Sunderland AFC did well to fend off Chelsea and Spurs after £6m masterstroke | OneFootball

Kenwyne Jones became a Sunderland cult figure during his three years on Wearside, and the Black Cats did well to retain his services during that time.

Sunderland signed striker Kenwyne Jones from then Championship side Southampton in 2007, and the big centre-forward would go on to become a cult figure during his three years at the Stadium of Light.

The Black Cats paid a reported £6m to bring the Trinidad and Tobago international to Wearside in the summer of 2007, after Jones had gone on strike with the Championship side in an attempt to force through a move.

Roy Keane had got the big target-man striker he'd been looking for, as he looked to bolster Sunderland's forward line ahead of their first season back in the Premier League after winning promotion in the 2006/07 campaign.

FLW takes a look back at Jones' three years in the North East and how his performances and goals captured the attention of some top clubs, how he became a cult figure at the club, and how his time at the Stadium of Light eventually came to an end.

Jones had everything Sunderland were looking for in a centre-forward

When it came to ticking off the boxes of what you'd want in a striker, there weren't many that you could leave unticked when it came to Jones.

Tall, strong, agile, extremely athletic for a player of his build and stature, superb in the air and excellent with the ball at his feet, whilst also being deceptively quick and sharp.

One of the greatest compliments a player can receive is from another player, and in the case of a centre-forward, the best compliment you can be handed is from an opposing defender.

That's precisely what Jones received from one of the all-time great Premier League centre-backs, John Terry. Speaking after a match between Sunderland and Chelsea in 2008, Terry proclaimed Jones as the "best in the air" in the top-flight.

Over the next three seasons, Jones would become the focal point of Sunderland's attack, and was renowned and feared across the Premier League for his ability to ruin a defender's day with any given cross into the box.

His superb debut season on Wearside saw him draw the attention of the likes of Liverpool, as reports emerged that Rafa Benitez was preparing a big-money offer for the Sunderland striker.

That move never materialised, however, and Jones went about his business again in the 2008/09 campaign, scoring 10 Premier League goals and providing a further two assists.

By this point, his contribution in attack and iconic celebration that saw him cartwheeling and flipping through the air had cemented his status as a cult figure on Wearside, but speculation over a move away simply wouldn't go away.

Come January 2009, Spurs were one of the clubs most heavily linked with a move for Jones, but he would put that speculation to bed, momentarily at least, by signing a new four-and-a-half-year contract at the Stadium of Light in that winter window.

However, with Sunderland's Premier League status hanging in the balance going into the final day of the 2008/09 season, Jones confessed that he didn't know where his future would lie beyond that summer if the club were relegated to the Championship.

"If we stay up I am definitely going to be here. If we go down I don't know what is going to happen," the striker would say at the time. As it happened, Sunderland did stay up that season, and Jones stook to his word and remained at the club that summer.

Steve Bruce confessed that transfer talk unsettled Jones before calling time on Sunderland career

The big-money interest in Jones had first arrived during his first season at Sunderland when Keane was in charge, and as he would reveal in a 2020 interview with the Sunderland Echo, he snubbed the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea because he wanted to be a part of what the Black Cats were building.

Jones said: “Me staying at the club was down to me wanting to settle a little bit and to become a part of something that was building. Sunderland always has the potential to be a massive, massive club and for whatever reasons - or for a combination of reasons - things don’t seem to have worked out as they should have.

“But the fanbase, the facilities and the stadium are all second to none. It’s magnificent, really. I love the place, so that was my main reason for staying. It wasn’t like he (Keane) brought me in and then he left so I wanted to leave, it was nothing like that.”

However, after a 16th-placed finish in 2008/09 was followed up with a 13th-placed finish in 2009/10, Sunderland didn't appear to be a club that was moving in the right direction quite fast enough.

As a result, interest in Jones reignited, and then Sunderland boss Steve Bruce confessed that all the talk of a transfer had taken a negative impact on the striker.

In a 2010 interview, and after talk of a loan move to Liverpool, Bruce said: "It is the biggest problem I've got. I know for a fact they (Liverpool) have unsettled the boy. We've got to get him back on-side.

"I think there has been a miscommunication that I would let him out on loan. It is a ludicrous notion but I hope now it is put to bed. The one thing I have got to do is get Kenwyne Jones pointed in the right direction and playing the way we know he can. If Saturday was anything to go by, it certainly has affected him. He was no use."

Eventually, the time did come for Jones to leave Sunderland, as he signed for Stoke City in the summer of 2010, in a deal worth a reported £8m.

Overall, Jones' time at Sunderland was a success. For the fee the Black Cats paid for his services, they received a solid number of goals and assists, as well as a cult figure that was the architect of some wonderful moments and memories for the club.