GEORGE Burley has insisted he will make the ultimate decision on whether Kenwyne Jones is sold.

The Saints boss, who last night saw his side follow their 4-1 opening day defeat to Crystal Palace with elimination in the first round of the Carling Cup at League Two Peterborough, had the sales of Gareth Bale and Chris Baird forced upon him this summer to keep the club from administration.

But the sale of Jones will be decided by Burley and will be based upon whether he needs the money generated from the transfer to rebuild other areas of the team or if he can do that within his current, very limited, budget.

At the moment though Burley is adamant he wants Jones to stay having already rejected two bids from Derby for his services.

He said: "I don't want to sell Kenwyne Jones.

"I've sold my best two players and as a manager you get no thanks from the fans for that which was obvious on Saturday.

"It saved the club from possibly going into administration and we had to do that.

"We've sold Pele which has helped me bring in Youssef Safri and will hopefully help us get a centre half into the club."

He added: "There's been so much speculation but I don't want to sell Kenwyne Jones.

"I don't think we'll have to and hopefully we can move on."

Full story in today's Daily Echo