'. Cardiff Premier league preveiw. '

Cardiff Premier League Preview 2013/14


August 6. 2013 Mark Longman Sport


A preview of Cardiff’s Premier League season including ‘player to watch’ and position prediction.

" Cardiff City. "

The priority for any promoted club in their first season is consolidation, and of the three promoted clubs, Cardiff are best equipped to maintain their Premier League status. During the close season, they have broken their transfer record twice with the capture of Danish striker Andreas Cornelius for £7.5 million, followed by the arrival of England international, Steven Caulker from Spurs for more than £8 million. They are still in the market for a midfielder and have been credited with an interest in French international Etienne Capoue from Toulouse, having come close to signing Tom Ince from Blackpool.

This kind of investment shows Cardiff are intent on staying at the top table having waited so long to get there and expect further signings before the transfer window slams shut. Steven Caulker is seen as a major coup for the Bluebirds, and with Tottenham’s defensive concerns going into the season, many were surprised that AVB was willing to let him go. Caulker’s impressive form last season saw him receive his first England cap against Sweden, a game which also saw him score his first international goal. Cardiff will be reliant upon Caulker’s Premier League experience, and the player himself will be keen to impress ahead of a World Cup in the summer.

John Brayford and Simon Moore have also joined the ranks from Derby and Brentford respectively, and while they will add more competition for places, as with many of the squad, the Premier League rollercoaster is a ride they have not had the pleasure of riding as yet. That is where Cardiff will look to the more experienced campaigners to help with the transition from Championship to Premier League and Craig Bellamy could be crucial to their chances, with his knowhow and endeavour.

I expect Cardiff to be in a battle to stay up, but I think they have enough quality and financial backing to do just that. They will eagerly await the games versus Swansea in the Premier League’s first ever ‘all Welsh’ derbies and in Malky Mackay, they have a young up and coming manager who will be looking forward to testing himself against the very best week in, week out.

Player to watch – Steven Caulker

Premier League Position – 17th


Read more at http://whatculture.com/sport/cardiff-pr ... eCx61uk.99

I think opinions will quickly change a few games in and the pundits will decide to aim us a bit higher than the standard 17th for a team in our position.

I think opinions will quickly change a few games in and the pundits will decide to aim us a bit higher than the standard 17th for a team in our position.

I agree with that, think we will suprise a few people

I'm thinking we'll finish at least 15th with Sunderland, Stoke, Aston Villa, Hull and Palace finishing below us. But we have every chance of finishing a few places higher.

I am Extremely excited for this premier league season, id take 17th! but higher will be brilliant!

id defo pick out Kym-Bo as another player to watch, with time and space that most premier league teams have will be great for him!

CANT WAIT FOR THE SEASON TO START!

Here is the Guardian's preview:-


Guardian writers' predicted position: 18th (NB: this is not necessarily Louise Taylor's prediction, but the average of our writers' tips)

Last season's position: 1st, Championship

Odds to win the league (via Oddschecker): 5,000-1

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fittest of them all? This summer's smart money is on Sunderland to top the Premier League physical conditioning charts but Paolo Di Canio's newly mean and lean side could be pushed hard by Cardiff City.

A Premier League club for the first time in their history and back in England's highest division after a 51-year absence, Cardiff's unashamed aim is to finish above the bottom three.

Malky Mackay, their manager, believes enhanced fitness could offer them a slight, vital, edge in helping achieve that ambition and Martyn Pert, his conditioning coach, has been pushing the squad "harder, higher, further and faster" this summer.

An interesting character, Pert was a youth player at Norwich before graduating in sports science from Loughborough University and later working, variously, as Aidy Boothroyd's fitness guru at Watford, a manager (briefly) in Ecuador, Coventry City's assistant manager, Peter Taylor's No2 with the Bahrain national side and now Cardiff's conditioning expert.

A fluent Spanish speaker, he is, realistically, unlikely to still be in South Wales in five years' time. The same probably goes for Mackay; many Cardiff fans are hugely relieved their widely-admired manager did not defect to Everton earlier this summer but fear they may not hang on too him for too much longer.

For the moment though the Scot is staying put and will now endeavour to end this season's game of managerial snakes and ladders by remaining "hot property". To do so Cardiff must emulate Norwich, Swansea and Southampton rather than QPR and Reading and demonstrate that a club fresh from the Championship can survive, even thrive, among elite company.

Swansea, particularly, have raised the bar for Mackay but the coming months will surely be all about baby steps rather than attempting to enter into some sort of beauty contest with those surprisingly glamorous, über-cosmopolitan neighbours with names like Laudrup and Michu.

Quite apart from restoring a bit of welcome geographical balance to the Premier League, Welsh football's re-emergence has clearly captured the imagination of Steven Caulker.

Following a successful loan spell under Mackay's good friend Brendan Rodgers at Swansea a couple of years ago – (Cardiff's manager is also pals with Alan Pardew, who once made him his captain at West Ham) – Caulker decided he liked the area so much he has now swapped Tottenham for Cardiff for a club record £8.5m. Moreover the young centre-half believes the switch will enhance his England prospects.

Other summer signings acquired for a collective sum approaching £20m include John Brayford, the former Derby full-back who impressed greatly in the Championship last season but, with only 12 months remaining on his contract, has been recruited for a bargain sum somewhere south of £1.5m, and Andreas Cornelius.

A 20-year-old, 6ft 4in, Denmark striker signed from FC Copenhagen – where he scored 18 goals in 34 appearances last season – hopes are high for Cornelius. Especially after he cost £7.5m.

