A shorter piece than normal about the international football involving Wales played today and one or two bits and bobs on City, including just about the quietest transfer deadline day ever for us – it wasn’t just that we were never going to sign anyone, there wasn’t even any speculation that we were going to!
Back to Wales first though for the penultimate leg of their three month world tour which has seen them traveling to all corners of world (not really true, it just feels like that) playing competitive games, allegedly, on neutral territory.
Today was the exception to the rule because the latest venue, Helsinki, was the scene for a friendly against the Finnish team we beat home and away last year in the Nations League.
Now, you don’t need to be Nostradamus to predict the most likely score in these friendly matches during international breaks. If you add in the Euro Finals warm up match with Albania, then I believe that the goal fest that was Mexico, decided by a single, early goal by Keiffer Moore, apart, we’ve dealt exclusively in 0-0 draws in these games in the past year – I’ve not checked this, but I think it’s three out of four now after tonight’s stalemate.
Neither side were at anything like full strength tonight, but, based on this evidence, it’s Wales that has the greater strength in depth because we were definitely the side that carried the greater goal threat to the extent that, if there had points at stake in the match, there would have been a great deal of Welsh wailing and gnashing of teeth in frustration at the fact that we had to settle for a draw.
Even so, I found it a more enjoyable watch than these matches usually are. There was a calm assurance about much of Wales’ play which had its roots in the very good performances of Dylan Levitt and Matt Smith in the middle of the park – indeed, Smith was, if anything, even more impressive when he switched to right back as part of the usual adjustments following the plethora of substitutions you get in these games.
Gareth Bale on for the last ten minutes was a baffling and potentially costly change here. More understandable was Rubin Colwill getting half an hour and he didn’t do badly at all, but I’m not really sure about him in the central striking role he was used in tonight. For example, there was a half chance he jabbed wide from a Harry Wilson cross shot that a natural striker would, perhaps, have put away.
Colwill replaced Nottingham Forest’s Brennan Johnson, who looked bright and lively down the right while he was on, and it was he who was fouled by Niko Hamaleinan for an obvious penalty on twenty five minutes. Harry Wilson was entrusted with the spot kick, but he came up with one of those penalties that are always going to be saved if the goalkeeper dives the right way and, unfortunately for the former City man, Carljohan Eriksson did to mark his first cap for his country in style.
Wilson also tested Eriksson from a second half free kick, Smith shot just wide following a fine run and then he fired over a great low cross from the right that was crying out to be turned in, but Colwill was just unable to reach it.
The fact that I’ve probably listed all of the times when a goal looked on the cards there tells you that it was hardly a game rich in incident, but an on target goal attempts tally of 5-0 in Wales’ favour tells you a lot about the balance of power in what I found to be a heartening and reassuring watch when it comes to the future of Welsh football – the one disappointing aspect for me being that Mark Harris did not get on for an international debut.
The seniors were not the only Welsh side in action as City’s Taylor Jones captained their under 19s against Croatia in what I believe is a friendly tournament involving two other countries – based on the half an hour or so of the game I saw, the Croats were clearly the better side and so there was no disgrace in Wales’ 2-0 loss.
Regarding transfer deadline day, the only real discussion points from a City perspective involved the possibility of players leaving as Wales Online, desperate for some sort of story, endlessly indulged in Keiffer Moore to Wolves speculation. Whether there was any truth in the rumour of a late Wolves bid (I’ve read it being described as anywhere between £3 million and £10 million) is anyone’s guess, but, to the relief of supporters, it didn’t happen.
The one move that did saw Josh Murphy move to Preston on a season long loan deal not long before the window closed. Therefore, Murphy has probably played his last game for the club as this is the final year of his contract and it’s very hard to imagine circumstances where he’d be offered a new one.
Like many others I suspect, I kept on hoping that Murphy would show what he was really capable of over a consistent period, but his only two games for us this season in our League Cup matches were typical Murphy I’m afraid – a fine goal against Sutton, followed by a totally anonymous showing against Brighton.
Murphy was one of the bigger earners at the club and there were rumours that another one in Alex Smithies was on his way to Sheffield United. That one didn’t happen, but it has a ring of truth to it because it feels like the main aim in this transfer window has been to reduce the club’s wage bill.
This becomes relevant when you consider that there are a nucleus of senior players who will be out of contract in the summer (eg Smithies, Flint, Morrison, Pack and Ralls) and thus far, there has been no indication that negotiations on new deals have begun with any of them.
It’s too early yet to speculate on whether they ever will, but a theme of the summer has been that I’m pretty sure all of the contract signed stories we’ve seen through the last few months involve youngsters who are just breaking into or are expecting to become members of the first team squad – as exemplified by three year contracts signed by Cian Ashford and Chanda Zimba in the last few weeks, backed up by Colwill agreeing a further extension to 2024 this week.
There is a definite feeling that we are into a period of transition at City – a period in which it seems that, at long last, youth will be given its chance. I suppose the fear has to be that we’ll end up going from one extreme to the other though. As always, balance is the key with the old guard gradually being replaced by the new, but balance has been a strong point at Cardiff in recent years.
