Jones hopeful on Cardiff recruits

Last updated : 24 November 2010 By BBC Sport

"And hopefully we'll be able to get players in by the time that comes around.

"Everything seems to be going right at the football club and if we get players in it will be very good news for us."

The Bluebirds have had to operate under a series of transfer embargoes this year, imposed by the Football League over unpaid debts.

Despite operating on a shoe-string budget - compared to many of his Championship rivals - Jones has moulded Cardiff into genuine promotion contenders and they have rarely been out of the top two this term.

The squad has been added to with canny loan signings - chief among them Wales captain Craig Bellamy form Manchester City - that have been made possible by investment from the Malaysian consortium that has taken over the club.

Now it seems as though the club is on the rise and Jones will have the novelty of being able to buy players during the next transfer window.

Money has also been made available to improve training facilities and Jones was equally delighted with their new House of Sport coaching academy that opened this week.

"If we hadn't have built it then we lose our academy status, that's why it was one of the priorities," said Jones.

"When you look around it, it's up there with the best - if not better - and it's the next stage in development of this football club.

"Now we have somewhere that we can pick and choose when we train and what we do, which is vital to us as a football club.

"If it hadn't have been built then losing the academy status would have been, for this football club, an absolute disaster, because we've had some good players come through and you want to keep that bloodline going.

"For any football club, but more so for us, you know what home fans are like - if they see a home-grown player coming through there's nothing better.

"The club's come a long, long way. There's a lot more still to be done and we're just on the first rungs of that ladder but this is a massive step forward.

On Saturday Cardiff travel to Queen's Park Rangers in a mouth-watering top-of-the-table clash that could see the Bluebirds leap-frog their hosts to reclaim top spot.

"It is a massive game, but all games we play at this moment are massive," Jones said.

"It'll have a bearing on the season but it's not going to be the be-all and we know how we get carried away in this part of the world.

"But we want to get back on track, we know we haven't played well the last game.

"The players want to put that right and there's no better game than to go to a team that if we win we go back top again, so it's a fantastic incentive for us."

Source: BBC Sport

Source: BBC Sport