I suppose if there’s a good time to go three hundred and twenty five minutes without scoring a goal, it is during your pre season programme, but when the team concerned averaged some way short of a goal a game and were the second lowest scorers in a twenty four team Championship during the previous campaign, then it cannot just be dismissed with claims that “it’s only pre season, it doesn’t matter”.
It’s four weeks since our very early start to pre season fixtures with that 2-0 win overPen y Bont and I can remember saying on here that, although a win by such a score over a team from the Cymru Premier didn’t look great, the plan would surely be to see a gradual improvement game by game during the build up to the game at Leeds next weekend..
I would say that in a pre season which could probably be summed up by words like “modest”, “average” and “low key”, there has been that slow, but discernible, progress – until today.
The 0-0 draw at Wycombe Wanderers in a Testimonial game for the home team’s ex City full back Joe Jacobson got the score line it deserved – this was not one of the occasional goalless draws that kept you entertained throughout. This was poor fare which I reckon the home side came closest to winning late on as they were denied by a remarkable goal line clearance by Dimitrios Goutas (possibly our best player apart from a cheap concession of possession in a dangerous position in the first half).
Ex Wycombe keeper Ryan Allsop left the field in the second half as what looked like a precaution after a very quiet hour or so, but his replacement Jak Alnwick was called on to make a good save from defender Jack Grimmer’s twenty five yard effort and that was more or less it from the home team as an attacking force.
Up the other end, Aaron Ramsey, looking bright and inventive despite the lack of a tangible reward in his hour on the pitch, came as close as anyone for City with an audacious backhealed volley that dropped just wide and then in the second half, Karlan Grant forced goalkeeper Max Strijek into his most difficult save of the afternoon with a stinging shot from twenty yards. Sheyi Ojo also nodded into the side netting from a Grant cross, but, for all of the talk of us having more and better attacking options, this was like watching last season’s team attacking play on a bad day – that saId, Ramsey’s first two appearances in his third coming have been encouraging.
City were missing Mark McGuinness, Joe Ralls, Yakou Meite andRubin Colwill with injuries that were not too serious according to Erol Bulut’s post match comments , while an injury picked up on international duty is delaying Romaine Sawyers’ return to serious training, but their absence did rather gave the opportunity for the lack of depth in the squad to be shown in these days of nine subs – we need those three or four new signings that have been talked about recently sooner rather than later.
As to who they might be, Keiffer Moore was at the Vale training centre in midweek apparently and the word is that he is keen to come back, but, although the talk is that he will not feature for Bournemouth during the coming season, he has come on in their last two games and you’d have thought they would prefer to sell him rather than loan him out – Bulut seemed to want to play down the Moore rumours after today’s game as well.
A surprising name which has cropped up is former England midfielder Ross Barkley who it’s reported has been offered a contract by us and is considering whether to accept it or an offer from Saudi Arabia. Given the sort of figures that have been bandied about regarding some of the high profile moves to that country over the summer, it might be said that there is no contest between his two suitors, but Barkley is a former Nice team mate of Ramsey’s, so I suppose another high profile signing isn’t entirely out of the question.
Barkley is still only twenty nine and has great natural ability, but, for whatever reason, his career has been in decline for about four years now. Even so, it’s hard to believe that he will end up with us – putting it bluntly, has his standing within the game dropped so much that he is going to sign for a team which would be playing in League One this season were it not for a points deduction for one of its rivals?
Also being pursued by us is a young centreback from outside the UK who will be cover for what looks to be the first choice pairing of McGuinness and Goutas.
Two transfers that have taken place are season long loan moves for Tom Davies and Eli King to Kilmarnock and Morecambe respectively- these, together with Ollie Denham’s temporary move to Dundee United, look to be the sort of transfers that will be of benefit to both player and his parent team.
Tom Davies spent some time on loan at Pontypridd United last season and our under 21s were in action against them last night for their latest pre season match which they lost by 1=0.
