Roy Keane completed the £6m signing of Kenwyne Jones on Thursday with Stern John going in the opposite direction. This brings the former Manchester United midfielder’s spending to over £35m, a gargantuan budget for a team who have just been promoted and have a habit of flitting between the top two divisions.

Yet Niall Quinn obviously feels that Keane can be trusted with such a transfer kitty. However, questions have to be asked as to whether it has been money well spent. Eyebrows were certainly raised when Michael Chopra was signed for £5m. having previously failed to cement a place in a Newcastle team bereft of strikers. Admittedly he scored in the Championship but as Ade Akinbiyi, Darius Henderson and numerous others will testify this does not equate to Premiership goals.

In Chopra’s defence he has netted twice this season, against Spurs and Derby, but whether he can maintain such a strike rate is a doubt and it would upset the odds to see the former Cardiff man hit double figures this season.

'So we return to the man of the hour, Kenwyne Jones, tall powerful and with the capacity to score a paltry amount of goals'


Paul McShane, brought in from West Brom, also looks like a surprising buy. Indeed. many were critical at the Hawthorns of McShane’s lack of pace and were delighted with his replacement Leon Barnett, who ironically cost £500,000 more than McShane. As with Chopra, he displayed real grit and determination in the season curtain-raiser, where he headed a succession of undignified and frankly uncultured long balls clear.

However, when he finds players running at him who have a bit of pace, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Robin van Persie and even the likes of Rob Earnshaw, he is likely to be found out fast. In the same vein of thought, Steve Coppell purchased Greg Halford in January for £1.5m, played him, did not rate him and sold him on to Sunderland for the double the price. Cracking business in any walk of life.

The biggest signing, from a fiscal perspective, was Craig Gordon from Hearts. There is no doubt that Gordon is a quality keeper - but £9m seems excessive. This is demonstrated by the fact that Arsenal, who will certainly be in a market soon, were not inclined to match such an asking price.

When Keane gained promotion, there was a tabloid frenzy with numerous Manchester United players past and present being linked with the club. Names like Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs were bandied around and even Diego Forlan gave a polite thanks but no thanks.

Keane did get some former United team-mates in - step forward Danny Higginbotham and Kieran Richardson, hardly the calibre of the aforementioned names and overpriced at the same time.  Richardson is a proven Premier League player and performed brilliantly in helping West Brom beat the drop a few years ago, but Higginbotham has yet to prove himself at the top level.

So we return to the man of the hour, Kenwyne Jones, tall powerful and with the capacity to score a paltry amount of goals. During his three-year tenure at Southampton, he netted 19 league goals in 71 starts, an abject return for a player who is to spearhead Sunderland’s survival bid. Even at international level, he has a record for Trinidad and Tobago of one goal in every 11 appearances.

If Keane the manager mirrors Roy Keane the player, then his players will be filled with motivational words, fight and desire. However, at the end of the day you cannot build a five-star hotel with twigs and a crisp packet. Thus the lack of quality at Sunderland may become apparent within the next few months.