Nathan Jones has spoken of his desire to return to management having been named the early favourite to take over from Sabri Lamouchi at Cardiff City. The former Southampton boss has been linked with the Bluebirds after they confirmed Lamouchi would leave the club upon the expiration of his contract next month.
With the club now looking for its third manager in six months, Jones, who was sacked by the Saints earlier this year, is understood to be on their radar. A lifelong Cardiff fan, the Welshman had previously impressed at Luton Town, taking them from League Two to the Championship play-offs during two stints in charge at Kenilworth Road.
Despite his previous success, a disastrous spell at St Mary's saw him sacked after just 14 games with Southampton bottom of the Premier League. However, Jones insists he is now "refreshed and ready" to return to the hot seat and has set his sights on building a project at a club in a statement that is bound to have caught the attention of those at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Asked if he was ready to return to management in an interview with Sky Sports on Saturday, Jones said he was "really looking forward" to a new challenge, having taken a break after his dismissal from Southampton.
"As a manager when you're in there, it consumes you in every aspect of your life," he said. "So I've enjoyed a bit of family time, I've been away on holiday which I don't usually get to do in March and so on. I'm really looking forward to my next challenge. I'm refreshed and I'm ready.
Quizzed on whether there was a particular challenge he was after, Jones added that he was "not a fly-by-night manager" and was looking to stay at a club for a long period of time in order to "build" and deliver a project in full.
"I'm a builder, I like to build," he said. "I like to be at places for a long time. Ironically, I believe that our work is deep and not just results based. If you look at my previous club we built a club there that wasn't reliant on just a manager being in place, right throughout the processes, the recruitment, the structure, the culture, the philosophy, everything is in place there and has been for a long, long time. I left on two occasions but the club kept doing well, so it shows that whatever had been built had been built on solid foundations"
"That's what I like to do," he added. "I'm not a fly-by-night manager, I don't like to chop and change. If I do choose a project or a project comes for me, then it is one that I really think I'm going to be there and be able to do good work in. That's the kind of thing I'd like to do."
Jones, from the Rhondda, is currently the bookmakers' favourite to take the reins at Cardiff, ahead of Swansea City boss Russell Martin and ex-Bluebirds and Huddersfield Town manager Neil Warnock. Chris Wilder, Neil Critchley and Lee Bowyer, as well as former Leeds United bosses Javi Gracia and Jesse Marsch are also contenders for the vacant position.
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