Cardiff City mauve and yellow army.

Although there was talk before hand of there still being some new signings made while the squad were over in Spain for a week long training camp near Seville, the experience of previous years under Dave Jones suggested otherwise (without looking it up, I can only remember Michael Chopra’s transfer to Sunderland in 2007 while he was in Portugal as an example of a transfer into/from Cardiff City while we were out of the country during pre season training). Therefore, the main topic of City related conversation once a new manager was appointed, that is speculation about new signings, took something of a back seat this week as the squad combined the task of getting fitter with something of a team bonding exercise in sweltering southern Spain before finishing the whole thing off with last night’s game with Charlton Athletic.

Actually, there have been a few new arrivals since my last piece on here. Although this hasn’t been mentioned anywhere else, a normally reliable Ipswich Town site is reporting that we have found a new goalkeeping coach to replace Martyn Margetson – I can’t give you any more info about James Hollman because, to be honest, I’d never heard of him before and there’s not much more than what appears in that article about him on the Internet. On the pitch, the Joe Mason transfer was confirmed last Sunday afternoon and he flew out to Spain to join up with his new team mates the following day. The other new player came as something of a surprise when it was revealed yesterday that former Metz striker Rudi Gestede had been with the squad all week and would feature as a trialist in the Charlton game. Although Gestede’s record for a club that only avoided relegation to the third tier of the French league system by one point looks nothing special on paper, his efforts in last night’s match (more on that later) must have gone a long way towards earning him another chance to impress against Celtic on Wednesday.

Trialist Rudi Gestede is congratulated by Lee Naylor after scoring the only goal of last night's match with Charlton Athletic.

Apart from that, there’s little to report on the transfer speculation front. Speaking after last night’s match, Malky Mackay talked of there still being a need for “two or three more bodies” before the season proper kicks off (in an ideal world, I’d say it should be four of five), but, apart from the possibility of one of them being Rudi Gestede, there’s very little to report on that front. There was a flurry of speculation in midweek that Craig Bellamy was on the brink of rejoining us and this was reflected by the fact that the odds on him coming back to Cardiff went as low as 1/3 shortly afterwards. Seeing as one of the sources of this info is someone who got most things right about the Bellamy move last season, I believe that there might be something to this speculation, but I have always thought that we have to wait until mid August at the earliest if we are to get Bellamy again and I see little reason to change that opinion yet – Manchester City will surely hold out as long as they can before they even consider releasing him from his contract. One last little snippet, a poster on one of the messageboards who is, seemingly, based in Iceland and got virtually everything about the Ason Gunnarsson deal right has said that we have been watching Lillestrom atriker Björn Bergmann Sigurdarson who, like Gunnarsson, featured for Iceland in the recent European under 21 Championships, recently. It’s possible to make virtually any one look good in a You Tube video, but I like the fact he had the vision to score with a quickly taken free kick from out on the touchline in this compilation, while here he is in goalscoring action in a match played last night (four mins forty seconds into the action).

As for the match with Charlton, well it sounds like a pretty low key affair, but City got off to a winning start against a side that you would have presumed were further advanced in the pre season fitness stakes than us having been victorious in their two previous warm up matches (one of which was against Bristol City). Both sides made eleven changes at half time in what were still very warm conditions despite the evening kick off and with Paul Quinn, Steve McPhail and Jon Meades all missing out on the trip through injury and David Marshall (minor wrist injury) and Anthony Gerrard (returning from compassionate leave after the death of a relative) also omitted, it meant that all three of our first year pros (Ibby Farah, Nat Jarvis and Alex Evans) got forty five minutes of action as well as our six new signings. Judging by the very brief highlights I’ve seen on the official site, City looked more dangerous in the first half as Gestede in particular offered a goal threat, forcing the Charlton keeper into a diving save with a header and then having an angled volley ruled out for offside before getting the only of the game as he turned an opponent and then cut in from the left to score with a low shot from around twenty yards. City, who used Peter Whittingham in central midfield in the first half and Don Cowie there alongside captain Aron Gunnarsson (Mark Hudson having worn the arm band in the first half) after the break had luck on their side when Charlton hit bar and post in quick succession and Jordan Santiago had to make a fine save in the dying moments, but it was good to hear Malky Mackay talking after the game about us being a little bit sharper than our opponents – overall, an encouraging start to the new era at Cardiff City Stadium.

Before going on to the signings we made during the past week, I thought I’d mention that, no sooner had I said that goalkeeping coach Martyn Margetson would be staying at Cardiff in last week’s review, than he was off to West Ham to accept a similar post with them! Margetson hasn’t been replaced yet, but the speculation is that we will want to take another one of Watford’s back room staff to do the job. There are already rumours that their chief scout has joined the exodus from Watford down the M4 to Cardiff and now the name of Alec Chamberlain their highly rated goalkeeping coach is being mentioned as a replacement for Margetson (it has to be said though that Chamberlain is regarded as part of the furniture at Vicarage Road by many Watford supporters who consider it to be very unlikely he will be coming here).  One other little snippet, a late, and attractive, pre season friendly match has been added to our itinerary with Celtic visiting Cardiff City Stadium on 20 July – as to what sort of side they’ll field with their league campaign due to kick off four days later at Hibs, I haven’t a clue.

The main news this week has to do with the new signings being made as Malky Mackay continues the process of putting together the squad he wants at Cardiff and I think it’s fair to say that, at the moment, the consensus is that he is not doing too bad a job of it. Monday saw the confirmation of the Andrew Taylor deal with the former Middlesbrough player joining us on a three year deal, but, although there were persistent rumours flying around about him coming back, I think the signing of Robert Earnshaw on a two year contract came as a real surprise to most City fans.