Finally, one thing I should have mentioned last week was that City paid Nantes the outstanding two instalments of the Emiliano Sala transfer fee about ten days ago – this means that we will be able to pay transfer and loan fees again in the January transfer window.
Buongiorno Paul,
I had a vivid dream last night that Swansea sold Piroe for megabucks and actually BOUGHT Kieffer…. and he started heading goal after goal for them down at The Liberty.*
Such a nightmare.
Thanks for your report. Things are not looking good. One wonders if Meite is going to be on the treatment table for a goodly amount of his time at Cardiff…? He – Ramsey excepted of course – is the only recent signing that I really believe in as a player.
* It will always be The Liberty’ for me… nothing on earth will bring me to say ‘The Swansea.com Stadium’… or whatever variation on that which they are calling it now.
Similarly, I cannot call The Millennium ‘The Principality Stadium’.
Gee… the Marketing Director of the building society really missed a trick by not insisting it be called ‘The Principality BUILDING SOCIETY Stadium’.
How come?
Well three people I have met in England over the past few years have each said to me words to this effect, viz… ‘Dai, I see the biggest stadium in your nation is being called that word that so upsets anti Royalist members of The Welsh Language Society’.
I hastily tell them ‘no, it is the name of the sponsor… a building society, that folk here in Lincolnshire have never heard of’.
Gee, that Marketing Director should fall on his sword, asap. Money wasted. Curiously apposite though, given that the name change was in 2016, the same year when Neil ‘overspender’ Warnock took the helm of the Bluebirds.
TTFN,
Dai
While the summer transfer window is nowhere near shut, with one week to go until our season starts it’s a good time to look at where things stand:
GK: it appears to be an area of slight concern but with 3 keepers in the room it’s unlikely to be an area we add to this year.
RB: NG and Romeo are good options for this division. Vontae Daley-Campbell was a strange signing to say the least but I guess the club had seen his physical attributes and were hoping he could develop. I think he’s already one foot out the door.
CB: new pairing in Goutas and McGuinness but after that we’re currently looking at Simpson (has done well in pre-season), Benjamin and NG slotting in as cover. We desperately need a new player in this group. Unless Denham has recall option?
LB: O’Dowda has started here in pre-season but we also have Collins (hopefully gets back to levels before injury) and Bagan (new contract then disappeared slightly during pre-season) so we should be good here.
CM: Ralls and Wintle seem to be first choice with Adams next man up. I’m not sure what Rinomhota does for this team as he’s not going to be linking CB to CM a la Wintle and not going to be linking CM to AM a la Ralls/Adams, but he is an experienced option and guess good off the bench to see the game out. Sawyers hasn’t been seen yet has played CM in his past…but grouping of Sawyers, Wintle and Ralls doesn’t suggest good pace. Could be an area of concern when speed of the Championship picks up. Probably need to move players out before new player comes in mind.
RW: Ojo (liked by so many managers and so few fans) and Méïté (coming off bad time with injuries) seem starting options here with Tanner also given chances in pre-season. Isaak Davies hasn’t found a loan yet or nailed down a position so is it too outlandish to suggest he could yet break into the first team as right-sided forward?
AM: Ramsey, Robinson, Colwill – we seem set up well here. Kieron Evans has been surprise of pre-season and Ojo can cover here too, so do we really need to add Ross Barkley?
LW: Our most competitive position? Grant appears first choice but behind him we have Robinson, O’Dowda, Evans, Méïté, Colwill as options.
FW: Ugbo, Etete, Grant, Robinson and Davies as options currently. Personally I think we have here already, especially if Etete improves as quickly as he did last year, but can see the argument to bring in another body to his area given lack of goals so far in pre-season.
I’m hoping that lack of goals is simply down to new combinations not clicking yet as the forward line has been changed most since last season. If that is indeed the case then I’m starting off fairly optimistic for this season and can see being fairly comfortable in mid-table with Swansea below us (not enough squad depth) and Bristol City above (they’re going for it this year).
Thanks for doing the hard yards of squad analysis here, DJ… though alas I do not share your ‘mid table’ confidence.
