Bluebirds boss is quiet over link to Hammers

Cardiff manager Dave Jones has denied he has spoken to anyone at West Ham about becoming the club’s new manager.

The 54-year-old is the bookies’ favourite to succeed Avram Grant at the helm, but today told the East London Advertiser that neither he nor the club have contacted each other.

“I have not had any contact with them over the job,” Jones said.

“I’m not prepared to say anything about the vacancy. I’m still employed by Cardiff City Football Club and only thinking of them.”

Jones, who is on a rolling contract at the south Wales club, has been in charge since 2005 but has so far failed to push the club into the Premier League.

“I will be sitting down with the board at Cardiff and discussing my future with them soon,” he added.

Jones is the current 11/4 favourite, but reports from the national media that he is the first choice to become Hammers boss are wide of the mark.

There are thought to be around six others in the running to succeed Grant and interviews are due to take place over the next couple of weeks, with the new manager set to be announced shortly afterwards.

“What I can tell you is that we’re talking with everybody,” Gold told a national media outlet earlier this week.

“We want to make sure we get this right. This will be the most important appointment. We’ll be talking to everybody and making sure that we pick the right man. I can’t share any (names) of this with you as it wouldn’t be fair on the people we are talking to.

“What I can assure our fans is we’re leaving no stone unturned in our pursuit of our best possible man for the job.

“Despite what you may have read in the papers, we have not spoken to Dave Jones.”

Sam Allardyce and Martin O’Neill are said to be the preferred choices but Jones is thought to be one of the names on the shortlist.

The Liverpudlian has been of Cardiff’s most successful ever managers, leading them to Wembley four times including the 2008 FA Cup final.

However failure to get the side promoted this year with expensive loan stars such as Craig Bellamy (who was costing the club a reported �21,000 a week), Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Jlloyd Samuel, Jason Koumas and Stephen Bywater could land him in hot water and his failure to get Cardiff promoted has induced a negative response from Hammers’ fans.

In an East London Advertiser poll only 35 per cent of over 1,000 votes cast said yes as to whether they wanted Jones as their next boss.