"You always have regrets in football." - Dave Jones

The former Cardiff City manager Dave Jones was on the Sky Goals on Sunday this morning, talked about his failure to win promotion, and is rocky relationship with the local newspaper.

"You always have regrets in football. 

"Mine's not being able to go that one step and give them what everybody wanted, which was the Premier League.

"You can look for many excuses, you can look for the reasons why it didn't happen and I'm pretty comfortable with the time I had."I had six good years, I was the fourth longest serving [manager in English football], which is crazy because six years isn't a great deal of time - certainly for what Cardiff wanted to do.

We were always servicing debt. If they'd kept the players we brought through - Roger Johnson, Cameron Jerome Aaron Ramsey and all these players - there were so fantastic players, but each year we had to sell.

"I knew the circumstances I was going into at Cardiff, that they were always going to have to sell to survive. But you sell your best players and for some reason you should be better the next season? 

"To be fair, with the help of some fantastic staff, we did a really good job there and I'm very proud of what I achieved."My only regret is I couldn't take them that one step. People have asked me: 'Why didn't it happen?' I've looked at every reason and every excuse and we just fell short."We just weren't good enough to achieve it."

Love him or loath him you have to agree with Jones we are a selling club and are like to be the same in the near future as well. Without the cash generated by the likes Ramsey and Johnson, where would the club be today? He tried keeping players to help gain a chance of the promise land like Joe Ledley, but that failed Cardif should have sold him when he  did not sign an extension on his contract.

When he did not sign alarm bell should have rung somewhere in the boardroom and sell because he was always going to go. Any player with a year left on his contract who could generate a transfer fee and  does not extend their contract should be sold in my book. Staying with Cardiff did not bring about the desired result and he walks on a free transfer at the end of the season the same with Jay Bothroyd last season who walk mean the loss millions.

Has a Cardiff City fan you can say old Jones has not given us fans an exciting time FA Cup Final, Play-off Final/Semi-Final and promotion battles to spice it up, but never gave us the final spot.He also talked of his problems with the local press namely the South Wales Echo and their sister papers. He branded local journalists who criticised his role in the 1-0 defeat against Swansea City as ‘buffoons and fools who know nothing about football’ at the time he said,

“I’ve been character assassinated, but they didn’t character assassinate me when I won the previous six games,” he ranted at his pre-match media briefing ahead of tonight’s clash at Reading. 

You lose one against local rivals and you are the worst. 

“We lost a football match and we are gutted. We know we didn’t play particularly well, but there was hardly anything between the teams.

“There were no clear cut chances. That’s my opinion. Unfortunately we couldn’t make it seven wins on the trot.”

Today on Goals on Sunday, he said the treatment Stephen McPhail received in a Swansea game that was the cause of their disagreements. but did not play in the last seasons games he was unused on the bench. The season before that he played, he played in the win over our West Wales rivals, but not in the return game. In the 2009/10 season Cardiff played them three times with a Carling Cup fixture and McPhail was shown the red card in two of those games. Jones said today,

"Where did it originally come from? They character assassinated Stephen McPhail in a game against Swansea and continued to do that. 

"I wasn't happy with that and actually spoke to one of the reporters and asked him why - and because they are supporters as well as reporters it's very difficult to give an unbiased opinion. There's a boy who's fighting cancer and I wasn't happy with the character assassination. 

"It didn't matter about me because you get that all the time, but somewhere along the line we lost touch with each other and as long as I kept getting results it was always going to be about results. 

"But when one of them says his ambition is to get me out of my job then why should I speak to them? 

"I never had a problem with any of the nationals and I should have been bigger and probably repaired some of the damage, but once it's done it's very hard to go back. It does upset you when things are said and I don't think they went about it in the right way. 

"If you're talking about regrets then yes, maybe I should have repaired that rapport with them, but sometimes you get stubborn as well."