And thanks for classily not scolding me for my being philistine and missing off my accents on my spelling of ‘Meite’. Note the plural there, gents please. Not just one (l’accent aigu), DJ… but two. And let’s not forget what I would wrongly call an umlaut… but the French call a term of their own which forgive me, but I will have to look up…
… are thanks Mr Google… they call it another accent (L’Accent Tréma).
So, I will do my best to call him Yakou Méïté in future. Given the right manager and luck with injuries, this chap could be dynamite.
Thanks both for your replies. Time was Dai, I’d be able to reel off the names of all ninety two clubs, but they’re long gone now and it’s far from all down to the fading memory which comes with age (that doesn’t help mind!). I’ve no desire to learn and/or remember ground names which could change from year to year – what’s the point? In saying that, I think I’d take some corporate name for City’s ground over Cardiff City Stadium which is the very definition of the word “bland” in my opinion.
The notion of a Keiffer Moore type leading the Swansea attack doesn’t seem so outlandish under their new manager – I notice that, unlike us, the jacks have had few problems finding the net in their pre season although quite a few of their goals came against the hapless Newport County. They also let in eight against the wurzels and I saw them tipped to finish bottom out of the ninety two in some article last week.
DJ, apart from my belief that Isaak Davies will be out on loan for much of the season, I wouldn’t argue too much with your analysis. I seems clear that Bulut’s team will play 4-2-3-1 and a personal view is that things will have to be going pretty poorly for him to consider changing from it. If Bulut considers Ng as a possible centreback in the event of injury/suspension to one of the two first choices, then maybe we can get by with what we’ve go, but I don’t think he does and so further cover for that area is urgently required – I don’t want to be too harsh on a young player, but I honestly believe that someone like Benjamin should not be anywhere in first team contention at this time of his career.
I also agree about central midfield. Ramsey’s recent appearances in a Wales shirt have put me off the idea of him playing as one of the two pivots and I like that there are some early signs that he will provide us with some much needed creativity. Wintle and Ralls, by and large, allow the team to play in the manner Bulut seems to want to use in a way that I don’t see Adams and/or Rinomhota being able to, but I’m being a typical fan there and thinking almost entirely in terms of what happens when we’re in possession of the ball – Adams and Rinomhota may be the better combination for the matches where we’re not going to have the ball for long periods. As for Sawyers. at this stage of his career, I’d say he would be a problem when we don’t have the ball.We’ve got four experienced central midfielders at Championship level and another one who has come on leaps ad bounds in recent seasons after a start to his career which suggested he’d struggle to get regular matches at, say, League Two level, but I’d still say I can completely understand why Bulut appears to think he needs more in this area of the pitch.
As for up front, like Dai appears to be doing, I’ll be treating a regularly fit and available Meite as a bonus during the coming season. Even without him, we look stronger on paper than we were last time around in forward areas, but it would have been nice to have seen some evidence of that in pre season. As things are, we can only hope that you’re right about our players up front needing more time to gel. It seems to me that the early season visit of QPR (who we have a poor record against in recent seasons is already shaping up as a very important one – they and Sheffield Wednesday, who we play in our second home match, were two of only three sides (the other was Rotherham) tipped to finish below us by the Second Tier podcast on the weekend.
Just spotted this on WoL…
‘…
Cardiff City to make Nottingham Forest winger Josh Bowler sixth summer signing
…’
OMG… now we are talking! A proper player… albeit from the little I have seen of him. It astonishes me that he is not in the Forest first team squad. Looks to me almost the equal of Brennan Johnson.
With him on the left flank and Méïté on the right, all we need now is a proper centre forward. Oh if only we could get Kieffer… I no longer keep wanting to spell him like Donald spelt the name of his son – with one F – but I have always managed to resist the temptation to spell it like Keith… although the rule one learnt as a kid, viz… ‘i before e except after c’ just adds to the confusion… because words like ‘seize’ just blow that rule below the waterline… so much so that one wonders if a word like ‘niece’ is another exception… which of course it isn’t.
