TO some people, the thought of joining a club stranded in the relegation zone would be sufficient to scupper any hope of a January deal. To Lamine Kone, however, Sunderland’s plight was one of the key reasons why he opted to move to the Stadium of Light.

As a tough, uncompromising centre-half, the Ivory Coast international has built his career on never shirking a challenge. And they don’t come much bigger than hauling Sunderland to safety in the remaining three months of the season.

So while Kone’s £5m move from French side Lorient was a tortuous affair, with the defender returning to France when the deal initially collapsed because of a failure to agree personal terms, only to return to Wearside when it was resurrected a week or so later, the toing and froing was never of the 27-year-old’s making.

In Kone’s mind, the prospect of contributing to another of Sunderland’s ‘Great Escapes’ was always an alluring one, and while his first two appearances for the club might only have resulted in a draw and a defeat, he has seen nothing to dampen his enthusiasm for the task that awaits.

“West Ham were interested in me when Sam Allardyce was in charge the summer before his last season, but they couldn’t agree a deal with Lorient so it didn’t come to anything,” said Kone. “So I knew Sam Allardyce from that, and I obviously know him as a good manager from what he’s done previously in the Premier League.

“Sunderland made an attractive offer for me. There were other clubs interested, but none of their interest came to anything concrete.

“I found this an interesting project because of the idea of helping them in the relegation battle. I spoke to Sam Allardyce, who said he needed me in a relegation battle, so that appealed to me. He just said he wanted me to come and help the club stay in the Premier League.” 

Kone left a Lorient side safely settled in mid-table in Ligue 1 in order to join Sunderland, and with his new employers sitting in 19th position, four points adrift of safety, he could have been forgiven for thinking twice about making the switch.

Financial issues will clearly have been a factor, but the relative size and stature of the two clubs was also an important consideration. Lorient, who are based in Brittany, were an amateur club for the majority of their existence, and only made their Ligue 1 debut in 1998. Sunderland, for all their struggles on the pitch in the last few seasons, were recently named as one of the 25 biggest clubs in the world in terms of revenue generation in a study by Deloitte.

 “I’ve already got the sense that this is a big club because the facilities here are very impressive,” said Kone. “Everything is geared to be a Premier League club. It’s bigger than I thought it was, and certainly bigger than Lorient.

“It’s just vital to stay in the Premier League now. My goal since I’ve come here is to win as many games as possible, and keep the club in the league. We don’t want to be relegated to the Championship.”

Kone’s performances will be a crucial part of that process, with Allardyce clearly regarding the new arrival as an integral part of his first-choice defence.

“I don’t think the Premier League is a particularly easy league, but I think the football here suits me,” he said. “You get a lot of high balls and it’s physical, which plays to my strengths.”