Jones a prized asset for Keane

A Year on the Wear:Special K! Greetings from the la-la land of North-East football where the eleventeenth coming of messianic Kevin Keegan is met with Newcastle United-supporting children holding up their parents' cereal packets, while 12 miles down the road Roy Keane talks about his own Special K - Kenwyne Jones - and says that just over 4 months after signing him, after 18 games and five goals: "No doubt, we have the best striker in the Premiership. If certain strikers are worth £20 million he is worth £40 million." There may be something in the water that feeds the Tyne and the Wear.

What can you say on days like yesterday - "Rock on, Roy?" He was, as he is most Fridays, ebullient, buoyed by last Sunday's good, much-needed win over Portsmouth. But £40 million? Jones played well last week. He was man of the match despite Kieran Richardson's two goals. But £40 million?

But Keane was straight-faced. His contentedness with his Trinidadian striker was enhanced by the fact Jones played when he was "60 or 70 per cent fit" against Portsmouth. Keane likes men like that.

Even carrying an injury, Jones rattled Sol Campbell and Sylvain Distin. This experienced pair had helped Portsmouth win nine of their previous 10 away games. They looked unnerved last week.

As well as Jones's readiness to play when injured, Keane also stressed his newness: "Remember, this is his first taste of the Premiership." Indeed.

Sunderland go to Tottenham today in a reverse of the memorable opening-day fixture when Michael Chopra scored an injury-time winner. The following week, as Sunderland collapsed at Wigan, Jones scored Southampton's goal in a 2-1 defeat at Norwich. It was Jones's last game for the Saints. With Derby County as well as Sunderland interested, Jones went on semi-unofficial strike. Nothing moved for a fortnight or so, but then two days before August's window closed, up came Kenwyne. The general reaction was one of shock but three days later Jones made his Sunderland debut at Manchester United and, on his own up front, impressed.

Perhaps Old Trafford helped inspire Jones's display. As a teenager, Jones had travelled from Trinidad to United's Carrington training ground with two friends. It was big news back at home, and when they returned, Jones and the others told of who they met and how they got on. Dwight Yorke, a fellow islander, had dipped into his bulging pockets and handed over a wad of cash. They also met Roy Keane.

"Yeah, he told me he'd met me when he signed," Keane recalled. "But a lot of people come through gates at United, a lot of triallists, from the Caribbean, China, everywhere. I was obviously in a mood. He said I was but that's me"

Jones had had a trial at Ibrox as well, and at Middlesbrough, and was Trinidad's young footballer of the year then. But he was a defender, sometimes a defensive midfielder. By the time Keane next saw him, playing for Southampton at the Stadium of Light last season, Jones was leading the attack. He went on the list.

Playing at the World Cup - Trinidad and Tobago were in England's group - had raised Jones's profile. But Keane also had Yorke and Carlos Edwards in his ear on the Wear - the duo were international colleagues of Jones.

"When I took the job, I said I didn't know too much about Championship players," Keane added. "But we heard good reports about him and it helped that he knew Yorkie. That certainly helped with the deal. I suppose we got lucky with him.

"Kenwyne is very raw, but that's probably helped. As you get older you get coached too much and change what you are good at. He is very raw and the hope is he keeps improving at the rate of the last few months.

"Look at the top strikers and they probably get four or five chances a game. Kenwyne gets one every four or five weeks. But it is his assists and overall play, his defensive work at set-pieces, which has impressed me.

"That's what we need. He is living off the crumbs and a lot of what he gets is down to himself. He is a good team player and you often find the top strikers are not team players, they're just about goals. But Kenwyne isn't, I wouldn't swap him."

There have been "one or two reminders" issued, a Jones television interview on the day of the defeat at Chelsea apparently did not go down too well with the manager: "But there's been none lately. He's learned."

Chelsea brought the Didier Drogba comparison back. Jones does not like it and a former Sunderland centre forward put it in some context. "Kenwyne, on a first-year comparison, is ahead of Drogba and we hope and believe he'll get better," said Niall Quinn.

"I think Kenwyne's got a bit of everything - he can run, pass the ball well, win headers, score goals, he's one of the quickest at the club. In time he can go all the way. But he has to be given time. I heard Graeme Souness describe him as a poor-man's Drogba but give Kenwyne three years in this division and then compare them, not now. He's done a superb job but give him time."

With football's eyes today on St James' Park, a Jones goal at White Hart Lane would be timely. From Sunderland's own Special K.