See you all on Saturday!!!
Didn’t we sit tight last season and hope Bruce had a few tricks up his sleeve? I do still have faith in him but I’m starting this season feeling a few misgivings.
Before David James’ clumsy (that’s be being charitable) challenge in the T&T v England match I thought Jones was class for us. He was strong, hard working and almost always a threat. He certainly hasn’t been the same player since.
Of course the way finances are in football these days managers need to keep an eye on outgoings. We still have players on the books drawing big money wages who are unlikely to do anything but train. Tainio, Healey, McCartney spring to mind. I’m sure Bruce is trying to offload them but there doesn’t appear to be any interest. And with this new 25 player rule, squads need to meet the criteria. Campbell, Wellbeck (if he comes), Meylor, Henderson, Waghorn I should think would all be included. If I’ve got this right 8 players need to have been with English/Welsh teams for 3 years before they reached 21. Looking at our squad with John Mensah included there are a lot of players who would be in the 17 non English developed.
I have had a lot of time for Kenwynne but it has to be a question of value for money. I’ll continue to put my faith in SB, NQ and ES for the present. I’ll still be upset if we can’t finish higher than Stoke City though!
when jones was good he was unplayable unfortunatly he was awful most of the time. lazy, lethargic. devoid of any sort of urgency. hpeople keep saying he was good in defence but he was not bought for that he was bought to score goals and at that he was poor. i hope he does go to stoke they are more than welcome to him and we will be all the better by getting rid of him
When you think about it you can count on one hand the good games Jones played for Sunderland. We need someone who can do it on a regular basis. Wellbeck is a lot more skillful than Jones and I believe he will be a success if does come.
I’m not happy about this at all . Watching Welbeck a few times for Preston last season , I can’t see him stepping up into Jones boots this season . I just hope Bruce has another big centre forward in his sights ; Jones did tremendously well defending corners and set pieces last season . He was all too often knocked over by flyweights but i still think he will be a big miss and needs a like for like replacement .
I’m unsure if Bruce will even look for a direct replacement for Kenwyne. Perhaps he will use the money we get for Jones to go towards bringing in N’Zogbia and Onuoha from Man City. With Wellbeck coming in on loan.
All we can do is sit tight and hope Bruce has a few tricks up his sleeve. I’m quietly confident we will bring in some much needed quality. Quinny, Short and Bruce are all very ambitious, I’m sure they won’t just stand around and undo all of our hard work.
Top 10 is the target now and Bruce knows we’ll need more quality in depth to achieve this. I think we’ll be ok. Still, it’ll be strange not having Jones. Ok, his performances haven’t been the best but there’s no doubting he’s a dangerous player. Shame he’s going to Stoke though, surely they’re one of our main rivals?
Welbeck would seem to be a reasonable swap for Jones. That is, if Welbeck actually makes the move. It’s certainly looking very much as if Jones will go to Stoke. I’ll be sorry to see that. Yes, his form was inconsistent but when he was on, he wore boots that I can’t see Welbeck filling. Not yet, anyway. It puts a lot of weight on Bent’s shoulders.
Jones, Whitehead, Lawrence, Delap, Higginbotham, Sorensen, all could be part of a team playing in red and white stripes. How ironic will that be if (and the pre season omens are ominous) The Potters do the unthinkable and finish above us.
Pulis has done a good job but surely Bruce must be aiming to finish higher than the team from the Britannia!