Sources from South Wales have confirmed that Chris Hughton is now the front runner for the vacant managerial position at Cardiff City.
The position became available last week when the decision was made to sack Dave Jones after six years in charge.
The bookmakers favourite, Martin O’Neill has been deemed too expensive for the Welsh side and unless he takes a significant decrease in wage, the Cardiff City board will see Hughton as the ideal person to take the club into the Premiership.
Whilst Cardiff do have the financial backing of Dato Chan and Vincent Tan it is believed the board do not wish to overspend in joining the Premier League, seeing their Welsh rivals Swansea City and previously Blackpool, as proof that promotion can be achieved without mass spending on transfers.
Chris Hughton impressed whilst at Newcastle United, taking them from the Championship straight back to the Premier League on the first attempt. Although his sacking at Newcastle still remains somewhat of a mystery, he does have experience of handling big name players with big personalities – Andy Carroll and Joey Barton to name just two.
Cardiff City fans will of course prefer former Celtic and Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill however in Hughton they can expect to be in a safe pair of hands who can not only man manage very well but will offer a sound platform on which to begin their promotional campaign.
A decision on the next Cardiff City manager is likely to be released by Friday 10th June.