Roll on TXTSPK.
We have our disagreements about football Dai, but I always think of you as someone who can “spot” a player and so I’m encouraged to read your comments on Josh Bowler. I was less excited by the news initially because, after undoubtedly being Blackpool’s main man in 21/22 when they did a lot better in the Championship than most predicted, I was concerned about how few games he got for Olympiacos and that he spent a lot of time on the bench when he returned to Blackpool last season. However. someone had the good sense to point out to me that MIck McCarthy was his manager for much of his second spell at Blackpool and things began to make more sense – the earlier, and much more successful, managerial versions of Mr McCarthy would have found a place for Bowler in his team, but the current, seemingly overawed, one would look for ways of keeping him out. So, many of my original doubts about this signing have disappeared and I like the fact that he and Wintle would have been team mates in an overachieving team for half a season.
Fully agree with your comments here, Paul. What I like about this player is his DIRECT play, and his industry. And at 24, he is at his athletic peak.
As for his earlier time in Greece: one can be certain that it did no harm to his reputation at Forest, inasmuch as owner of both clubs Evangelos Marinakis must have been happy, otherwise he would have dispensed with his services. As for his more recent spell at Bloomfield Road… well, you summed up things perfectly by intoning the name of Mick McCarthy, a manager whose stock is at an all-time low.
One wonders why Bowler chose us over Stoke: was it the Marinakis/Bulut relationship, or a quiet word from Steve Cooper remembering his dad’s lifelong club allegiance, and the proximity of his own boyhood home to CCS…?
Watching the two women’s games on mainstream TV this morning, I was yet again struck by the fundamental mistakes of the commentary teams. I have lost count of the number of howlers since that opening game in Eden Park.
First up today was the BBC’s Jonathan Pearce and his ‘co-comms’. South Africa conceded an obvious early penalty against Italy… true there might have been some doubt amongst the short sighted as to whether the foul was actually inside the area, but I saw the referee instantly point to the spot.
Alas, neither of the BBC duo did. They expressed real surprise when 35 seconds later they realised it was not a free kick on the edge of the box, but a spot kick. They even claimed it had gone to VAR … hence their initial doubt.
And they would not have a problem if only they looked at their monitor. Too many commentators prefer to take in the wider view of the field, and thus miss some of the detail.
Had they looked at the screen, they’d have seen the admittedly fairly undemonstrative referee, clearly point to the spot.
And the second mistake? That was ITV’s Sam Matterface. Early in the second half, Brazil take a short corner, the ball is immediately played back to the corner taker who is still standing by the corner flag. She crosses and the referee whistles for a free kick to South Africa. Sam and his co-commentator are puzzled… and he in fairness does then look at his monitor replay, and this time spots an Italian forward in the proximity of the goalkeeper… and says that must have been the reason for the free kick… she was offside.
No Sam… the referee’s assistant put up her flag a good ten seconds before. The offside was at the short corner.
Still… I should not get too het up… after all, neither was a hanging offence…!! But that said, as Harold Macmillan used to exclaim… ‘standards, dear boy, standards’…
TTFN,
Dai.
Steve Cooper hasn’t done his Dad’s old club many favours Dai since he became a manager, but maybe the Bowler signing is a sign of a change? I’ve seen us linked with loan moves for Lewis O’Brien (half of the Championship seems to be after him mind!) and Jonathan Panzo in the past twenty four hours.Forest have so many players who aren’t going to get near their first team, so I’d say it’s definitely a club we should be focussing on for possible loan signings.
I’ve got to mention this as well – if you can, have a look at the highlights of City’s under 18’s win over Bournemouth this week on the club website. Bournemouth’s attempts to play out from the back will have you spitting feathers!
Paul,
Thanks for the tip. I have watched the highlights now twice all the way through.
And how I would like to say I was indeed spitting feathers… for a few years ago, I would have been spitting something even stronger… spitting NAILS maybe.
