What will probably be the last of these weekly reviews this summer is dominated, as it should be at this time of year really, by the warm up matches being played by Cardiff City at senior and Under 23 levels – there have been some stories in other areas, which I’ll come to later, but it’s on field action first and foremost this week.
I say that despite acknowledging the received wisdom that pre season games count for nothing in the grand scheme of things. However, within that definition, I would still say that, especially for a team whose prospects for the new season appear to be as dependent on things like spirit, belief and camaraderie as City’s are, a run of poor results going into the competitive stuff can be a concern.
City’s senior team had begun their pre season programme by filling their boots in predictable fashions against Tavistock and Bodmin with a combined aggregate of 17-1 in their favour, but their final game in the south west saw them draw 1-1 at Plainmoor against Torquay United. The former Football League club represented a pretty significant step up in terms of ability from the the two Cornish sides, but will be competing in the Vanarama National League South (the level below what I still call the Conference) in 18/19, so there will have been a few eyebrows raised at that outcome.
When a Premier League team follows a result like that up with what was generally regarded as a deserved 2-1 defeat after scoring first at a newly promoted Championship club, then I believe that, while not exactly setting off alarm bells, there would be a desire to get back on track, so to speak, in their next game.
Last Wednesday City went to Rotherham, took the lead through Josh Murphy, but were then caught, and eventually overtaken, by the home side amid a general consensus that the result was right. Like every team we’ve played up to now, Rotherham were a week closer to the start of the “proper” stuff than us, so that needs to be factored in, but it was a second consecutive performance which would have to be rated as disappointing.
Just one last thing about Rotherham, young midfielder James Waite played for the first forty five minutes and did pretty well by all accounts. As someone who is always banging on about the lack of first team opportunities for young players at Cardiff, you’d think I’d be pleased about this news and I am to the extent that it’s better than nothing. However, Neil Warnock’s post match comments made it pretty clear that Waite’s selection was little more than an acknowledgment of his good attitude during the week in Devon/Cornwall – listening to our manager, it seemed fairly clear that Waite would be back with the Development squad for the next game and he duly was.
About ten days ago, Club director Steve Borley answered questions from members of a new(ish) Cardiff City messageboard (which is well worth a visit if you’ve not done so up to now). Thanks to Steve, and to Steve Davies who helped set the whole thing up, for this – it’s great that there is someone in the Boardroom willing to do this.
However, for me, the one disappointing answer that Steve gave was the one concerning the club’s Academy. It’s not so much that I disagree with his views on what I see as the failure of the current system on a national level or that it has to become harder for young players to break through the higher up the pyramid we go, it was the air of inevitability about it all he conveyed with the impression given that there was nothing that can be done about it all.
For about ninety per cent of it’s existence since becoming a Football League club in 1920, Cardiff City made the second tier of the system their “natural home” with a policy of giving young, locally produced players a chance. Many of them were still teenagers when they were given their debuts, but enough of them were able to swim, as opposed to sink, to give the club a history whereby they spent far more time in the upper half of the four division system than the lower one over a period of ninety years.
During this decade however, the conveyor belt which gave local youngsters a route into the first team has virtually stopped. Has the quality of young players being produced in Cardiff and it’s surrounding areas declined in that time? Qualification for and success at Euro 2016 isn’t conclusive proof that the answer is no, but it is suggestive of it and yet you look at what has been happening at the nation’s capital city club since 2010 and you’d have to conclude that the answer was yes.
I’ll finish this semi rant by saying that a situation has been allowed to develop at Cardiff City where the divide between Academy and first team now looks to be an almost unbridgeable one. Despite talk of a new start at that level a couple of seasons back, the Development team still strikes me as a kind of waiting area where nineteen year olds with their first pro contract go to pass their time for anything up to five years before their almost inevitable release by the club. It would be so great for someone to break through to prove my assessment wrong, but, despite what Steve Borley says, there is still that progression at many other clubs – yes, the Academy system nationally can now be viewed as a failure in my opinion, but Cardiff City’s Academy is even more of a failure because it just does not do what it is supposed to and hasn’t done for years.
