Article: Chris Nokes

Dave Jones will take his confident Cardiff to the Keepmoat Stadium to face Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, looking for three points against a team who stunned Derby on the opening day of the season.

However, the travelling party will be without central defender Glenn Loovens who is set for a move to Scottish giants Celtic in the SPL. Dave gave his thoughts on these topics in a pre-match interview with the press that can be seen fully on Cardiff City World.

"It looks like he's going to join Celtic," said Dave on the loss of the big Dutchman. "I think the Champions league swung it for him, ahead of Rangers, who were also interested. We could have kept him but keeping an unhappy player at the club can be a bad thing. The most important thing with the deal was that we got what we wanted and we did that."

Dave then turned his attention to future investment to improve the Cardiff squad.

"The problem is teams want replacements before they are willing to sell," he continued. "What we do is say 'Let us know if the situation changes' - and what they have all told us is 'Come back closer to the end of the transfer window'. Some players also don't want to drop down divisions and we want better players than we already have, which is a problem due to the great quality we know have in the squad."

Dave then shifted focus to the game against Doncaster Rovers on Saturday, saying, "They did well last year, they came up through the play offs. They've had a little bit of a shock losing midweek and we'll go there full of confidence off the back of two wins. There's a great mood in the camp and we'll go there looking to play to the best of our abilities. We know it'll be tough because it's their first game at home in this division, but my players can cope with that and I expect them to.

"We'll have a look at them in training and take it from there. We're waiting on players like Gavin Rae, Joe Ledley, Kevin McNaughton and Mark Kennedy. There are players like Riccy Scimeca and Darren Purse chomping at the bit to get back in the side."

Specifically he spoke of the selection headache he may have for the forwards positions, saying, "Paul scored two in midweek so that's a nice problem for me. They've all got something different about them. I'd rather have too many players than not enough and it's good for the players themselves because it keeps them on their toes.

"What I want is every player to be competitive for their position, a good example being Tuesday night. I had seven players on the bench and every single one of them thought they should have been on the pitch. I'm going to upset some people, but when you say upset it's not in a falling out type of way but a desire from the player to work extra for the position that they want."

See the whole interview on Cardiff City World as Dave Jones gives his views on potential bids for Joe Ledley and the increasing competitiveness of the Championship.