Sunderland's Kenwyne Jones told to forget about joining Liverpool

Steve Bruce will tell Kenwyne Jones to pull himself together and forget about joining Liverpool as Sunderland prepare for tomorrow'strip to Everton. Bruce is still fuming about what he describes as "totally ludicrous" reports which "insult everyone's intelligence" suggesting the centre-forward could be poised to join Rafa Benítez's team on loan. "They've certainly unsettled Kenwyne," said Sunderland's manager. "He has had his head turned by these ludicrous notions that I'm going to let him out on loan but he's got to get this nonsense out of his head. "As far as I'm concerned the issue has been put to bed, we've got Kenwyne for at least the next six months. We'll see what the situation is in the summer but I've always said I do not want to part with him." Although Sunderland would sell Jones if the right offer came in – for at least £12m – they are privately convinced that neither Liverpool, nor his other suitors, Birmingham City and Stoke City, will stump up the requisite cash while also meeting the wage demands of a player who seemingly has his heart set on moving to Anfield. "Liverpool would have to make a serious offer for Kenwyne to leave," stressed Bruce. In the meantime his side are currently struggling – Sunderland have not won in the Premier League since November – and he was so dismayed by the poverty of Jones's performance during Saturday's FA Cup defeat at Portsmouth that he is considering dropping him. "It's possible," said Bruce. "I certainly need to have another talk to Kenwyne before Everton because the situation has certainly affected him. I tried speaking to Kenwyne last Friday before we played Portsmouth but at the moment I'm telling him one thing and he's maybe hearing different stories from elsewhere. Right now he's maybe questioning me. "Whether Kenwyne doesn't want to be at this club any more I don't know but we are paying him very well and we need to get him turned round, pointed in the right direction and focused again. Kenwyne's a wonderful, fantastic talent but only when he's playing at the right level. It's up to him but this is a big, big club." Bruce is particularly infuriated as he claims Liverpool and Sunderland had no contact over Jones until last Friday night when his chairman Niall Quinn telephoned the Anfield chief executive, Christian Purslow, to demand an explanation for a series of newspaper reports. "I'm led to believe there has been a mis-communication but that the situation has been led by agents, which I find unhealthy," he said. The Sunderland manager's gloomy mood has hardly been helped by the incident in the bathroom of a Mexico City bar which saw one of his long-term transfer targets, the Paraguay striker Salvador Cabañas shot in the head – "it's shocking, a tragedy, I've been after Salvador for three years," said Bruce – but he is buoyed by Lee Cattermole's return to fitness and the central midfield enforcing role. Cattermole has been badly missed during a three-month convalesence from a knee injury. "We've never been quite the same without Catts," said Bruce who will give a debut to Matthew Killgallon, his new signing from Sheffield United, in central defence. "Losing Lee has been a bit similar to Liverpool losing Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard but now we're getting our injured players back I'm confident we can go on a winning run and finish in the top 10."