Anyway, sorry about that, back to the first team’s preparation for the new season! This continued at Burton yesterday and, on the face of it, that need for a performance and a result was answered with a 5-1 win against a side who were in the same division as us last season.
True, Burton were missing eight players with injury and they were worth the lead they held for much of the first half following a slightly harsh early penalty award against Joe Ralls, but City were ruthless once Junior Hoilett’s free kick was headed into his own net by home captain Jake Buxton.
Further goals followed before half time as Kenneth Zohore’s netted for the first time following his belated introduction to the Devon/Cornwall tour and Nathan Mendez-Laing scored a beauty from over twenty yards with one of those shots which start out outside the upright by some way, but curl back in to leave the best keepers helpless.
Bobby Reid capitalised on hesitancy by former City men Ben Turner and Stephen Bywater to notch a fourth after the break and the scoring was completed by sub Callum Paterson with a twenty five yarder which found the bottom corner.
Mention of Reid brings me on to a mistimed tackle on him by Buxton which sent him up into the air to land on the back of his head. It looked frightening, but, thankfully, Reid recovered and was able to carry on and get an hour’s more game time in before he became one of a raft of players to be substituted.
Lee Peltier wasn’t as lucky though after a sickening clash of heads in which no one was to blame as committed players challenged for the ball in the air. Apparently Peltier remembered nothing about the collision and so was sent to hospital for further examination – there is no news yet as to the extent of his injury, but you’d like to think that this is a case which falls into the no news is good news category.
In his post match press conference, assistant manager Kevin Blackwell brought home how serious Reid’s injury might have been when he talked about the conditions caused by the prolonged spell of hot, dry weather which has occupied so much of summer 2018. The pitches are so hard at the moment and this probably explains why one of the first things Neil Warnock has emphasised in all of his post game sessions with the media this year has been that his squad had not received any significant injuries.
Other sides have been less fortunate. Burton have cancelled their final warm up game in a few days time because of all of their injuries and City scheduled visit to Morton on Tuesday has also had to be be cancelled because the Scottish team have so many unfit players. Blackwell mentioned that a behind closed doors game at the FA’s St George’s Park complex on Friday against Ligue One side Amiens (I think that’s who we’re playing anyway – it’s hard to be certain without having what he said confirmed in print) had been arranged as a replacement for the Morton game.
The reason Kevin Blackwell was answering the questions yesterday was that Neil Warnock had left the game early to catch a plane which was taking him to see a transfer target. I should say here, that I’m not going to waste much time on the Marko Grujic situation this week – suffice it to say that it’s still ongoing and I’m now trusting that the reason City are pursuing this deal is that they have assurances that once a hold up regarding a new contract for the player between Liverpool and his agent has been sorted out, Grujic will sign for us for the season.
All of the signs were that we were only looking for a new midfielder (Grujic) and a striker, both on loan, but, after the Rotherham game our manager stated that he had a back up for Grujic who he wouldn’t mind signing even if we do finally get the Serbian. So. it seems we are after three players now and my feeling is that it is this mystery second midfielder who Mr Warnock was going to see yesterday – I also got the impression that the trip was for a meeting with the player, rather than to watch him play,
The aforementioned James Waite was in the starting line up yesterday for what was a very strong Development team which took on Hereford United at Edgar Street. The home side have done superbly since starting from scratch a few years ago after the old Hereford club was wound up and will be competing in the Vanarama League North in the new season.
Hereford competed well in the first half and could have been ahead at the break, but had their work cut out in the second period as a City team including Lee Camp, Cameron Coxe, Matt Connolly, Stuart O’Keefe, Anthony Pilkington, Lee Tomlin, Omar Bogle and Kadeem Harris began to get on top – Bogle, Pilkington and sub Rhys Healey all scoring to secure a 3-0 win.
