Keeping Kenwyne was Cats' top deal

Feb 3 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

TWO defenders in, eight players out. Sunderland’s January 2009 transfer business might have been as sexy as a wet Wednesday in Walthamstow, but it was a qualified success.

Having inherited such a bloated squad, moving players on was always likely to be almost as important as new signings for manager Ricky Sbragia and in that regard he has done some decent business.

What the state of the club’s finances are, none of us know, but there were sound football reasons for clearing bodies off the training field, plus a couple of pretty disruptive influences.

Pascal Chimbonda has gone back to Tottenham Hotspur half a year after leaving in disgrace, and El-Hadji Diouf is having a stab at making more impact at Blackburn Rovers than he did on Wearside. That Sunderland collected hefty fees for both shows good business acumen on their part, and the desperation of football clubs locked in a relegation battle.

Michael Chopra could have made a contribution in the second half of the season, but to receive £4m for the striker – as they hope to once his loan to Cardiff City expires in May – is good value for a man who fluffed his lines in the final act of Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby.

With Roy O’Donovan, Liam Miller, Graham Kavanagh and Ross Wallace out of the door – the latter three never to return – the pathway to the starting XI is suddenly a lot clearer for some of those who might have thought it would take some sort of natural disaster to get a call-up under Roy Keane.

The only real downside was that Paul McShane remains a Sunderland player. That might seem harsh, though perhaps only to a small minority at the Stadium of Light.

But regardless of how good or bad you think the Republic of Ireland international is, any player whose introduction is greeted with boos (as McShane’s was against Aston Villa and Fulham) is wasting his time.

The problem with Sunderland’s squad 33 days ago was it was ludicrously top-heavy with midfielders and attackers. Sbragia’s desperate search for new defenders has unearthed Tal Ben-Haim and Calum Davenport. They are solid rather than glamorous, but then that is what defenders should be.

One must hope for their sake that Sbragia was lying when he said he was not interested in the pair last week.

But of all the signings Sunderland have made this month, one stands out as being by far the best.

Getting Kenwyne Jones to commit to a new four-and-a-half year contract was far more valuable than a glitzy new arrival.

He may have irritated the hell out of them for much of the month, but perhaps the Black Cats owe Harry Redknapp a big thank you after all.