Cardiff City striker Kenwyne Jones closes in on Al Jazira move

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  • The former Stoke and Southampton striker is set to play his football in the UAE.

    Cardiff City striker Kenwyne Jones is expected to sign a short-term loan deal at crisis club Al Jazira as they look to plug the sizeable gap left by Mirko Vucinic.

    Jones, 31, has arrived in Abu Dhabi to undergo medical tests ahead of signing a temporary contract which will take him up to the expiration of his Bluebirds agreement this summer.

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    This time frame suits Jazira perfectly, with 2014-15 Arabian Gulf League top scorer Mirko Vucinic out for the rest season with a serious knee injury.

    “The move will be until the end of the season with a view to signing in the summer,” agent Will Salthouse, who is brokering the deal, told the Daily Mail. “Kenwyne is very excited.”

    The 6ft 2in target man boasts considerable Premier League experience, beginning his career in England at Southampton before future moves to Sunderland and Stoke City.

    He was relegated to the Championship with Cardiff months after joining the Welsh club in January 2014 and will exit with 19 goals in 67 appearances.
    Jones was first linked to Chinese Super League outfit Shanghai Shenhua, before his talks with Jazira emerged.

    Cardiff boss Russell Slade revealed on Saturday the player was in talks about an exit.

    He said: “It’s a financial decision, as he’s on a huge wage here.”

    Jones is expected to be imminently joined by Getafe attacking midfielder Angel Lafita as Jazira attempt to recover from an awful start to the season, which sees them sitting a distant 10th in the AGL table.

    Lafita would arrive in place of underwhelming Brazil playmaker Thiago Neves or injured Peru forward Jefferson Farfan.

    Further engineering of the four-player foreign quota by new coach Henk ten Cate and sporting director Gianluca Nani could yet see midfielder Park Jong-woo sacrificed for an Asian-qualified defender.

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