With Premier League managers having to name twenty five man first team squads just before their first competitive match (home grown youngsters can also be included), you have to think that not many of those I listed in the last paragraph will make it into the twenty five at Cardiff – in fact, it might be right to say that all of them are available for at least a loan move, but, as yet, I think I’m right in saying that not one City player has gone out on loan. Now would seem to be an appropriate time therefore to mention that goalkeeper Ben Wilson, who was released by the club at the end of last season signed for Bradford this week.
Before leaving the Development team, I should mention a couple of players who came here as trialists, but may well have signed contracts of some sort with the club for the coming season. Brayden Shaw was not involved yesterday it seems, but he featured extensively in the south west last week and was referred to by name rather than by the much used “a Trialist” designation by the club website, while Jacob (Jake) Evans, who played a number of games at Development team level last season, played the second half at Hereford.
Finally, although I suspected the plans for a new training complex for the club had been shelved, they are still ongoing and, in fact, took a significant step forward on Friday – I’ve questioned whether such a step was necessary, but, having seen that line about fifteen pitches, I can appreciate more why the club feel that they need a step up from what they have at the current Vale complex.
Thanks, as ever Paul, for a fine overview of the week.
You correctly highlight the increasingly apparent inability of Academy players to come through and make their mark. All I would say in response, is yes it is indeed lamentable, but it seems a mirror image of what is happening with several other EPL clubs also.
On a lighter note…
Recently I talked of the great John Charles giving 16 year old me two tickets for the 1964 game at Huddersfield. Actually he had run out of tickets himself, but got them from the man sitting next to him on the team coach…the alas now “late” Gareth Williams. (And poor Gareth was – for his kindness – to be sent off by a ridiculously officious referee that very afternoon.)
Well, some six weeks before that, travelling back on the train from Portsmouth Harbour, myself and my mate walked down the carriages looking for the refreshment car, and suddenly…lo and behold, there were all the City players, looking suitably chastened after a 5-0 thumping. And needless to say, they did not fall over themselves with glee when we asked them if we could take a photo or three …not least because they were in the middle of a card game…!! (And with the maturity of years, I now see that asking card players to stop and look at a camera, is akin to stopping a jogger to ask for directions…!! A definite no-no.)
And here is that photo. Note the same two are together there.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1d0NYLUB0zJL34Js-OvixC5i37OGLfMZD
Gareth clearly idolised John, and Charlo in turn identified Gareth as the player bursting with raw talent…hence him taking him under his wing.
Thanks Paul ,as ever your enthusiasm for the academy and development sides does you merit , pity your not running the strategic plan at the club .
The loss at Rotherham and win at Burton show how unpredictable friendlies can be ,never been a fan really ,but I guess it’s a requirement to iron out the issues.
Still think we are light in midfield, the Grujic situation I’d annoying and were not getting the truth ,and I for one would like he club to move on from it, he’s not Pogba.
Nearly there, I’m getting nervous,
Good morning Paul and others – Sensible article as always. It must be so disheartening for youngsters who spend 8 to 10 years in their formative years as developing players only to be cast aside at the end of their teens. I am trying to recall how many of “our” youngsters who were in that category, and left to join other clubs have made a successful career in the game. I struggle to think of many. Currently only Tom James who found a position at Yeovil, and now being courted by Swansea, is the only one who comes to mind, and in truth, I did think him to be a useful prospect four or five years ago. Are there others?
Strange results last week, and as you state, not too much to get excited about. Hopefully, this Saturday will give us a better idea of where we are at from a performance point of view. Both our fellow promotion teams have been “splashing the cash” and seem to have made some useful acquisitions, particularly Fulham with Schurlle (on loan) and Mitrovic, and they are favourites to sign Mawson. I was intrigued that NW left to catch a flight on Saturday to discuss a potential transfer objective, but where did he go? No news yet, but I think we all recognise the need for mid-field strengthening, whether Grujic comes or not.
