those “in the know” City fans who like to keep us informed as to developments in the club’s attempts to bring in new players. Every January and then through the summer months, messageboards are full of posts about what “my sources” have been telling them. To be fair, there have been many times when they have been proved right and they can bask in the glow of appreciation from their fellow supporters – January 2012 was not one of those periods for the “breaking news, my sources inform me” brigade at Cardiff City though!
On Monday I talked about our pursuit of Craig Noone. Much of what I said was based on what one of the most prominent of the sort of people I was talking about was saying concerning the Brighton winger. To be fair to the individual concerned, it’s pretty obvious that we were after Noone and, without knowing anything about the transfer wranglings that went on, it’s hard to come to too many firm conclusions, but I get the impression that the south coast club messed us about a bit over the past month – whether we were ever just hours away from concluding the deal though, as was claimed, I’m not so sure. The Echo certainly believe that we bid over a million pounds for Noone, but, did we really put in a bid of £3.2 million for Watford’s Marvin Sordell as claimed in that story?
Well, there are plenty of supporters who look at the timing and size of the bid and say “yeah right” – my mind goes back to January 2007 when Peter Ridsdale talked about a bid of £1 million for Luton’s Rowan Vine early in the month and then went on to spend a fraction of that amount on the likes of Jason Byrne, Matt Green and Iwan Redan! Under circumstances like that, it was hard to believe the Riddler and there are plenty who feel the same way now, but, I’ll give the club the benefit of the doubt and accept that our manager did have the funding to make that bid for Sordell (although I’m sceptical as to whether we would have been able to afford him and Craig Noone if both bids had been accepted). Anyway, providing there was the sort of cash available for City to make the bids mentioned in that report I linked to, I reckon they should be able to compete for virtually any player who might become available when the loan window opens again next week.
As far as I’m aware, there were no messageboard exclusives regarding the Sordell bid before it appeared in the media and, to the best of my knowledge, this was also true of the two signings we did make in January. Goalkeeper Elliott Parish, who had been here on loan from Aston Villa, chose to accept our offer of a permanent deal and eighteen year old Kadeem Harris was signed from Wycombe Wanderers on Monday for a reported fee of £150,000 (which might rise to double that based on appearances, goals etc.). The move for Harris became public knowledge not when the “in the know” brigade broke the story, but when an over eager member of his family tweeted about it on Sunday night and I have to say that everything that has happened this month tends to suggest that the good ship Cardiff City seems less likely to leak these days than it did under previous ownership and management!
Kadeem Harris - Wycombe's youngest ever first teamer when he made his debut for them a couple of years ago.*
Anyway, as to our new players – I’ve seen Parish play once or twice and, apart from a horrific blunder against Exeter reserves which cost a goal, I’ve been quite impressed – there’s nothing to suggest he’ll be in first team contention any time soon, but, it might be hard for us to keep two such accomplished keepers as Messrs Marshall and Heaton at the club over the coming seasons and it may be that Parish would be a ready made replacement if one of them left. As for Kadeem Harris, I must admit to knowing very little about him before our interest in him became apparent, but he’s a winger who has become a regular in a struggling Wycombe side this season and his Wikipedia page makes for quite interesting reading.
I can’t explain exactly why, but I have this feeling that Malky Mackay might have done it again with Harris. I know You Tube videos can make anyone look good, but I like the fact that he appears to be able to take on his marker on the inside or outside and looks to be genuinely two footed – besides that, he looks at home running at and taking on players and we don’t have too many who can do that. The fact he has been given a three and a half year contract indicates that we have a lot of faith in him and it might be that we could be seeing more of him in the first team picture this season than expected – especially if we don’t bring in many loan signings over the coming weeks.
Gabor Gyepes - leaves after four years at the club.
Finally. I should also record that there was some movement out of the club yesterday. Jon Parkin has gone out on another of his loan spells – this time to Scunthorpe United for a month and Gabor Gyepes has had his contract, which was due to run out this summer, terminated by mutual consent. It’s a sad way for Gyepes, who had become something of a forgotten figure, to bow out of the club, but he did a good, solid job for the first two years of his time with us and I’d like to wish him all the best in the hope that he can find a new club soon.
* picture courtesy of
