Dave Jones has revealed how he gambled on signing striker Jay Bothroyd - and won.
Jay, signed for £300,000 from Wolves in the summer of 2008, has starred in City's frontline this season and has also taken the captain's armband.
Manager Dave said ahead of Saturday's Championship match with Barnsley:"Every player you sign is a gamble.
"Jay, in all honesty, was a massive gamble because there were more saying don't touch him than were saying do. But we saw something in him and we thought: 'Right, he has the ability, what is stopping him from producing it game in, game out? It can only be his attitude or the way he approaches things.'
"Jex Moxey, the chief executive at Wolves, loves a deal, but I think I got the best end of this one.
"Jay's been no different since he's had the captain's armband. Since he's come here, he's matured on the field - I don't know that he's matured so much around the place, though!
"All you do as a manager is give them a platform to go and strut their stuff, and that's all I've done. I treat them with the respect I expect in return. If I don't treat players with respect, I can't demand it back from them.
"In the past in Jay's case when he's been at clubs and hasn't done so well, maybe the manager has had the option of kicking him out. Here, we haven't had that option and he's come through and maybe that's him having belief in what we're showing him and what we're trying to do. Maybe the penny has dropped with him. He's had a lot of clubs in a short space of time and sooner or later you've got to settle down and show everybody what you've got as opposed to your potential, because how long does potential last?
"And he has matured. He's older, but he's also matured in life. He has a beautiful wife and a young son and with that comes responsibility. He's a little bit older, a little bit wiser and with that comes the realisation that football is his career and without football he doesn't get what he has now.
"We preach here that when you get in the first team and you're earning good money, then you have to keep doing it because there are another million people chasing what you've got. The easy part is getting there, the hardest part is staying there, so if you've got something you want to keep it. And the only way I know of keeping something in this life is by keeping on working and doing the things that got you there.
"I think what happened to Jay in the past is he stopped doing those those things. Something didn't work for him or he fell out with the manager and threw his dummy out of the pram and he's wandered away. He can throw his dummy out as much as he wants here - we just ignore him!
"I haven't done anything special with Jay. I just made him realise the potential that he has and I still think he can be a lot better in his all-round game. He's not complete in the way I think he could be. He could improve vastly in a lot of ways. So we'll keep working with him, chivvying away at him and moaning at him and I'll keep patting him on the head when he's done the right thing. If I keep getting the best out of him, then that's good for this club.
"I want him to be a top, top player because that will mean the coaches are doing something right.
"He is definitely Premier League quality. There's no reason why he shouldn't go and ply his trade at the top level, like a lot of players here.
"But there is a cog that stops them being there. Maybe Jay's cog is a bit better oiled and going round faster and better than it was, and if he wants to continue that then maybe clubs will start looking at him again and saying 'This kid has the potential.'
"Every time he's on his game, the opposing manager talks about him, and when he's not, they don't.
"I like Jay as a person, I like him as a player. Do I think he could be better? I think he could be better as a player.
"He's a lovely lad. All the stories I hear about him in the past just don't ring true. All the stories I hear about him not doing certain things on the football field do ring true, so they are the things he must put right. If he does put those things right on a regular basis, and by that I mean all the time, there's no reason why he shouldn't play in the Premier League.
"Jay is high maintenance. We have a thing at the club where players are high maintenance or low maintenance, and Jay is high maintenance. Chops is high maintenance, Whitts is low maintenance, Gav is low maintenance.
"They all play a part in the dressing room. If there's something going on and there's a little bit of skulduggery, the first person you look at is Chops or Anthony Gerrard. They'll be up to something. It all adds to the atmosphere and cameraderie amongst them. Gav brings his music in, which is the worst music I've heard in my life, but they all have a role to play, whether they're quiet or very loud but everybody in the club has a part to play and that's where they are a delight to work with.
"When I say Jay is high maintenance, I mean we have to pat his head or rub his belly. Because of the position he plays in, there'll always be something wrong with him, and we'll be trying to get him back out there. High maintenance or low maintenance is just a term we use.
"Can I change people's attitude? Yes. Can I change people's ability? No.
"If they don't have ability, you spend every working hour of the day trying to put ability into them and they still won't have it. An old manager of mine used to say it's like having a diamond. The more you polish it, the better it gets. But if it has a flaw, it doesn't matter how much you polish it.
"Players who are in the Championship are there for a reason. Perhaps they have a slight flaw and until you get rid of that flaw they can't go and play in the Premier League.
"At this club, there are criteria for every player we look at: Can we make him better and can he do a good job for us? If we look at a player and we feel we can't improve him, we don't touch him. We don't go near him - what's the point? The only time we really find out is when they live with you.
"We think we can change it, and if we didn't think that he'd be in and out. We'd ship him out and that goes for every player here."
