Keane Warns Rival Clubs to Keep Their Hands Off His Sunderland 'untouchables'

Roy Keane has warned any predatory clubs that Kenwyne Jones and Craig Gordon are not for sale. The Sunderland manager yesterday described his center-forward and goalkeeper as "untouchables".

"No sometimes really means yes in the transfer market but in the cases of Kenwyne and Craig no means no without a doubt," said Keane, who has released the out-of-contract Andy Cole, Ian Harte and Stanislav Varga. "Kenwyne and our goalkeeper are definitely not going anywhere. There are certain players who are untouchable.

"Sometimes a club might think they might get £20m or £30m and invest it and it's a good deal for everyone but it certainly wouldn't be a good deal for us to let Kenwyne or our goalkeeper go. It would set us back a hell of a lot. They are no-gos - even if we were offered crazy money."

Happily for Keane, Jones, a £6m buy from Southampton last summer who has caught the eye of Liverpool's Rafael Benítez and Chelsea's Avram Grant, yesterday pledged his loyalty to Sunderland. "Hopefully I'll be here for a long time," said the 23-year-old. "You don't want to be a gypsy type player where you're moving from one place to another and not settling. It's flattering that clubs are interested in me but at the moment I'm focused on my job that I have to do here."

While Jones has been likened to Chelsea's Didier Drogba, Gordon - a £9m buy from Hearts last summer - is not quite so feted and was dropped for a period by Keane during the middle of the season.

Yet while Gordon has his critics, Sunderland's manager believes his goalkeeper is potentially the planet's best. "I think Craig is a brilliant goalkeeper," enthused Keane. "He is a young man and this year he's done OK for us but I've no doubt that, in the next few years, he'll become one of the best in the world, if not the best. What he's lacking at the moment is experience. And particularly in our team this season he has been tested. He really has.

"The biggest pluses this year have been him and Kenwyne. All our players have so much to learn but the good thing with those two is that I look at them and they want to learn. I'm not sure with some of the others that they want to learn too much."

While Keane is planning a sizable squad clear-out this summer, he hopes to persuade Dwight Yorke to remain on Wearside for another season, possibly in a player-coaching role. However, the veteran former Manchester United forward is understood to be attracted by rival offers from Australia.

"I'm doing a lot of chatting at the moment and I had a chat with Yorkie and will have another one next week," he explained. "He's got one or two choices and he's weighing up his options."