At a family gathering yesterday, I was informed that just about every newspaper has us as finishing last this season. If one Cardiff lad surprised the world by his exploits in France, and how I wish he could put in an appearance in our opening home match, then perhaps his efforts could help inspire us to jolt those “doubting Thomases” who take such a dim view of our chances of survival. Our “Thomas” certainly upset the applecart, Totally magnificent.
Paul…your and your readers’ help is requested.
What am I missing here…?
We may not have paid out the sums that Fulham and Wolves have paid in transfers this close season, but we have still paid out a veritable fortune…and I believe we have been well and truly stitched up in those dealings.
I have just read on WOL that Swansea have bought the 23 year old Barrie Mackay for just £500K. This is on a day that they have apparently got £20 million for Mawson…!!
Just the other day, Leeds paid £3 million for that sublime wing back Barry Douglas.
Yet we are paying dizzying money for a boy from Norwich who looks as overpriced as his Arbuckles restaurants. And a similar sum of £10 million for the 5’ 7″ Bobby Reid…who is 2 inches shorter than Mackay…who is himself regarded as too small by many jeremiahs.
And Mackay has represented his country at U18, U19, U21 …and is now a full international too. Bobby Reid has never represented his country at ANY level…plus he is a year or so older.
To me, Mackay looks the better buy. I am prepared to accept I could be wrong.
One thing for sure though is this: there is no way that Reid is TWENTY times better than Mackay…!!
No way on this earth. Can Graham Potter conduct our transfers for us please?
Sir Vincent, I implore you: do not let our Great Alchemist spend your money like there is no tomorrow. Remember how Malky Shafter and The Grinning Kamikaze spent your money like water. Gary Madine and Omar Bogle have so far looked very overpriced. The jury is out on messrs Smithies and Cunningham.
Neil, you are a wise SAVER of reputations. But I have my doubts whether you are a wise SPENDER of money…!!
Thanks Paul for the last of the weekly reviews, I have enjoyed them all.
In reply to Dai, I to have my doubts when it comes to our manager and his track record when spending large amounts, add Tomlin to your list of City failures. Also I was disappointed with our loan acquisitions, Wildschut, Ward, Traore barely played, Bryson chased shadows and Gruic ended up being a liability and a red card waiting to happen.
Regarding Douglas and Mackay in my opinion they are good solid championship players who have moved for bargain fees, both jocks who in the main tend to be cheaper than their English equivalents.
The jury is out on Murphy and Reid, both have pace and potential and being young and English tend to be overpriced although I would like to think Reid has goals in him and didn’t look out of place playing against the Manchester clubs last season.
I see we have been linked with Troy Deeney, again overpriced at fifteen million for a thirty year old who has lost that half a yard. If it were the player of three or four years ago he would have been a great fit, I dread to think what his wages are.
I would like to thank BJA for his witty “doubting Thomas” analogy, and indeed think that with Neil Warnock inspiring them, 17th position is not out of the question. But I fear it will be all hands to the wheel defensively this coming season, and whether a Mozza/Sol pairing at the back will be up to it, is highly debatable. A top centre back was desideratum…and we have chosen to miss the boat there, to Boro’s gain.
As for the Academy, what is beyond a peradventure of a doubt is that we must avoid a situation in the future where young kids like Craig Bellamy and Gareth Bale are stolen from under our noses by the likes of Norwich and Southampton. How we do it, I know not. In an ideal world the FAW would issue an edict to decree that no English teams can steal Welsh talent while those kids are still in Welsh schools…but no doubt UEFA would overturn such a ruling.
But the FAW should still try. We in South Wales are in a privileged position here. The English 89 league clubs, would all be defenceless against each other’s nefarious activities, but we would only realistically have to keep our eye on one club…45 miles to the West.
What sayest thou, Paul?
Sorry everyone, I just did a long reply to some of the points raised and my computer packed up for some reason so I lost it all and don’t have the time now to do it all again – one thing though, is anyone else unable to see the photo Dai posted? I keep on being told I need permission to look at it.
I get the same message as you, Paul.
Oh Paul boyo…and the rest of our MAYAns…
What can I say?
[Well, “sorry” would be a good start, Dai..!!]
