Football may have finished for three weeks or so and I always tend to think of early and mid June as fairly quiet periods before contracts expire and things start to click into gear on the transfer front, but, this year, Cardiff City just keep on signing players at a bewildering rate!
Three more came in this week taking the total of new arrivals to eight and they’ve all been permanent signings, yet it has been reported that City want to use all five of the loan options they’re allowed and there is of course at least one very high profile name we’re linked with which I think has moved on beyond the mere speculation stage now.
So, it would appear that the plan is to bring in at least fourteen players which may seem a lot, but when you consider that five loan signings from the second half of last season have left, eight senior players have not been offered new contracts, Sam Bowen has left the club with a year of his contract left, Sean Morrison’s future is uncertain once he has completed rehabilitation work following his ACL injury sustained at Barnsley and Joe Ralls, plus possible first team squad member George Ratcliffe, have not signed the contracts they’ve been offered by the club, it’s certainly feasible that we’re less than halfway through our recruitment this summer.
The three new signings this week do not address the glaring imbalance in the squad as it stands at the moment. With the contracted James Collins’ future at the club uncertain, we could be in a situation where Max Watters may be the only striker who is a potential member of City’s senior match day squad who will turn up on the first day of pre season training (I believe it’s late next week when that happens) if Mark Harris is given a bit more time off because of his involvement with the Wales squad.
All three new men are far more accustomed to the other end of the pitch and, as of now, I can only agree with the opinion I’ve heard quite often in the past week that we look like a relegation squad, but, truthfully, how can we be anything else with so few strikers? Furthermore, only one of these has proven himself at this level completely and even he is someone we appear to want get rid of who has spent most of his career in the lower leagues.
Surely, the point is that the squad cannot be judged to any great degree yet – we are going to sign some strikers between now and the end of July and it may be that many will still rate us a relegation squad after that, but let’s see who they are first eh?
What I will say though is that I can’t see the signings we’ve made up to now persuading many waverers to renew their season tickets or become a new season ticket holder – that’s not to belittle any of the new players or to ignore the financial constraints currently in force at the club, but what I say is true isn’t it?
The first of the trio of arrivals this week was Vontae Daley-Campbell, a twenty one year old right back/wing back who joins us on a three year contract after being released by Leicester City. Daley-Campbell describes himself as a hard working full back who likes to get forward a lot and although he never played for Leicester in the Premier League, he did feature in a couple of matches in their FA Cup winning run in 2020/21 – he also played nine times while on loan to Dundee last season in their unsuccessful fight to stay in the SPL during which time he was shown a straight red card in a game at Ross County.
That’s as much as I know about Daley-Campbell, but I do know more about the other one of the two right backs we signed on the same day and I would say my opinion of him is mixed.
I first became aware of Mahlon Romeo (who is the son of Jazzie B the front man of Soul II Soul) when he made an early mistake in a televised Millwall v City game in our 17/18 promotion season which enabled Junior Hoilett to put us ahead and I believe he was withdrawn at half time in that game. Also on the debit side is that he was not being selected in the starting line up during the final games of his season long loan spell in League One with Portsmouth in 21/22.
To counter that, Romeo played just short of 200 league games for Millwall with the majority of them in the Championship and he was something of an automatic choice for them before he was publicly critical of the Millwall fans who booed the taking of the knee by the team in the first match after supporters were allowed back into games following the Pandemic. From the outside, it would appear that Romeo’s subsequent loan move was a consequence of this breakdown in his relationship with the supporters of the team he joined from Gillingham as a youngster.
Romeo is twenty six and has also signed a three year contact – confusingly, a story in the local media stated that he was a free transfer who was signed for an undisclosed fee! The fact he was still under contract at Millwall though suggests that there was some sort of fee involved and his signing does not come as a surprise, because it seemed a realistic move when City’s interest in him was first reported earlier in the year while he was with Pompey.
Arriving the day after Daley-Campbell and Romeo was goalkeeper Ryan Allsop who celebrated his thirtieth birthday on Friday and has signed a two year deal after his contract with Derby expired. Allsop has turned out for thirteen different clubs and has played most often for Wycombe who he made nearly one hundred and twenty league appearances for, first in a loan spell and then after signing permanently for them. Most of Allsop’s football has been played in the lower divisions, but in recent years he has played more in the Championship and ended last season as first choice at Derby.
There have been rumours that Steve Morison wanted goalkeepers who were more confident when it comes to playing out from the back and this is a feature of Allsop’s game that does come up in messageboard discussions I’ve read about him, where he was also praised as a calming presence – comments regarding his actual goalkeeping though are best described as mixed.
The goalkeeping situation at the club is confusing if you consider that Dillon Phillips was reported to be staying with City a few weeks ago, but considering that we’ve signed Jak Alnwick as well, it’s hard to see how we, as a reportedly cash strapped Championship club, can accommodate three senior keepers and it seems more likely that Phillips’ situation will be similar to James Collins in that we’ll be looking to get him off the books, whether it be by temporary means or permanent ones.
On the Gareth Bale front, there was a story from an unusual source about him this week. French publication Football Mercarto reported in an “exclusive” that City had offered Bale a two year contract with an option for a further year and that the player “isn’t against” returning to Wales and is “taking more time to reflect”.
