Stoke City: Joe's 'no ordinary Stoke player'

CARDIFF City manager Dave Jones says his highly-prized winger Joe Ledley can do better than play for Stoke City.

The Bluebirds refused to sell the 21-year-old left winger to Stoke on deadline day, despite the Potters upping their offer to a club-record £6m.

But Jones says going to Stoke would have been the wrong move for the Wales international. He explained: "With all due respect to Stoke City, it was not the right move for Joe. I believe time will show that.

"He can achieve better than that, and my hope is that he will step into the Premier League with Cardiff City."

It is understood Ledley, pictured below, was keen to talk to Stoke about a move to the Brit, but was prevented from doing so by Jones and Cardiff chairman Peter Ridsdale.

Jones added: "We are trying to build something at Cardiff City and Joe is a big part of that. Of course he wants to play in the Premiership. Every player wants to do that and Joe's chance will come. I would like to think the decision to stay is the best for Joe Ledley.

"Clubs will chase our leading players and this is the first time Cardiff have stood firm, although if it had been one of the big Premier League clubs it would have been more difficult for us.

"I don't want to stand in Joe's way of progressing and I don't want him to feel we have done that. But he is young and clever enough to know it will happen. He will step up to the Premiership."

Jones says Stoke heaped pressure on Cardiff by upping their £5m bid on Monday as the midnight transfer deadline approached. Some speculation has put their final offer as high at £7m.

Jones added: "Tony Pulis is a close friend, but I could have easily fallen out with him. I had to ask him to back off."

While Pulis ran into a brick wall at Cardiff, circumstances conspired against him landing Wigan striker Henri Camara.

Steve Bruce had agreed to sell the 31-year-old former Wolves and Celtic hitman to Stoke ... only for the deal to become a victim of Manchester United's determination to land Dimitar Berbatov.

Bruce thought he was going to get United striker Frazier Campbell on a year-long loan, and as such was prepared to let Camara go. However, those plans fell through when Spurs took Campbell on loan as part of the £30.75m deal to take Berbatov to Old Trafford.

Bruce explained: "We were an inch away from getting the boy. At 8.30pm on deadline night I thought it was a done deal. We had agreed everything with Manchester United and Sir Alex.

"I then got a telephone call from Sir Alex at about 9pm saying the deal was off because Campbell was having to go to Tottenham.

"Once he became ravelled up in the Berbatov deal, that scuppered us."