Exclusive – Jones: ‘Bellamy will propel Cardiff forward’

Cardiff boss Dave Jones has told talkSPORT Craig Bellamy will 'propel his club forward'.

The fiery Manchester City striker completed a season-long loan move to the Welsh club yesterday and Jones believes his arrival is a significant coup.

He told the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast: "He will propel this club one step further to what we’re trying to achieve,

"He’ll bring Premier League experience and a maturity to this club. And if players can’t learn from him and step up to the standards he wants, and we want, they’ll get left behind.

"Normally a players of Craig’s calibre is coming to the end of his career when Championship clubs pick them up. We signed Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink, Robbie Fowler and Trevor Sinclair and I don't think they'll mind me saying they were coming to the end of their careers. But we’ve got Craig at his height.

"He wanted to come back when he was in his prime, not when he couldn’t give what he expects to give."

Bellamy's controversial move has been criticised in some quarters, but Jones insists the pair discussed all the ramifications before agreeing the deal.

He added: "It’s been going on for a couple of months, when I first spoke to Craig. We went through every scenario and spoke about all the rubbish that’s being written now.

"It wasn’t a snap decision, and done just to bring back a local hero. A lot of thought went into it and everything was taken into consideration.

"We weighed up all the pros and cons and decided if we could achieve it we would go for it.

"We knew he would get stick and people would ask ,'what's he going there for'? But you have to understand the boy. Part of it was for personal reasons and that's what I used to pull him here.

"It's almost a miracle signing and I think the fans are chuffed to bits."