' What can we make of Cardiff City’s ambitious spending? '
Sat Jul 06, 2013 12:43 am
' What can we make of Cardiff City’s ambitious spending? '
July 6th, 2013
By Chris Hunt
You can never quite take Vincent Tan at his word. First came the denial of the change of the Cardiff City club badge, before a radical rebranding of the clubs traditional colours from blue to red. So when Tan claims Cardiff will be spend sensibly and will be looking for ‘the next Michu’ for their debut Premier League season, you have to scratch your head when £7.5m is spent on Andreas Cornelius.
But for all his faults, you cannot claim that Tan has not held up his end of the bargain; providing funds for players. Cardiff pursued an aggressive transfer policy before their title winning Championship season of 2012/13, spending over £10m in transfer fees on over 13 players, one of the highest outlays in the division.
That policy involved making significant investments in exciting, young talent such as Kim Bo-Kyung (£2m), Jordon Mutch (£2m) and Nicky Maynard (£2.5m), combined with snapping up some more experienced pros with proven winning records such as Tommy Smith, Heidar Helguson and Matthew Connolly. It was a formula which saw Cardiff dominate the Championship throughout and it is one the fans approved of.
Manager Malky Mackay managed to combine the short term ambitions of promotion in his transfer dealings, along with medium to long term investements in players who could become the legends of tomorrow. It is no surprise then to see him sticking to this principle in this summers current transfer dealings, with Andreas Cornelius unveiled as Mackay’s first summer signing at a club record fee of £7.5m.
The 20 year old Danish international not only ticks the boxes of being an exciting investment, as well as quite the coup, but was an essential purchase. A powerful and strong center forward to compliment Nicky Maynard and Fraizer Campbell was a high priority for Mackay, as is a winger, hence the strong interest in Blackpool’s England under 21 winger Thomas Ince.
Ince excelled in the Championship last season, scoring 18 goals and is seen as a perfect fit for a position in need of strengthening over the summer, if Cardiff do eventually tie up the deal. The necessity of these recruitments, as well as the idea of these two as an investment, has made the digestion of the price tags easier, for £7.5m and £8m are extremely large amounts for a newly promoted club. This ambition though has the fan base generally fizzing with excitement.
But beyond these two names the mooted targets seem overly ambitious as well as inessential. The squad needs defenders, especially full backs, as well as an experienced central midfielder in order to have a squad full of quality with the potential to compete. But instead moves are being made about the likes of Bafetimbi Gomis as well as a £12-£15m bid for Oscar Cardozo of Benfica. Whilst there is clearly no doubt that either Gomis or Cardozo would be monumental signings for Cardiff City, it raises more questions than hairs.
The first issue is whether the squad will again be top heavy. Mackay began the 12/13 Championship season with only 5 recognised first team defenders (McNaughton, Hudson, Taylor, Turner, Connolly) and relied on Development Squad prospect Ben Nugent and Norwich loan signings Leon Barnett and Simon Lappin to reinforce the defence late in the season. Quality and quantity of defensive signings seem an obvious area for focus, but there has been very little noise about these areas, which is concerning. Though there is rumoured interest St-Ettiene’s Kurt Zouma for a reported £10m, but this leads onto the next concern; money.
The sums involved in the Cornelius and (potential) Ince deals are enough to make you sit up and take notice, but this is before talking about spending £15m on a 30 year old striker and £10 m on an 18 year old defender in our debut Premier League season. It should not be forgotten the very recent (and present) financial trouble Cardiff City have faced under Sam Hammam, Peter Risdale and Vincent Tan.
The club almost died in 2005 and a generation of heroes were sold as Hammam and his Langston Group ran the club to the ground. Summer after summer the club was forced to sell its prized asset (Gabbidon, Collins, Jerome, Chopra, Ramsey, Loovens, Johnson) and then faced liquidaton under Risdale in 2010 over a HMRC bill. Tan effectively saved the club after the 09/10 Play Off Final defeat to Blackpool but the club still remains in precarious financial waters, as evident by Tan’s idea of floating the club on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.
