“He’s not shy of jumping ship” – Nathan Jones backed to seal Cardiff City switch | OneFootball

It has been reported that Cardiff City are lining up a move for Nathan Jones, with FLW's Cardiff Fan Pundit giving his view on whether he will move.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Cardiff City have entered into June still without a manager, with the Bluebirds having been relegated to the third-tier of English football last season for the first time in over 20 years.

Cardiff finished the season with Aaron Ramsey overseeing their relegation from the Championship on an interim basis, following the sacking of Omer Riza, who had been in charge since late-September, with Erol Bulut having been sacked after a poor start to the season.

Former Luton Town boss Nathan Jones has been tipped up as Cardiff’s number one target for the managerial position, with the former Stoke manager having just guided Charlton Athletic to League One promotion, defeating London rivals Leyton Orient in the play-off final.

There will have to be a question over whether Jones would opt to return to third division, albeit he does have a connection to Cardiff as a supporter of the club.

Cardiff must be tempting for Jones

Jones has done an excellent job in charge of the Addicks, and their form in the second-half of the campaign saw the south Londoners enjoy some of the best of what Jones can offer as a coach, as he previously showed at Luton, despite poor spells at Stoke as well as at Southampton in the Premier League.

FLW’s Cardiff Fan Pundit Matt Hall believes that, even if supporters weren’t overly enthused by his potential appointment, Jones would be tempted by a move to the Cardiff City Stadium.

Matt said: “I think it’d be comfortably possible for us to get him.

“I think regardless of whether you’d want him or not as far as a fan goes, you’re looking at a stage where we’ve messed around so much with this process searching for a manager that we’ve backed ourselves into a corner where it’s him or nothing at this point, this late into the summer to get a manager.

“He’s a boyhood fan, he’s not shy of jumping ship – he’s shown that through his career and he’s jumped ship for clubs that he’s got less connection to and at times when he’s been at a club longer so I don’t think he’d have much problem jumping ship from Charlton to Cardiff.

“At Charlton, he’ll probably be fighting relegation, whereas at Cardiff he’ll be fighting for promotion, so there’s not that much difference despite the league difference.

“I think he’ll become the Cardiff manager and probably quite soon.”

Cardiff need to get a move on

It was an extremely disappointing season for Cardiff, relegated from the Championship on the penultimate match day of the campaign and they really could do with getting a move on in terms of their preparation for League One.

In recent times, clubs seemingly well set for League One, such as Huddersfield Town and Rotherham United last season, have eventually stumbled to a mid-table finish following their relegation from the Championship.

Cardiff will believe they will begin the season as one of the title favourites, but a fair bit of work on the squad needs to be done – and appointing a manager quite soon is a priority.

Jones, who played in the youth system at Cardiff but never made a senior appearance for the club, is a boyhood supporter for Cardiff and his celebrations when he has beaten Swansea City in the past perhaps show his passion for the club, as alluded to by Matt.