RICKY SBRAGIA has revealed he was ready to quit as Sunderland manager if the club had accepted Tottenham’s bid for Kenwyne Jones in the recent transfer window.

The Black Cats boss, who admitted to being ‘naive’ in the dog-eat-dog transfer market, today faces arch wheelerdealer Harry Redknapp, who had a £15m bid for Jones rejected by Niall Quinn and the Sunderland board in January.

Had Jones been allowed to join the London outfit, the Scot claims it would have prompted the premature end of his tenure in the manager’s chair.

“I felt that if we’d sold Kenwyne I may as well have packed my bags and gone, because he would have been a big loss to us,” said Sbragia.

“I don’t think the public would have been too happy either.

“I would love to keep him for the next five, six, seven or eight years, because he’s important to us.”

Since signing a new contract to bring an end to the saga, Jones has scored twice in five appearances, while losing to Liverpool in midweek was the first time he had tasted defeat during that run.

But the powerful former Southampton forward is far from content and has outlined a long-term vision to succeed at Sunderland.

“I would like to think what happened has not affected me,” said Jones.

“In football you don’t have any power over certain things that happen and that’s what happened to me.

“Whether you move or not is sometimes not your decision.

If you move you move, but if you don’t then you have to quickly realise that you must concentrate on your job, which is football.

“Whatever happens outside of that will take care of itself.

“Whether I was going to move or not I had to c o n - c e n - t r a t e o n football, w h e t h e r that was going to be for Tottenham or for Sunderland, I had to think like that. It’s for Sunderland, so thank goodness I was still focused.”

Sbragia has already labelled Jones as one of the hottest attacking properties in the P r e m i e r League, while Roy Keane s u g g e s t e d last season that the m a n bought for £6m was worth at l e a s t £40m.

A n d Jones said: “The contract I signed was a step forward in my career and I’m now looking forward to the next couple of years.

“The contract was a bit of extra security for me and it’s all about looking to the future, you never know what is going to happen.

“At Sunderland they could be top six or whatever. All decisions are a gamble and I’m delighted to take that chance.

I want to win things with the team I am playing for, of course I do.”

Sbragia reiterated how angered he’d been by the manner of Spurs’ approach for the striker, who has scored nine times this season.

“I wasn’t happy with how it was dealt with, but it’s forgotten now. I was a bit naive, I knew it went on but not to what extent,” he said.

“But what gets me is that if a player signs a three or four year contract and then their agent tries to shift him in the window, I just can’t see that it’s right, whispering in his ear telling him he can get him this or that when there’s nothing on the table.

“It does unsettle them for that 31 days. The player’s mind gets confused as well, but it’s all generated around money.

“Previously Sunderland would maybe have sold Kenwyne, but we’ve changed it and we want to progress now and the only way we’ll do that is keeping our best players and then spend some money and bring in some better quality in the summer.”

But yesterday Redknapp claimed that Sunderland had privately welcomed Spurs’ offer for Jones.

“The club made a good bid for Kenwyne Jones and I’m sure that Niall was pleased to say to his owners that they have a player that a club wants to pay all this money for,” said Redknapp.

“He could say ‘what good business we did bringing him here’. It’s no problem they turned the offer down.

“Kenwyne signed a new contract and that is great for Sunderland.”

Despite Jones spurning a great chance to grab an early lead at Anfield on Tuesday night, Sbragia will hand him a chance to remind Redknapp of his qualities by partnering the T&T striker with Djibril Cisse.

“I haven’t spoken to him about it (the miss) but I know he’ll be disappointed and upset.

“The next one that comes, he’ll finish. He doesn’t need to be told he made a mistake.”

The Black Cats are aiming to complete their first double of the season after Cisse match-winning header bagged a 2-1 victory at White Hart Lane in September to launch his loan spell in devastating fashion.