Intriguingly, the story also states that City are “rather confident” of getting their man. I honestly don’t know what to make of that last bit. Of course, the whole thing could be rubbish and there has to be a strong possibility that it is. Also, it’s quite unusual for potential buying clubs to make such positive noises while things are still up in the air on the negotiating front (I wouldn’t put it past our lot blurting something like that out mind). Then again, could it be that the deal is all but completed and the club is putting out a teaser aimed at those wavering season ticket holders I mentioned?
I’m over thinking things there aren’t I – there’s not much point in speculating too much as this does feel like something that we’ll get a definitive answer on quite soon, rather than it dragging on throughout the summer.
I’ll finish by asking if you’ve noticed that Cardiff City have become something like 13/8 on favourites to be Aaron Ramsey’s next club as well!
Good morning Paul – Thanks for the review and I am finding it increasingly difficult to become over excited about our acquisitions these past days. Do we really need two right backs when we have Ng (he is not a central defender) already and a youngster waiting in the wings. And to sign two goalkeepers – surely Phillips will want away.
I have not studied too closely the playing styles of the outfield players who have arrived, but I seem to think that there a some disciplinary issues with many. The last thing we need is to have a team which is potentially going to be reduced by “red” cards.
We need strengthening up front as you rightly state, and perhaps this is where we intend to utilise the loan system. There is still far too much speculation about Gareth Bale and even Ramsey, who I believe has a year left on his Italian contract. I just hope that these issues, if genuine, are resolved quickly as the sooner they are, if, and in our favour, may well persuade talented youngsters to seek some playing time at the CCS.
I have not heard how season ticket sales are going, but I would have thought that the eight arrivals so far have hardly sent anyone hurrying down to the stadium to secure their seat. But maybe something will happen this week to change all that.
GK: Dillon Phillips was never able to fully oust Smithies despite having advantage of being younger and cheaper and therefore the board’s preference to be our No. 1. I can see need to bring in new keeper, especially with concerns about ball-playing ability of those here before Morison came in, but thought it would be one of Alnwick or Allsop rather than both.
DF: We’re now one left-footed CB away from having two options for each position, unless O’Dowda is going to be seen as a LWB and Bagan LCB in which case we’re sorted here as well.
Midfield and attack need work but if we’re relying on media catching news (be that premier league loans or attractive free agents) I suppose these transfers will take more time. Good that we’ve got bodies in through the door so lack of chemistry, unfamiliarity with defensive system isn’t going to be an excuse for us – it was more often defense we struggled with last season than attack.
City’s transfers of recent years have largely been good, thought only O’Dowda popping up on the analytics twitter world thus far, so I’m looking forward to see how it plays out.
One thing to keep an eye on is the length of deals as i) testament to agents negotiating skills, ii) how City are working the transfer market now, iii) player’s Morison feels more comfortable building a future squad around and perhaps even iv) how confident Morison is that there’s an inhouse answer on it’s way up the system. Relatively short contracts for both keepers and Collins as they approach 30 (both keeps have same end date – high trust in Luthra coming through?) and Ollie Tanner appears to be a bit of a punt, but Romeo, Daley-Campbell, O’Dowda and Eboue Adams are names going to be around for a longer period of time.
Hello both and thanks for your replies. For me, one of the things about Warnock’s mad spending spree in 2019 was that, not only were a series of players who turned us into a worse team signed, but they were also on wages which meant that, apart from Glatzel who we took a huge hit on in terms of the transfer fee we got for him, we stood no chance of selling them on and now they’ve left without us getting a penny for them. Unless Steve Morison and his recruiting staff are footballing geniuses when it comes to talent spotting, a proportion of the eight players signed so far are going to prove to be not good enough for us abd, if we were looking to move them on in a year’s time, then their wages shouldn’t be prohibitive for potential buyers.
I agree with you DJ about being surprised that we’ve signed Alnwick and Allsop. I have no idea who’ll start the season as first choice, my instinct is Alnwick, but I don” really have anything to back that up with, but there’s seems no point in Phillips staying now. As for Luthra, I’ve seen much more of Ratcliffe than him and I’d prefer it if he signed the deal he’s been offered because I saw little from Luthra last season to suggest he’s a potential first team keeper although I admit I’m basing my negative opinion mainly on what was a bot of a nightmare for him against the wurzels.
BJA, as I say in my piece, the Romeo signing does not surprise me in the slightest, but, I do find myself wondering about the reason we signed Daley-Campbell. As for the disciplinary records of those we’ve signed, based on his record at Forest Green Rovers, I expect Adams to serve one, possibly two, suspensions a season while he’s with us. Romeo has just the one red card in his career and that was for Millwall against his former team Gillingham, so there might have been a bit of “history” in play there and he seems to get something between four and eight bookings a season, so a suspension for yellow cards seems a possibility, but not a strong one. Daley-Campbell has that straight red I mentioned and a few yellows from not many games, so it appears possible that he’d miss matches through suspension every season. As for O’Dowda, he’s played over three hundred games during his career, has never been sent off and the worst season he’s had as far as discipline goes was 20/21 when he was booked three times – I make it he’s been yellow carded eleven times in his career, so you’d like to think there’d be no problems with him. Regarding the goalkeepers, Allsop’s had two red cards and I’d say he’s got a few more yellows than your average keeper, while Alnwick has been sent off in each of the last two seasons, but not before that and I’d say he’s had slightly fewer yellows than Allsop although neither of their records suggest a potential problem in that department. I had no way of checking what Collins’ and Tanner’s disciplinary record is like.
Agree about Bale and/or Ramsey being a potential draw for some loanees if they sign for us.