Cardiff City are searching for another key member of Brian Barry-Murphy's backroom staff after long-serving analyst Matthew Jenkins completed a move to Premier League side Leeds United.
Jenkins has announced he has joined Leeds as a first-team performance analyst, bringing an end to an eight-year association with the Bluebirds. The highly-rated analyst worked closely with Barry-Murphy throughout the head coach's first season in charge, with the Irishman previously admitting Jenkins had "blown him away" after arriving in south Wales.
Staff reshuffle continues
His departure is the latest staffing change behind the scenes at Cardiff during a busy summer of reshuffling. The Bluebirds are already looking to replace goalkeeper coach Gavin Ward, while they have also advertised for a new under-18s head coach following Tom Hutton's departure to join Aaron Ramsey's coaching staff at Oxford United, a move first revealed by WalesOnline last month.
Jenkins rose through the ranks at Cardiff. He initially joined the academy setup as lead under-23 performance analyst in 2018 before becoming first-team data analyst in 2020. He was promoted to first-team performance analyst in 2023 before stepping up to head first-team performance analyst ahead of the promotion-winning 2025/26 campaign.
Barry-Murphy's praise
His work quickly made an impression on Barry-Murphy. Speaking last August after appointing Kieran Lovelady to work alongside Jenkins in the analysis department, the Cardiff boss revealed he had been determined to strengthen, rather than replace, a staff member he viewed as one of the club's biggest assets.
"When I first came to the club, I didn't know the workings of the club," Barry-Murphy said. "So what I've been blessed with is Matt Jenks has been there for a long time. He's Cardiff through and through and his level of work is of the highest quality. So one of the biggest things I wanted to do with the squad, with the staff, was to secure the numbers of staff who are exceptional at the job, which he is, and to make him really valuable."
He added: "Kieran's going to work on all of the analysis with Matt and then as a coach, he'll help with that department. A lot of the individual development will be led by him and he will implement what we do in training. So it's a very, very important role. But like I said, I've been very blessed to have Matt Jenks in the building to work alongside him and really, he's blowing me away."
Next step
Jenkins now takes the next step in his career with Leeds United, joining the Premier League club's first-team staff after helping Cardiff secure promotion back to the Championship last season. His exit leaves another vacancy for Cardiff to fill as the club continues a bigger overhaul off the pitch than they would have planned for.