The club has and continues to spend beyond its means and to see such figures being spent and talked about is quite disconcerting. The historical Langston debt has still to be closed, the wage bill continues to spiral and the huge injection of finance provided by promotion to the Premier League has skewed perceptions of where the club is and what we should be expecting. Cardiff should always be wary of what flying too close to the sun did for our 2008 FA Cup Final opponents.
Mackay and Tan are ambitious and successful men and will not want to just limp through a couple of Premier League seasons; the goal will be to quickly establish Cardiff City as a respected Premier League side. But for those fans who lived through the dull years in the lower reaches of the Football League and the abuse the club has suffered under the banner of ‘ambition’ in the last decade, the level of ambition and expenditure currently being shown is terrifyingly exciting and worrying simultaneously.”
July 6th, 2013
By Chris Hunt
You can never quite take Vincent Tan at his word. First came the denial of the change of the Cardiff City club badge, before a radical rebranding of the clubs traditional colours from blue to red. So when Tan claims Cardiff will be spend sensibly and will be looking for ‘the next Michu’ for their debut Premier League season, you have to scratch your head when £7.5m is spent on Andreas Cornelius.
But for all his faults, you cannot claim that Tan has not held up his end of the bargain; providing funds for players. Cardiff pursued an aggressive transfer policy before their title winning Championship season of 2012/13, spending over £10m in transfer fees on over 13 players, one of the highest outlays in the division.
That policy involved making significant investments in exciting, young talent such as Kim Bo-Kyung (£2m), Jordon Mutch (£2m) and Nicky Maynard (£2.5m), combined with snapping up some more experienced pros with proven winning records such as Tommy Smith, Heidar Helguson and Matthew Connolly. It was a formula which saw Cardiff dominate the Championship throughout and it is one the fans approved of.
Manager Malky Mackay managed to combine the short term ambitions of promotion in his transfer dealings, along with medium to long term investements in players who could become the legends of tomorrow. It is no surprise then to see him sticking to this principle in this summers current transfer dealings, with Andreas Cornelius unveiled as Mackay’s first summer signing at a club record fee of £7.5m.
The 20 year old Danish international not only ticks the boxes of being an exciting investment, as well as quite the coup, but was an essential purchase. A powerful and strong center forward to compliment Nicky Maynard and Fraizer Campbell was a high priority for Mackay, as is a winger, hence the strong interest in Blackpool’s England under 21 winger Thomas Ince.
Ince excelled in the Championship last season, scoring 18 goals and is seen as a perfect fit for a position in need of strengthening over the summer, if Cardiff do eventually tie up the deal. The necessity of these recruitments, as well as the idea of these two as an investment, has made the digestion of the price tags easier, for £7.5m and £8m are extremely large amounts for a newly promoted club. This ambition though has the fan base generally fizzing with excitement.
But beyond these two names the mooted targets seem overly ambitious as well as inessential. The squad needs defenders, especially full backs, as well as an experienced central midfielder in order to have a squad full of quality with the potential to compete. But instead moves are being made about the likes of Bafetimbi Gomis as well as a £12-£15m bid for Oscar Cardozo of Benfica. Whilst there is clearly no doubt that either Gomis or Cardozo would be monumental signings for Cardiff City, it raises more questions than hairs.
The first issue is whether the squad will again be top heavy. Mackay began the 12/13 Championship season with only 5 recognised first team defenders (McNaughton, Hudson, Taylor, Turner, Connolly) and relied on Development Squad prospect Ben Nugent and Norwich loan signings Leon Barnett and Simon Lappin to reinforce the defence late in the season. Quality and quantity of defensive signings seem an obvious area for focus, but there has been very little noise about these areas, which is concerning. Though there is rumoured interest St-Ettiene’s Kurt Zouma for a reported £10m, but this leads onto the next concern; money.
