Kenwyne Jones (Sunderland -> Stoke)

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez wants to snap up Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones in a swap deal involving outof-favour Ryan Babel. But he can only afford the £11million-rated Trinidad & Tobago target man if Babel goes to Steve Bruce's club.


 The Kop manager has limited funds and cannot match Birmingham and Stoke if it comes to a straight cash auction for 25-year-old Jones.

However, Benitez has let leading agents work on his behalf to set up a potential swap involving Dutchman Babel, who is also rated at £11m by the Anfield outfit.

Liverpool believe Jones would fancy joining them and playing alongside Fernando Torres - or taking the Spaniard's place if he has to rest his injury.

Jones is not excited by the idea of joining Birmingham or Stoke, who have a lower profile. Liverpool may drop their valuation on Babel - Sunderland rate him at £8m - to make the move happen. Bruce's interest has heightened because his bid for German striker Kevin Kuranyi, 27, at Schalke, looks doomed over the player's £130,000-a-week pay demands.

Babel, 23, has also been a target for ambitious Birmingham in the past few days but they came up short of the valuation and the Liverpool squad man is reluctant to go to the Blues.

Benitez has other strikers in mind, including Aston Villa's Anfield old boy Emile Heskey.

But Jones - a 6ft 2in powerhouse frontman when he is in the mood - is his first choice.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/media-watch/rafa-top-of-the-swaps#comments

not too sure,whilst jones is the soet of striker we are lacking and babel not being used it could be a good deal.would rather give babel 6 month to save his anfield career and hopefully benitez will tell him.

The Kop manager has limited funds and cannot match Birmingham and Stoke if it comes to a straight cash auction for 25-year-old Jones.

It's a sad day when you read something like that, we really need dumb and dumber out.

I think this would potentially be a good deal Sunderland would have to be pretty stupid to agree to it though.

I cant beleive that dot tv is publishing what the media say

If this move does happen we have to change our formation.. that wont happen

Not sure I would be too happy if we signed him, I just don't think he will move our club to another level.

The Kop manager has limited funds and cannot match Birmingham and Stoke if it comes to a straight cash auction for 25-year-old Jones.

It's a sad day when you read something like that, we really need dumb and dumber out.

I think this would potentially be a good deal Sunderland would have to be pretty stupid to agree to it though.

Agreed.

Surely the owners must think theres something wrong when we can't compete financially with teams whom have only been in the premier league for 1 and 2 seasons respectively!!!

I like babel , but i also like jones, i think this would be a great swap.

I doubt this will happen....
I think we'll see babel stay until at least Jan.

I doubt this will happen....
I think we'll see babel stay until at least Jan.

It is Jan.

I've seen Jones play a few times and he does look like a good player, a younger version of Drogba.

Can he cut it at this level though? He doesn't score enough goals IMO, and although the service at LFC would be alot better than what it is at Sunderland, I still don't think Kenwyne has that bit of class about him where he will score 20 a season.

I think there could be better options in the market.

I personally think we have nothing to lose over this deal if it happens. Jones looks a decent player and has been linked with us for a while now.
Babel is virtually contributing nothing just now,whether thats his fault or Benitez can be argued (IMO its his). So whats the point in him staying here if this is going to continue, so wouldnt mind this one coming off, although the fact we are the only "big" club after him might say it all.

Again, I'm not convinced he is the answer but I agree with the poster above if there was to be a swap deal then we have nothing to lose. However I think any money for Babel should go towards a quality proven player.

I quite like Jones but I understand peoples worries about whether he is Liverpool quality. but the article suggests a swap deal, so the question is do you want a Babel or Jones? personally I'd had Jones, think he can do more for us.

Benitez likes a target man, had Carew at Valencia and Mista played fairly similarly if i remember rightly. Also we had Crouch but was awful in the air for a big man and wasn't aggressive enough but Jones is better in those two aspects of his game (not sure about his link up because I read once he only passed twice to his strike partner in a game once, I know its an isolated incident but its very odd).

I think for a target man role, Jones is as good as we'll get if all we have to bargain with is Babel.

I would take Bruce himself, to play centre-half, in a 'player' exchange for Babel F.F.S.

I'd like to think there was some mileage in the story but reckon we ain't that lucky. 

He is a good player but if we are trying to bring a striker in to chip in with some goals and ease the pressure of Torres and Gerrard I just don't Jones as this type of player, he never been a pure goal scorer at an of the clubs he was at.

Think he's over rated personally.

No thanks for Jones

Not a bad player but i do not think he is good enough for us.

Lazy c**t, no thanks.

KENWYNE JONES WORTH £40m - BRUCE

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has claimed Barclays Premier League rivals Birmingham and Stoke could not afford to buy striker Kenwyne Jones who on his day is worth £40million.

The Black Cats boss does not want to sell the 25-year-old Trinidad & Tobago star after Birmingham and Stoke reportedly showed interest in the player.

Bruce told the Daily Mail: "Everybody's got their price, whether you're Steven Gerrard or Cristiano Ronaldo, and if something out there blows your brains.

"But with no disrespect to Stoke or Birmingham, can they afford him? I very much doubt it. It's not just the fee but wages, all the rest of it. I just can't see it.

"On his day, you can look at Kenwyne and say he's worth £40m, then on another day you'll think, 'Come on'. That's Kenwyne.

"He tests your skills as a manager. He's a big, genuine, nice lad. It's always the challenge - to get the best out of him."

- http://www.sportinglife.com/football/transfer_centre/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/10/01/12/SOCCER_Sunderland.html


40 million? Is Bruce on drugs? That's like 20 Voronins!

Benny Taz i just say that on SkySports... £40 million unbelievable

Hes not a bad player Kenwyne and i wouldnt mind having him in the team but considering Torres cost us £20 Mill theres no way hes worth double that!

I don't think he'd say no to 12m.

I think he should have said no to drugs