Sunderland put block on Liverpool FC's move for Kenwyne Jones

LIVERPOOL’S hopes of signing Kenwyne Jones were effectively dead today after Sunderland refused any attempt to do business.

As was reported in later editions of last night’s ECHO, the Reds spent the weekend trying to thrash out a deal to bring the Trinidad & Tobago international to Anfield on loan until the end of the season and were hopeful of doing so.

With Fernando Torres facing a spell on the sidelines due to a knee injury, boss Rafa Benitez wanted to bring Jones to Anfield to give his strike force a physical presence and increase competition for places.

Yet despite the player wanting to switch Wearside for Merseyside, Sunderland would not entertain any thoughts of a loan and insisted the only way the Jones would leave the Stadium of Light during this window was in a cash deal.

The Reds, of course, are not flush with cash at present and had no intentions of meeting Sunderland’s asking price of well in excess of £10m for Jones, who has scored 25 times in 85 appearances for the Black Cats.

Benitez, who is also in the race to sign Bordeaux striker Marouane Chamakh, is unlikely to give up his search to bring another forward in before the window closes and has vowed to keep “working hard” to find the right man.

“We will see if we can do something more in this window,” he added. “If we cannot we will stick together for the next challenge. We have a good team, a good squad and are not as bad as people think.”

A more immediate priority, though, is tomorrow night’s Anfield showdown with Tottenham Hotspur and the Reds’ boss wants to see his team show the same attitude and resilience as they did at Stoke on Saturday.

But, more importantly, he has urged them to develop a ruthless streak in order to prevent more precious points slipping away.

“We are in a position where we have to kill off games,” he said today. “Even in the last two games when we haven’t played well, we could still have won them.

“If we can do what we did against Wolves and Aston Villa, the confidence will be there. We might not have been doing well but still we can be close to where we want to be.

“That has to be the message to the players. We are still in there. We have to approach every game thinking that we need to get three points.

“The main thing is to be strong, be solid and if we can score, let’s try to kill the games. We haven’t been doing this enough. Against Reading, we started the second half really well but couldn't get the last pass right or find the player.

“Had we done that, we’d be talking about a totally different situation. We know that we have to improve but we have a game soon to do that.”