The sums involved in the Cornelius and (potential) Ince deals are enough to make you sit up and take notice, but this is before talking about spending £15m on a 30 year old striker and £10 m on an 18 year old defender in our debut Premier League season. It should not be forgotten the very recent (and present) financial trouble Cardiff City have faced under Sam Hammam, Peter Risdale and Vincent Tan.
The club almost died in 2005 and a generation of heroes were sold as Hammam and his Langston Group ran the club to the ground. Summer after summer the club was forced to sell its prized asset (Gabbidon, Collins, Jerome, Chopra, Ramsey, Loovens, Johnson) and then faced liquidaton under Risdale in 2010 over a HMRC bill. Tan effectively saved the club after the 09/10 Play Off Final defeat to Blackpool but the club still remains in precarious financial waters, as evident by Tan’s idea of floating the club on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.
The club has and continues to spend beyond its means and to see such figures being spent and talked about is quite disconcerting. The historical Langston debt has still to be closed, the wage bill continues to spiral and the huge injection of finance provided by promotion to the Premier League has skewed perceptions of where the club is and what we should be expecting. Cardiff should always be wary of what flying too close to the sun did for our 2008 FA Cup Final opponents.
Mackay and Tan are ambitious and successful men and will not want to just limp through a couple of Premier League seasons; the goal will be to quickly establish Cardiff City as a respected Premier League side. But for those fans who lived through the dull years in the lower reaches of the Football League and the abuse the club has suffered under the banner of ‘ambition’ in the last decade, the level of ambition and expenditure currently being shown is terrifyingly exciting and worrying simultaneously.”
Re: ' What can we make of Cardiff City’s ambitious spending?
Sat Jul 06, 2013 2:45 am
Time to practice what we were singing on the terraces....
...Don't Worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright.
...Don't Worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright.
Re: ' What can we make of Cardiff City’s ambitious spending?
Sat Jul 06, 2013 7:46 am
Hoochie Coochie Blues wrote:Time to practice what we were singing on the terraces....
...Don't Worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright.
Exactly, these journos are tools, if we were signing cheap players they would be writing articles saying Cardiff city are not showing enough ambition in the premier league etc, stop worrying about finances and enjoy the ride
Re: ' What can we make of Cardiff City’s ambitious spending?
Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:06 am
The intent appears to be there to cement a place in the Premiership this season. None of us know for sure cos we have only made one signing so far. But my guess is that Tan has no interest in spending the season worried about his investment. Spend money now and he can perhaps concentrate on ground improvements and our future in a few months. There is most definitely a long term plan in place. I suspect he KNOWS he has other investors, either already on board, or waiting in the wings. This is why the debt to equity thing dont particularly bother me. One way or another our Club is in his hands. So far apart from the silly old fucker being colour blind, all is well, and i think it will continue to get better
Re: ' What can we make of Cardiff City’s ambitious spending?
Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:48 pm
GEnder wrote:The intent appears to be there to cement a place in the Premiership this season. None of us know for sure cos we have only made one signing so far. But my guess is that Tan has no interest in spending the season worried about his investment. Spend money now and he can perhaps concentrate on ground improvements and our future in a few months. There is most definitely a long term plan in place. I suspect he KNOWS he has other investors, either already on board, or waiting in the wings. This is why the debt to equity thing dont particularly bother me. One way or another our Club is in his hands. So far apart from the silly old fucker being colour blind, all is well, and i think it will continue to get better
What he said
Re: ' What can we make of Cardiff City’s ambitious spending?
Sun Jul 07, 2013 12:33 pm
Top manager like Malky has a good buy ratio, he doesn't really buy flops except for Eti and it's unfair to pass judgement yet.
We aren't being too ambitious, we just want a Premier League squad that's going to compete. Stupid journos
We aren't being too ambitious, we just want a Premier League squad that's going to compete. Stupid journos