Profuse apols…when it comes to being “computer savvy” alas, I am no wiser now than when I first went online in 1998. I am truly a paid up member of the Dunces’ Club.
Actually, joking aside…I genuinely had dark suicidal thoughts in early 2013, when I lost 20 years of reviews, essays, articles, letters, 300 lyrics of favourite songs, and a heck of a lot of other stuff. And almost worst of all, I lost all 10 years of my digital photos of holidays at home and abroad. All those hundreds of poses for photos…wasted…!!
But there was even worse to come than all that. For nearly 20 years I had been sending out what I called my “Daigressing” …they started out as a postal thing, but in 1998, I commenced to switch to online. These Daigressings were a potpourri of my thoughts, other people’s thoughts, jokes, etc..and each one took at least 30 man hours work. They had gone out once every three weeks (eventually following a big boost from Joe Dolce who handed over his newsletter list to yours truly when he retired from his regular mailing) to 2,400 people in 28 countries, and never failed to arrive in people’s inbox, over many years.
Their USP had been that they were not archived, and thus it was their very transience that had been what marked them out from being yet another well meaning blog that nobody gets round to reading.
In other words I was saying to my readers, “read it now, because it won’t be archived…so catch it while you can”. But I never meant to destroy my originals…but alas, amazingly, I did.
I had put the very core of my being into those Daigressings…and talking of which, I had started off a slim man, but after two decades of being increasingly pinned down at my desk by correspondence from all parts of the globe (some individual Daigressings got me a postbag of over 100 emails, and needed replies from me), I had become morbidly obese in the process.
I won’t go into the freak events brought on by my extreme tiredness at 3 in the morning that meant I wiped out a whole chunk of my life by wiping my external back up disk by mistake, when I attempted to reset my new PC bought the previous day to factory settings, when I had become bamboozled by the then new Windows 8 which my PC had come pre-loaded with. (I had not just fractured the disk in my old PC but had positively exploded it…and thus had dumped it in the local rubbish tip). Despite calling in the best local PC doctors (who even had done work for the police), they could not salvage all the phenomenal amount of material that Microsoft had ditched so expertly.
I wanted to kill myself. Many wives would have given me a darned good kicking. But not my dear wife Larissa. She steadfastly refused to be remotely severe on me for losing a massive chunk of our life together: she magnificently told me I had not killed anyone. So I ought to get things in perspective. “People make mistakes: it is part of being human” was what she said.
So Paul, you lost some stuff tonight. Just realise that “s*** happens”. I certainly have become more philosophical as a result of that trauma that befell me in the spring of 2013.
I tell you something…when TE Lawrence left the manuscript of his magnum opus The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, in the refreshment room at Reading Railway Station while changing trains (and it was never found, and thus he had to completely write all over again), it had NOTHING on the quantity of stuff I lost at 3 o’clock that nightmarish morning…!!
A speck in the Ocean of Language …compared to my admittedly far-from-ocean liner, (but still very seaworthy) fishing smack.
– [ ] And a final note on this loss Paul…every cloud has a silver lining…of sorts. And the silver lining for me was that my dear brother Clive in Australia, had copied parts of many of my Daigressings, and was able to send me his cache…which considerably helped me when my head was slumped.
– [ ] And it is certainly slumped again tonight, as brother Clive died in Sydney at the weekend. A true hero of mine.
Anyway, back to the present.
To set the scene again re that photo…let me repeat what I said at the top…
‘…
Recently I talked of the great John Charles giving 16 year old me two tickets for the 1964 game at Huddersfield. Actually he had run out of tickets himself, but got them from the man sitting next to him on the team coach…the alas now “late” Gareth Williams. (And poor Gareth was – for his kindness – to be sent off by a ridiculously officious referee that very afternoon.)
