Cats boss Sbragia in warning to Harry
Jan 26 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal
SUNDERLAND have become the second North East club this month to voice their frustration at Tottenham’s transfer tactics, warning Harry Redknapp he is wasting his time with his very public courting of Kenwyne Jones.
The Londoners appear to have finally abandoned their latest attempt to sign Middlesbrough winger Stewart Downing and are now targeting Jones, who Redknapp managed at Southampton. “We have made an enquiry for Jones,” he said. “I have no idea how far the chairman has got with it or even whether Sunderland want to do a deal.”
Sbragia was only too willing to tell him after Saturday’s FA Cup fourth-round draw with Blackburn, and will offer the striker a new contract rather than accept a bid believed to be worth £6m plus Darren Bent. “He won’t be going,” was Sbragia’s response. “No way.”
What most infuriates Sunderland even more than Spurs’ refusal to take no for an answer is the attempt to do their buying in public.
“It’s the methods Tottenham use,” Sbragia explained. “That’s the most disappointing thing for me. They’ve enquired, we’ve said ‘no’ and the biggest concern is that the player’s head doesn’t get turned. Leaks keep coming out, that’s very frustrating.”
Redknapp’s recent utterings have harmed his reputation. As well as attempts to unsettle Jones, Downing, Craig Bellamy, Jermain Defoe and others, he had to backtrack last week after promising to field “the weakest team I can find” in the FA Cup and was criticised for claiming his wife Sandra could have scored the chance Bent missed against Portsmouth last weekend.
Sbragia says he has the backing of his board and Jones. “The ownership of our club are happy with the way things are going, we’re trying to build a team around Kenwyne,” he said. “We spoke to Kenwyne on Friday and he’s happy here. We asked if the situation had been a problem for him and he said ‘no’. He has never shown once he doesn’t want to be here.
“Why should we lose our best players? I could understand if it was a top four club, or maybe even Villa or Everton, but I can’t understand the Spurs thing.
“We would be losing one of our best players. If we went to Spurs and asked them to sell their best player to us, they would say no and I can tell you we’re not interested in any of their players. There has been stuff in the media but it’s all come from London.”
Tottenham were very vociferous last summer about the not dissimilar methods Liverpool and Manchester United used to sign Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov respectively, but made no official complaint.
“Kenwyne has still got two-and-a-half years (left on his contract) here,” Sbragia stressed. “They’re trying to get into the player’s head and maybe trying to work the agent a bit more and push the situation.”
Sunderland would like to keep Jones beyond the summer of 2011. “We’d like him to commit himself for longer,” said Sbragia. “We need to move up the table in the Premier League and Kenwyne would be a vital cog in that.”
Unsettled Pascal Chimbonda is also not for sale after excelling in his preferred position of centre-back on Saturday. Blackburn are expected to bid this week for El-Hadji Diouf, but are set for disappointment.
Disappointingly for the Cup’s lustre , Sbragia hinted Phil Bardsley and Dean Whitehead might engineer bookings against Fulham tomorrow so they are suspended in the replay, saying: “With our bookings we might get a few of them to miss the Cup tie.”
