Stoke City misfired with club-record £8m Sunderland AFC transfer agreement | OneFootball

Stoke City signed Kenwyne Jones from Sunderland in August 2010 for a club-record fee

Stoke City broke their club-record fee paid for a player when they signed Trinidad and Tobago international striker Kenwyne Jones from fellow Premier League side Sunderland in the summer of 2010, but his time in the Potteries wasn't the resounding success that Stoke fans would've hoped for.

Born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago, Jones started his footballing career in his native country, playing for both Joe Public and W Connection between 2002 and 2004, making a total of 42 appearances and scoring 39 goals, alerting clubs from across the world.

Following a trial with Premier League outfit Southampton, he would join the Saints in 2004 for a nominal fee, with then-Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe saying upon his arrival: "He did well on trial so we signed him quickly because a lot of other clubs wanted him.

"He is a tremendous athlete and the coaching staff believe they can turn him into a very good footballer. We hope we have got ourselves a very good player. He is certainly not short on confidence."

In the 2004/05 season, Jones would head out on a loan spell with Sheffield Wednesday in League One, where he scored seven times and grabbed one assist in seven games, before returning to Southampton for two games in the Premier League against Liverpool and Portsmouth, before heading out on loan once more, this time to Stoke in the Championship.

The six-foot-two-inch striker scored three goals in 13 games in his first spell with the Potters, and would return to Southampton for the next two seasons with the club in the Championship, scoring 18 and grabbing four assists across 68 appearances, where Premier interest once again came knocking.

Sunderland signed Jones in August 2007 under Roy Keane for £6 million, where he would spend three years in the top flight, scoring 28 goals and grabbing 18 assists in Black Cats colours, before Tony Pulis' Stoke came calling once more.

Stoke City signed Kenwyne Jones for the second time in 2010 for a club-record fee

Stoke signed Jones for the second time in August 2010 in a deal worth a reported £8 million, a club-record fee for the Potters at the time, and reinforced Stoke's attacking options, already possessing the likes of Ricardo Fuller, Jonathan Walters and Mamady Sidibe.

Upon his arrival, manager Pulis said: "Kenwyne is unplayable on his day which is why this is a fantastic signing for this club. We need goals in our team and we also need strong competition among our strikers if we are to continue improving at this level.

"Kenwyne will give us that. It's no secret that I am one of his biggest admirers, he did a smashing job for us when he was here on loan. He was very young back then, but I believe that he has the best years ahead of him as a top striker."

Steve Bruce, who was manager of Sunderland at the time of Jones' sale, was less complimentary about him, saying: "Towards the end with Kenwyne things were not working out. So I have accepted Stoke's offer.

"There has always been a frustration with me and, I think, with supporters, who have watched Kenwyne that you see an abundance of talent, but it has not come out often enough."

Jones slotted straight into the Potters starting eleven under Pulis, and in his debut season, he scored 12 goals in all competitions from 42 appearances, helping Stoke to reach an FA Cup final in the process by defeating Bolton Wanderers 5-0 at Wembley Stadium, where he netted the third, only to lose out in the final against Manchester City, squandering the Potters' biggest chance of the game.

From there, it seemed to go downhill for Jones, who, after nine goals and 33 Premier League starts in his maiden season in Staffordshire, was limited to just ten top-flight starts the following season and eleven appearances from the bench, scoring just one league goal, with the arrival of Peter Crouch seeing the Trinbagonian's game time heavily reduced.

Stoke once again smashed their transfer record to sign Crouch from Tottenham Hotspur for £12 million, essentially replacing Jones in the process, whilst the former England international went on to become the Potters' record Premier League goalscorer.

Jones would spend another one-and-a-half seasons at Stoke thereafter, eventually joining Cardiff City in a player-swap deal which saw Peter Odemwingie go the other way.

The Trinbagonian would end his Stoke career with 31 goals and five assists in 130 appearances across all competitions, making the most appearances for the Potters out of anyone in his career.

After the Potters, he would go on to play for both Cardiff and Bournemouth in the Championship, before brief stints in the UAE for Al Jazira and in the MLS for Atlanta United, and then ending his playing days in his native Trinidad and Tobago with Central.

Although Jones never became the striker many Stoke fans would have hoped he would, his goal return at Stoke certainly could have been much worse, and if it wasn't for the arrival of Crouch, he'd likely of scored a few more than what he did.

Now retired, he spent two years as manager of the Trinidad and Tobago women's national team between 2021 and 2023, and following Sunderland's promotion to the Premier League last season, he tweeted his delight for the club.