Well, some six weeks before that, travelling back on the train from Portsmouth Harbour, myself and my mate walked down the carriages looking for the refreshment car, and suddenly…lo and behold, there were all the City players, looking suitably chastened after a 5-0 thumping. And needless to say, they did not fall over themselves with glee when we asked them if we could take a photo or three …not least because they were in the middle of a card game…!! (And with the maturity of years, I now see that asking card players to stop and look at a camera, is akin to stopping a jogger to ask for directions…!! A definite no-no.)
And here is that photo. Note the same two are together there.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1d0NYLUB0zJL34Js-OvixC5i37OGLfMZD
Gareth clearly idolised John, and Charlo in turn identified Gareth as the player bursting with raw talent…hence him taking him under his wing.
…’
(Oh if this was a video link Paul, you would see me now blushing crimson with embarrassment, over that silly confusion of mine with Google Drive. And I cannot claim 3am fatigue this time. Just rank stupidity.)
That photo link should have worked now. How I now love than innocent photo from 1964.
Gareth Williams, “King”John Charles, and my dear brother Clive Woosnam…all please R.I.P…I pray.
Thanks Dai that’s a nice, evocative photo – look how much room they have compared to the packed like sardines Arriva coaches I traveled in last week! As someone who read a few “Daigressings”, I have to tell anyone who didn’t that they were great fun with something in them for everyone.
Thanks Paul for being such a mensch, and saying such a kind thing about my old Daigressings, which ended in January 2016.
Also thanks for not telling me off for my typos, which abound as I get older.
I am so impressed that you almost never make the silly errors that I make.
In my last posting above, a couple more scream out at me, now I read them in daylight.
A daft “than” for “that”, 4 lines from the end, and an “it” missing from… “and it was never found, and thus he had to completely write all over again”.
My standards are in freefall.
Gee…if I was an animal, I’d be humanely put down.
But before I am put down, let me congratulate Jeff Blight for this “right on the button” summing up of his…
‘…
I was disappointed with our loan acquisitions, Wildschut, Ward, Traore barely played, Bryson chased shadows and Gruic ended up being a liability and a red card waiting to happen.
…’
I think he has Bryson and Grujic absolutely summed up, in a mere handful of words. Brilliant, Jeff.
That takes talent.
I should sit at the feet of Jeff and ask him how he does it. And I should sit at your feet too Paul. I am of course referring to “economy of words”…to be able to say it all in a single sentence.
It is a skill that I have never developed. I was vaccinated by a gramophone needle as a toddler.
In my rush to praise Jeff, I had momentarily taken my SCEPTICAL SPECTACLES off…!!
Now a day later, I am holding up his comments re prices of Scots born footballers being normally lower than English born ones …to my magnifying glass. And alas Jeff, you are not displaying your normal sublime logic.
You will recall that I was making the case above for Barrie Mackay being at least the equal of Bobby Reid…despite costing the Swans one TWENTIETH of the fee Neil paid the Wursels. I then mentioned gifted Scots born wing back Barry Douglas just going for £3 million to Leeds…while we paid well over THREE times that, for winger Josh Murphy.
I now gently present this counter evidence to you Jeff…please explain to me the transfer of Scots born Oliver Burke for £13 million, and Scots born Ross McCormack for £12 million…?
I rest my case, m’Lud.
Sir Vincent…please do not let Neil waste your money. I love Neil to bits…but wouldn’t mind betting that he overpaid for his Cornish farm too.
No…on reflection, strike that last sentence.
Neil was using his own money there…and so doubtless got a bargain…!!
Dai my comments regarding the Jocks was a generalisation, our Callum being a good example. Your examples are interesting, as we know Ross was talented but had his demons. Always seemed to play well initially at a new club but would then tail off, badly in the case of Villa. Burke was a bit of a boy wonder who has not lived up to expectations. In the main their fees were quite exceptional for the Jocks.
I was impressed with both Mackay and Douglas when I have seen them play. However I have seen comments that Mackay is lightweight and both Wolves and Douglas himself must have had doubts regarding his ability to make the step up.
No doubt we have paid over the odds for Murphy in particular. Reid was second only to Vydra in the championship scoring tables, compared to the fees paid for likes of McCormack, Rhodes, Assombalonga etc perhaps he was a bargain, time will tell.