On the day when it looked for a few horrible hours as if Alan Shearer was going to be our new manager, Earnie was saying that Malky Mackay should be given the Cardiff job  and this was interpreted by many to be a come and get me plea by the soon to be out of contract striker. However, with nothing to indicate that our new manager was pursuing the player, I think it’s fair to say that most thought that Earnie would go elsewhere with Palace and West Ham being amongst his suggested destinations. Once we were involved though, I would say we were bound to be favourites to get someone for whom the much over used description “Cardiff City legend” actually applies.

It’s now nearly seven years since Earnie left us to join West Brom in August 2004, but his affection for the club and it’s supporters has always been there, be it through his refusal to celebrate goals he scored against us, the way he always acknowledged City fans when playing against us or the way in which he had talked about coming back to play for Cardiff again some day. In return, City supporters have never stopped regarding him as one of their own and he has always been guaranteed a warm reception from them when he was in the opposing team – there can be no doubt that Earnie’s signing has been a very popular one which has pushed optimism levels up a few notches in the past week.

Earnie's muted celebration of his match winning goal for Norwich in his first competitive game back at Cardiff after leaving us was greeted by loud applause from all sides of the ground by City fans.

I’ll be honest and say that this is the new signing that has me least convinced. Earnie hasn’t impressed me too much over the past few years, but, just recently, he has been looking more like his old self and the hope that a feelgood factor derived from coming back home can contribute towards him reaching something like the standard he set for himself in his first stay at Cardiff makes me more positive about the prospect of him playing for us again than I would have been three months ago. If he has never really fulfilled all of the potential he showed in the early part of the previous decade, there can be no denying that, apart from his time with a desperately poor Derby side, he has kept on scoring at an impressive rate  (sixty two goals from one hundred and forty three Football League appearances for Norwich and Forest). Although he’s now thirty years of age, I’ve seen no evidence of him losing too much of the pace which used to terrorise opposing defences a decade ago and he is a more rounded player now. He may not score at the rate he did between 2000 and 2004, but, despite those misgivings I mentioned earlier, I’m definitely warming to the thought of watching him play in the blue shirt again – anyway, whatever happens, welcome back Earnie!

Our new midfield player Aron Gunnarsson - judging by his scoring record at Coventry, I don't think we should be that hopeful of seeing too many photos of him celebrating scoring in a Cardiff shirt!

On Tuesday Icelandic midfield player Aron Gunnarsson’s agent came out with a statement about his client’s future which stated that a move to a new club was likely in a day or two. Although I’m sure that the object of this exercise was to serve as a reminder of Gunnarsson’s availability, the fact that we were the only club named in the statement offered proof that we were definitely in with a good chance of getting him and this was confirmed on Friday when he became our latest signing after agreeing a three year deal at Cardiff. Gunnarsson, an athletic and hard working central midfield player with one of the better long throws around, certainly has a decent pedigree and, at just 22, has already played twenty three times for his country. However, after an excellent first season at Coventry, I think it’s fair to say that his career has stood still over the past two years as he has played in a team that has generally struggled at Championship level and the supporters at his old club do not appear to be too disappointed to see him go. Despite this, I have a good feeling about this one – Gunnarsson is still very young and a change of scenery could be all he needs to get what was a very promising career back on track.

There had been criticism of the fact that, so far, all of our signings have been Bosman free transfers as some demanded that we start splashing the cash. Such sentiments conveniently choose to ignore that we have to pay Watford compensation  for Malky Mackay and Coventry will have to be paid a training compensation fee for Aron Gunnarsson, but it’s almost certain that they will be getting their wish soon because of the imminent arrival of young striker Joe Mason from cash strapped Plymouth for a fee reported to be £250,000. Twenty year old Mason appears to be very highly regarded by fans of his home town club and the consensus appears to be that we are getting ourselves a bargain. All of the basic ingredients look to be there for a striker who can eventually become an effective player at this level and the only slight concern I have at the moment is that a deal which we had been assured would be completed yesterday has not been officially confirmed yet –  however, I must emphasise that there’s been no indication anywhere so far that there have been any problems in concluding the transfer.

Joe Mason - Plymouth born Republic of Ireland Under 21 cap who is good enough to make an impact for City this season according to Argyle supporters.

Assuming Mason does sign, he will join the rest of the squad in Spain for a week’s training which will conclude with the game against Charlton in Seville on Friday. Malky Mackay has emphasised though that the search for new players will go on and it shouldn’t be assumed that there won’t be any more new arrivals while he and the squad are away. On that score, although there has been speculation that our interest in David Goodwillie is cooling because the Malaysian investors have reservations about some of his off field behaviour, the fact that he is due to appear in Court tomorrow on an assault charge may bring things to a head as far as his future is concerned. Anything but a custodial sentence would surely see interest in the player revived, but, even if we press ahead in our bid for Goodwillie, the fact that two other clubs who were in for him in have benefitted financially from Charlie Adam’s move to Liverpool should not be ignored. Both Blackpool and Rangers have put in bids for Goodwillie which Dundee United refused, but it could well be that they will be back again with more attractive offers now.

Finally, the one new name we have been linked with over the past couple of days is fifty two times capped Finnish playmaker Alexei Eremenko. Russian born Eremenko is an attacking midfielder who had a very successful loan spell at Kilmarnock last season which led to him being one of the nominations for the Scottish PFA’S Player of the Year award and, apparently, has a host of clubs after him – when you watch stuff like this, you begin to see why.