I want to skipper City to Premiership - Purse <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0"><tbody></tbody></table><table class="headerTable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td><p class="headtypea">Jul 27 2006 </p></td></tr><tr><td><p class="headtypea"><b /></p></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><p class="headtypeb">Western Mail</p></td></tr></td /></tr /></tbody></table><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="400" border="0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="3"> </td></tr><tr><td colspan="3"><p class="headtypea" align="left">CARDIFF City skipper Darren Purse believes he is ready to lead the Bluebirds into the Premiership.</p><p class="headtypea" align="left">Purse moved to Ninian Park with a three-year plan to take Cardiff up, but has a sneaking suspicion he might achieve his aim ahead of schedule.</p><p class="headtypea" align="left">Purse, 29, signed for Cardiff last summer for £750,000 from West Brom and in his first season at Ninian Park led the Bluebirds' to their highest league finish in more than two decades when they ended up 11th in the Championship.</p><p class="headtypea" align="left">Purse wants to go that step further and be the Cardiff skipper who this season leads the club up into the top flight next to the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United.</p><p class="headtypea" align="left">"I came to Cardiff with a three-year plan when I signed last season to get the club into the Premiership during the three years I'm at the club," said Purse.</p><p class="headtypea" align="left">"That's still my aim. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't still be here. It's as simple as that.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"I want to be captain of the Cardiff City side that gets into the Premier League and I think we've got a good enough bunch of players around here to go and do that.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"We've got a great manager, great staff, we're going to go places, I've just got that vibe.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"I think we've got a great squad here at the moment, we still maybe need three or four new players. The manager Dave Jones knows who he wants to go and sign, hopefully the board will back him.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"<font color="#ff0000">We are probably down to the bare bones of a squad at the moment</font>, but the gaffer's got his eye on three or more payers and, hopefully, we can go out and get them and then we'll look a lot better and have a much stronger squad than we did last year."</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">Purse reflected on the Bluebirds' pre-season tour of North America, which saw Cardiff win three games and then lose out in a penalty shoot-out to hosts Vancouver Whitecaps in the Nations Cup Final.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">He believes the tour achieved its aims and is looking forward to leading his side out at Ninian Park tomorrow for Cardiff's final warm-up game against French League side Auxerre.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">It is then little more than a week until the Bluebirds go to Barnsley for the start of their Championship campaign.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"The tour was about fitness, it wasn't really about anything else to be honest," said Purse.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"If we go and score a penalty against Barnsley and win 1-0, we would take that.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"We could have lost four games out there, but, if we go and beat Barnsley, it's out the window.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"In Canada we played two games in two days in 36 degrees heat and it took it out of the players, so our performance in the last match probably did dip a bit, but we dug in. Yes, it was disappointing, but we won't look back on that.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"The players look fit and well. Most of us played at least a couple of 90 minutes, so that's a good thing.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"We haven't lost a game over 90 minutes, so there's lots of positives to take out of it.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"The manager's still looking to sign more players so hopefully he can bring some more in ready to play in the Auxerre game."</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">Cardiff know they are going to have to hit the ground running at the start of the season with tough-looking fixtures against the likes of West Brom, Leeds and Birmingham early on.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">But Purse believes there will no easy games in the Championship this time around and maintains a good start is not necessarily essential to an ultimately successful season.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"They're each going to be tough games this season coming," said Purse.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"The start might have some big names lined up, but I think we won once in the first six games last year and then we went on a great run and for the majority of the season were up there in and around the play-offs.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"So the start is important, but we proved last year that if you don't get a good start you can always pull it back.</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"On paper it looks a tough start, but who would've thought last year we would've lost at home to the likes of Coventry and Plymouth, who were right down near the bottom three or four?</p> <p class="headtypea" align="left">"So, they are all tough games. You can't count any game as a three-point banker in this division."</p></td></tr></tbody></table>