Thanks for the clarification, Jeff.
I take your point about Robbie Reid (who I keep wanting to call “Bobby” for some weird reason) , but if Mackay is a lightweight, then surely Reid is too? And despite the goals he scored, is he really TWENTY times the player Mackay is?
That of course is a rhetorical question. Clearly he is not. I think Mackay would have scored many of those goals in Reid’s position in a free flowing Wurzels attacking team.
As for SuperCal…yes we got him for a song (£400K)…with Hearts due 15% of any sell-on. But wasn’t that because he was at 22, young enough to be able to go for a DEVELOPMENT fee? The same daft rule that allowed our boy Adam Matthews to go to Celtic for peanuts (£250K) …and in my mind I seem to have it linked to Celtic’s clever use of the FIFA cross border rule that allowed them to take Joe Ledley for nowt…not long after we had turned down a £6 million offer from Tony Pulis at Stoke. (I am still spitting nails at that outrage. And am still mad at Neil Lennon for his unsurpassable chutzpah a couple of years later, telling Cardiff City to not insult him with a £9 million offer for Victor Wanyama. You could not make it up, eh?.)
And yes, Ledley was doing what he thought was best for his career, so one one level I do not criticise him, but on another level, he cost The Bluebirds £6 million…which is why I was so depressed at the talk of us paying good money for him from Derby County in the last transfer window. He has cost us enough already…plus anyway I think his legs have gone.
What sayest thou, Paul…?
Oh, btw…I meant to apologise to Colin…re my dud link to that gorgeous photo of Gareth and King John.
My recollection was that the club turned down the Stoke bid for Ledley Dai
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/stoke_city/8773680.stm
I don’t get the bit about him still commanding a fee mind.
I would have gone for Ledley before Bryson last season, but I must admit that he was struggling in a couple of Wales matches at the back end of last season.
As usual Paul, I have not explained myself well.
Yes , I am well aware we turned down the £6 million. We did not want to sell him.
Which is why it was so galling to see Celtic get him for nowt on a technicality soon after.
Were I Joe, such would have been my love for my hometown club that knowing they were going to lose out on a big fee for me, I would have asked them to see if the Stoke deal could have been resurrecrted. And if yes, and they matched the Celtic personal terms, I would have gone to Stoke.
Not for altruistic teasons (i.e. to help the coffers of the club which had so heavily invested in me since a kid), but for the lure of the EPL over – if not a pub league – then certainly a vastly inferior one.
And yes of course I am aware that Celtic are the much bigger club. But I submit that I would have tried to go to Stoke.
Which explains why Joe Ledley doubtless drives a new luxury prestige car, and I drive a modest 2003 model…!!
Paul,
Just watched the Swans game live. And it made me envious of three players in their side.
First Barrie McKay (who I persist in mis-spelling, my apols) who SKY gave their MotM award to. A wonderful talent at one twentieth the price of our Murphy and one twentieth the price of our Reid.
And then Jeffeson Montero, who came on for the last 25 minutes, and lit the game up with his speed and guile.
But in some ways best of all was Oliver McBurnie. What a player…!! He is a throwback to a centre forward of my boyhood…the late Tommy Johnston of Leyton Orient fame. (Barry Hearn named their new stand after him…he is a true legend there.)
McBurnie even looks and runs like Johnston…though he does not have Tommy’s bandaged withered arm.
I would swap Bogle, Madine and Zohore …all three for Ollie. The boy is the real deal.
Finally Paul, Graham Potter realy plays the game your way. He might well bring them back up.
What thinkest thou?
I was at the Betis game Dai, so didn’t see the Jacks match. One thought which does occur to me though is that, speaking as someone who has always enjoyed seeing smaller players prosper, their squad looks like it could struggle physically in the rough and tumble of the Champuionship – that said, although I don’t seen them making an immediate return to the Premier League, I think Potter is the real deal and will turn them around if given the time.