The Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones has signed a new contract keeping him at the Stadium of Light until 2013.
The Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones has signed a new contract keeping him at the Stadium of Light until 2013.
The Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones has signed a new contract keeping him at the Stadium of Light until 2013.
The Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones has signed a new contract keeping him at the Stadium of Light until 2013.

Sport

Jones inks new Sunderland deal

The Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones ends speculation he may be on the move to Tottenham by signing a new long-term contact at the Stadium of Light.

Steve Luckings
Steve Luckings
Abu Dhabi

January 27, 2009

  • English
  • Arabic

The Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones has ended speculation he may be on the move to Tottenham by signing a new long-term contact at the Stadium of Light. Jones's future has been the subject of prickly debate over the last few days with the Black Cats boss Ricky Sbragia accusing Spurs of trying to unsettle his frontman in a bid to to lure him to White Hart Lane. Spurs boss Harry Redknapp accused Sunderland of the same tactic with regards to his own striker Darren Bent.

However, Sbragia confirmed today that the Trinidad & Tobago striker has inked a new four-and-a-half year deal to keep the former Southampton striker on Wearside until 2013. "I'm absolutely delighted that Kenwyne has committed to the club for the long term," Sbragia told Sunderland's official website. "He's young with a great future ahead of him and has already proven himself to be a key player for us. "The fact that we've had interest from top clubs shows how much of an asset he is, and it's fantastic that he will be a Sunderland player for many years to come."

The news will come as a blow to Redknapp who was hoping to make it a double raid on Sunderland after re-signing the French full-back Pascal Chimbonda yesterday. It is well-known Redknapp favours a 'little and large' strike partnership and saw Jones as the perfect foil for diminutive forward Jermain Defoe, who joined from Portsmouth earlier this month. The other strikers at the club ? Roman Pavlyuchenko, Bent or Frazier Campbell ? do not suit that role. sluckings@thenational.ae *With AP

more from Janine di Giovanni
While you're here
TEST SQUADS

Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mominul Haque, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Shafiul Islam, Taijul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed.

Australia: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson and Jackson Bird.

More on Quran memorisation:
Towering concerns
Our commentary on Brexit
On Women's Day
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021

Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.

The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.

These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.

“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.

“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.

“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.

“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”

Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.

There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.

“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.

“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.

“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”

Tottenham Hotspur