Kenwyne Jones may go if Sunderland get relegated

May 20 2009 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

LESS than five months after Sunderland thought they had tied Kenwyne Jones down until 2013, the Black Cats striker has cast his future into doubt.

The Trinidad and Tobago striker will remain at the Stadium of Light if the Black Cats beat relegation on Sunday. But he was more coy about what might happen in the still entirely likely event that they do not.

At the end of a season in which Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp wanted to back up his conviction that Jones is one of the Premier League’s top strikers with cash, the 24-year-old was evasive about the possibility of leaving the division if Sunderland do.

“I can’t say what’s going to happen,” Jones insisted when pressed. “Obviously things do happen in those situations.

“I’ve committed myself to the club. If we stay up I am definitely going to be here. If we go down I don’t know what is going to happen. I just have to work hard and do the best I can for Sunderland.”

If Jones leads the Wearsiders to victory at home to Chelsea on Sunday, all such questions would be rendered irrelevant. But if – and only if – that does

not happen and Newcastle United and Hull City beat Aston Villa and Manchester United respectively, Sunderland will be relegated for the first time since Jones joined from Southampton – inevitably players will then need to be sold.

Since celebrating his new contract with a winner against Fulham that January night, the forward’s form has been poor and at times his attitude questionable. He has scored just three goals in 14 games since, and he and Djibril Cissé have continued to play together like strangers.

Cissé will be dispensed with this summer when his loan from Marseilles expires. Another player in a similar position at Wigan Athletic, Amr Zaki, is the latest to be linked as a potential replacement.