But guess what? Such has been the degree of infestation of this modish tika-taka nonsense, that I could do nothing other than fall about laughing. Real belly laughs to boot.
City goals 4 and 5 are what you get when an opposition team are in the total grip of a mad ideology… alas one so pervasive that the whole footballing world are fast becoming totally in thrall to it. And goal #2 can also be laid at the same door… teach players POSITIVITY and the need to play the ball forward in their own half.
What our game needs is a Jordan Peterson of football… someone with a forensic cast of mind, who can rid us of this nonsense.
Someone to tell us all – Danny Kaye style – that the Emperor is actually naked.
Oh Paul, one thing you said that I forgot to respond to…
You mentioned the vanilla aspect of our stadium name. CCS lacks the glorious impact of a name like that used until recently on the stadium of our deadly rivals.
THE LIBERTY STADIUM was such a fabulous name in that it perfectly matched the content of the fare served up on its playing surface. No, not the ‘pass pass pass us all to sleep’ of Russell Martin, but a Swansea team having the liberty to play the direct forward attacking passing football, which reached its apogee that day they put five past Bradford City at Wembley.
Okay, such serendipitous matches of sponsor name to stadium are rare. Indeed I look forward to the day when the most suicidal of teams gets their stadium sponsored by the blighters who are never off my TV with their animated advert… viz… it will be The Pure Cremation Stadium…!!
But dark humour aside… I have been thinking less harshly of late of the choice of ‘CCS’… and it is Ashes cricket that finally got my mind thinking more clearly…
What is the biggest cricket stadium in Oz? Why… it is Melbourne Cricket Ground of course with a capacity of 100,000.
And perhaps the most iconic – even though it has only half the capacity – is surely the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Yet neither are ever referred to in this drawn-out way… but instead – with typical Aussie directness – are called the MCG and the SCG respectively.
And if it is good enough for those two magnificent antipodean arenas, then CCS ought to be good enough for us.
But hey, I still hold out hopes for Liberty Properties (Homes) PLC opening an office in Cardiff…!! And failing that, if we ever adopt the Charles Hughes approach, we can give it a name that would fit Cardiff like a glove…
…viz… The Stadium of…
…
… (wait for it…)
,,,
,,,
… BRAINS.
Gee… that has a lovely ring to it, eh? And it trumps the naming efforts of Benfica and Sunderland, methinks.
TTFN,
Dai.
I think a coach who favours the playing out from the back approach would say it is a positive way of playing Dai and it requires defenders who are brave on the ball. For me, it’s all about a risk/reward thing – I believe there are rewards to be gained playing that way if you have the quality to do it well. The risk is there though for any side wanting to play that way (even for the very best) and I’d say that a pragmatic assessment is that the risk outweighs the reward with a large majority of sides because they just aren’t good enough to play out from the back with a consistency which would see them get it right for all but two or three occasions a season because that’s all I’d say you can afford to get wrong for the risk/reward equation to have a chance of working in your favour.
I think City missed a trick when they didn’t christen their new ground the Clark’s Pie Bowl.
We must agree to differ on kamikaze football, Paul.
But just as the excellent Johnny Vaughan shows in his inspired podcast ‘The Footballing Kickabout’, we too have more important things to talk about… viz… meat pies….!!
Isn’t it interesting… you are a proud Cardiffian exiled in The Valleys, and I am a proud Valleys boy… exiled in what was once the biggest fishing port in the British Commonwealth.
And we show our difference in our taste in meat pies.
I was always a Peter’s Pies man… and at the risk of incurring the wrath of your readers, I never developed a taste for Clark’s.
It was interesting to hear Ian Holloway’s reply (when he was here mismanaging Grimsby Town) to the question ‘what do you miss from Bristol that you cannot get in Grimsby?’…
… his answer stunned me.
It was ‘Clark’s pies… the finest thing to originate in Bristol’.
I was speechless for a minute, but quickly consulted the records, and found that blow me if a son of the founder didn’t open an offshoot bakery in Bristol circa 1954/5… and some claim it now produces more pies than the Welsh arm.
