The Potters have assembed a host of former Wearside players – Thomas Sorensen, Danny Higginbotham, Rory Delap and Liam Lawrence and over the summer added long-serving Sunderland skipper Dean Whitehead.

Today, they hoped to enter into talks with Sunderland's temporary skipper Danny Collins.

But there was no way that Kenwyne Jones was ever going to be allowed to leave the Stadium of Light for the Britannia Stadium.

Stories have surfaced over the last week that Jones could be making the move for a fee of around £12m, double the £6m fee Sunderland paid for him but a long way short of the £18m Spurs were prepared to stump up for the 24-year-old.

But the claims always seemed unlikely and Bruce dismissed it out of hand.

"That's definitely not going to happen – it's not on the agenda at all." he told the Echo.

Jones would not have been interested in the move to Stoke even if it had emerged as a genuine bid.

He is excited by the changes at Sunderland and wants to be a part of an era which he believes will see the club emerge as a real force in English football.

Part of those changes might be the recruitment of Hull City's classy young defender Michael Turner, a player admired by Liverpool.

And Bruce could be set to up his interest after seeing targets Richard
Dunne looking to join Aston Villa and Slyvain Distin preparing a move to Everton.

Turner is someone Sunderland have looked at, but at this stage, they've only made an inquiry. Now that Danny Collins and Nyron Nosworthy could be on the move though, that interest is likely to harden.

Bruce said of the Hull centre-half: "He is someone we are looking at. It is difficult to talk about individual players who are under contract at clubs.

"But we have registered an interest in the boy and that's as far as it's gone as I am aware at the moment."

Turner signed a four-year contract at Hull this year and they will want between £10m and £12m for their star player.

One move that should happen though is the arrival of John Mensah, whose deal is nearing completion.

Bruce said: "We're just waiting for him to have his passport stamped.

"The two clubs have agreed the deal but we are still just waiting for the last few bits of paperwork to be sorted.

"Because he is from Ghana – obviously outside the EU – he needs a working visa before he can come to this country and that takes the same amount of time to get whether you are a footballer or whether you work in any other trade."But the fact that the transfer window closes next week won't make a difference.

"We can register him before the window closes subject to him getting a visa."

Mensah is likely to be joined by Egyptian winger Ahmed Al Muhammadi, who has previously been on trial at Sunderland.

"I wouldnt exactly describe him as one for the future, because he's a 21-year-old," said Bruce. "But he's someone who's coming over who we don't see as one necessarily going straight into the first team.

"We're going to take him for three or four months and have a look at him."