Furious Bruce hits out at Benitez over loan bid for Kenwyne Jones

Steve Bruce has hit out at Rafa Benitez over his pursuit of Kenwyne Jones, blasting: “Do you think I’m mad?“

The Sunderland boss is livid that Jones is being “unsettled and having his head turned“ by an “insulting“ campaign behind the scenes from Liverpool.

And he hotly disputes any claim that he would let one of his top assets go out on loan.

Bruce warned Benitez that it would take a “massive“ offer for him even to consider selling Jones at this late stage of the transfer window.

And he is fuming over suggestions that a loan deal would be considered.

He raged: “We have had NO contact with Liverpool whatsoever. The notion that I would loan Kenwyne Jones out is totally and completely ludicrous.

“What are they trying? It is like me asking for Steven Gerrard on loan. I will try that maybe. It is hugely disrespectful.

“All it does, privately and publicly, is unsettle Kenwyne because he must think I’m desperate to ship him out. I’m not, I’m desperately not.

“I try to be honest, everybody in football has a price whether you are Ronaldo or Kaka or Kenwyne Jones.

“This may be all about the problems Liverpool have got. I have always got on alright with him. I just don’t know where the idea comes from that a loan is possible.

“If he wants to go to Liverpool then if they go through the right channels and do the thing properly I have got a decision to make, it is as simple as that.

“I don’t know whether they are serious or whether Rafa is playing games with his board, but the only people who are suffering is Kenwyne Jones. People must think I’ve lost my marbles if they think I’m going to send him out on loan, they aren’t very good at the minute after being beaten by seven but I haven’t lost them.

“If Liverpool are going to come and offer the amount of money which we think is his value then every player, not just Kenwyne Jones, but every player, has his price.

“But I would have to say it would have to be a huge amount of money for us to even contemplate it.

“It has unsettled the boy and it has probably got to the stage where he thinks I don’t want him, which is not the case. I can’t stop it. Publicly or privately I cannot stop this constant link with Kenwyne Jones and Liverpool every day.

“I haven’t even got a price in my head because I don’t even think Liverpool can go there.

“I will find it very difficult to sell Kenwyne now with one week to go and the one thing I am not going to jeopardise is the future of the football club. Kenwyne has a big part to play in that future.

“However, if Liverpool are going to come with a ridiculous amount of money, then who knows? I have been around long enough to know that. It has disrupted the boy and that is a worry.

“The chairman echoes this. I find it hugely disrespectful, the actions of Liverpool. I have huge respect for Liverpool over the years the way they have done business and conducted themselves. But this constant badgering of Kenwyne Jones when we as a club haven’t heard anything, it’s nonsense.

“All it does is turn the head of the big boy. I will speak to Kenwyne because it is very disappointing. Is he is a frame of mind to play? I don’t know.”

Jones is a Benitez target but it is understood Liverpool have warned him they do not have the pds 12-15 million it would take to lure him from the Stadium of Light.

Benitez is believed to be playing his own power games with owners Tom Hicks and George Gillette, with briefings that he has been in talks with Sunderland for a fortnight trying to hammer out a deal for Jones.