I knew the history of Clark’s Pies was a long and sometimes litigious one Dai and I did know vaguely of a Bristol connection, but I didn’t realise they were as well established on the other side of the channel. I like Clark’s Pies, but, even when I was living in Cardiff, I didn’t go out of my way to get them, I was a bit take ’em or leave ’em, but I’d always pick one ahead of a Peter’s Pie. I don’t buy many pies these days because of my never ending and unsuccessful attempts to lose weight, but if I do, I tend to buy a Pukka pie, although the development of ready made pastry means that I now tend to make large ones myself with Sunday dinner left over meat which, if I say so myself, are better than most you’d get in a shop, that I can then freeze and get five or six meals out of.
Paul compadre,
How I agree with you re Pukka Pies. In my days in Wales, I don’t recall their presence, but these last two decades or so, they have become a real power in the land. I think they knock spots off these fancy steak pies twice their price in M&S and the likes. Until recently, they have been my pie of choice here in Lincolnshire. I have been buying them when on offer in Tesco.
Similarly Pukka’s meat pasty knocks spots off Ginsters Cornish pasty… with exactly the same ingredients… and even more generously filled. So many pies and pasties these days are almost empty, air-filled disappointments. And Pukka are no saints… their Pukka Slices should see Trading Standards involved: the total antithesis of their superb meat pasty, in that they are very sparing in contents.
The last time I stayed in the excellent Trecco Bay, I went to the chip shop on the hill (is it called Finnegan’s?)… and although their fish is good, with my being domiciled in the capital of haddock country, I thought I would try a meat pie. And they specialise in Clark’s.
And biting into it, I was reminded of my underwhelming taste experiences with the brand. Most disappointing of all to me, is the shortcrust pastry.
Now, that brings me to my current passion. Oh, golly, I salivate thinking of the suet pastry in Holland’s Steak & Kidney Puddings (sold on offer in Tesco at £3.15 for packs of 4). I have stopped buying pies, and these are my ‘go to’ choice… though I still buy the occasional Pukka Meat Pasty.
Hollands pies (though not puddings of course) are sold in so many football grounds in NW England. They have such a superb reputation that even Delia Smith insisted they be sold at Carrow Road… way outside their normal geographical marketing/catchment area.
Talking of which, I cannot seem to find them around Lincolnshire… not that it matters though, as their puddings are now King as far as I am concerned.
Before signing off… where are you on the subject of those big Fray Bentos meat pies in circular tins? I don’t totally knock them, but it seems a cruel waste of metal. After every pie, all that detritus filling up the metal recycling box/bin…!!
But that said, better it be used for food, than for missiles to kill brave Ukrainians in their beds, eh?
TTFN,
Dai.
PS … just seen a stupid pass-back from a Norwegian in her own penalty area, hand Japan a goal on a plate. As Pete Seeger said…’when will they ever learn?’
(Answer… they won’t until they are fined their match fee.)
Never heard of Holland’s Pies or Puddings Dai. Used to love my mother’s home made steak and kidney puddings as a kid, but I probably hadn’t tasted one in thirty years or more when I decided to buy a Fray Bentos one on a whim in Tesco’s one day about a decade ago – what a disappointment, it was like spot the Steak (and kidney). Not heard of Pukka pasties either, but as there’s a bank holiday coming up when I allow myself to “go off the rails” food wise a little bit, I’ll keep an eye out for them. Surprisingly, I’ve never knowingly ate a Fray Bentos pie although I used to buy plenty as my weekly donation to the local food bank before they soared in price and convinced me I’d be better off donating a couple of tins of soup. So many former students talk of them forming their staple diet for those few years, but never having gone to university, I jus never got around to buying one – can’t see me doing it now either as, like I mentioned before, the rare occasions when I eat a pie know are nearly always ones I make myself – can see me buying a leg of lamb for the bank holiday and making a lamb and mushroom pie for freezing out of the left overs.