With the still-brilliant Craig Bellamy around to mentor him – not to mention other reliable old Cardiff hands such as David Marshall, Mark Hudson and Peter Whittingham – Cornelius looks to be joining a team possessing a sufficiently robust spine to weather inevitable Premier League storms.

Mackay, meanwhile, is hoping Kim Bo-kyung can help Cardiff produce the sort of three-dimensional football required at this level. A South Korean attacking midfielder who arrived from Cerezo Osaka of Japan for £2m last summer, he came to life during the closing stages of last season and has been the stand-out individual during a pre-season in which some fans were disappointed to see Tom Ince turn down a chance to swap Blackpool for the Welsh capital.

Cardiff could also do with Fraizer Campbell – a one time Manchester United reserve striker offered a solitary, perhaps surprising, senior England cap by Stuart Pearce – reprising the exciting form he briefly displayed at Sunderland before his career was derailed by two serious knee injuries.

While Sir Alex Ferguson will surely monitor Campbell's attempts to stick a, strictly metaphorical, two fingers up at those who have written him off, the former United manager has long taken a keen interest in Mackay's career, helping mentor a fellow Scot who, still only 41, appears to have a highly promising future.

Mackay – who played for Celtic, Norwich, West Ham and Watford before managing Watford – began his working life in a Glasgow bank, something which informs a management style which seeks to keep young players in touch with the "outside world".

At Watford Mackay regularly took junior members of his squad shopping in Sainsbury's, ensuring they not only learnt how to eat healthily and maintain their homes properly but grasped the need to spend money sensibly.

At Cardiff, the younger generation have been sent for sessions with a local chef who teaches them how to cook. Mackay is determined no one under his charge will find himself in the same position as the teenage Stilian Petrov at Celtic who broke down in tears one day in front of the club doorman explaining that his water, gas and electricity were all in danger of being cut off because he did not know how to pay bills.

Thanks partly to Mackay's skills and partly to the financial backing of Vincent Tan, the billionaire Malaysian businessman who has transformed Cardiff's financial fortunes – even if he, contentiously, re-branded the club from blue to red along the way – Bellamy and company are unlikely to find themselves cut adrift at the foot of the Premier League.

How well they actually do may depend on Mackay signing a "game-changing" player before the transfer window's closure. He is thought to have close to £10m left to invest from this summer's kitty and Peter Odemwingie, disaffected at West Brom, is among those on the shopping list.

They may not necessarily come out on top when Swansea visit the Welsh capital on Sunday, 3 November – a real Premier League fixture-list highlight – but Cardiff have no intention of returning to the Championship any time soon.

I'm thinking we'll finish at least 15th with Sunderland, Stoke, Aston Villa, Hull and Palace finishing below us. But we have every chance of finishing a few places higher.

Sunderland, Stoke and Aston Villa are a lot stronger though. You lot remind me of Reading last season.

I'm thinking we'll finish at least 15th with Sunderland, Stoke, Aston Villa, Hull and Palace finishing below us. But we have every chance of finishing a few places higher.

Sunderland, Stoke and Aston Villa are a lot stronger though. You lot remind me of Reading last season.

That depends on who we sign before the season kicks off really.

i can see Villa having a really good season to be fair.

12:26pm, Tue 6 Aug 2013
Premier League preview: Cardiff


Last season: 1st (promoted as Championship title winners)

This time last year, disgruntled Cardiff fans were protesting about a new red home strip introduced for marketing reasons, but their season finished triumphantly when Championship title celebrations ended years of second tier frustration.

Grown men weeped in South Wales exactly 53 years to the day after Cardiff had last secured top flight football, as Malky Mackay reached the promised land for Malaysian owner Vincent Tan at the first attempt.

He did so in style, displacing Leicester at the summit in October where they remained until May, thanks in no small part to a work ethic and defensive solidity so often lacking under Mackay's predecessor, Dave Jones.

Club captain Mark Hudson was rightly crowned Player of the Year and will need to forge a solid understanding with marquee summer signing, Steven Caulker, if Mackay wants to avoid relegation in his maiden top flight campaign.

At the other end, Heidar Helguson filled in for the injured Nicky Maynard, using all of his Championship muscle and experience to help fire Cardiff into the top flight. The Icelandic veteran has since retired and been replaced by Andreas Cornelius.

Cardiff fought off competition from Southampton, Aston Villa and West Ham before eventually landing Cornelius from FC Copenhagen for a club record £8m, although the 20 year-old could miss the Premier League opener at Upton Park after picking up an ankle injury in training.

Mackay is banking on a strict pre-season regime introduced by conditioning coach Martyn Pert to give his team any kind of physical edge they can muster over more experienced Premier League rivals.

"All the stats showed last season that Cardiff players were high in the rankings when it came to runs made," said Pert, who worked with Mackay at Watford. "It will be the same at Premier League level," he added.

They will need more than hard work to survive in a division packed with unforgiving world class talent, even if the Bluebirds are best placed to survive from the promoted pack. Mackay must find another two or three quality signings before the transfer window closes in early September.

In: Andreas Cornelius (Copenhagen, £8m), John Brayford (Derby, £1.5m), Simon Moore (Brentford, undisc), Steven Caulker (Tottenham, £8m)

Out: Elliot Parish (released), Stephen McPhail (released), Jesse Darko (released), Nathaniel Jarvis (released), Heidar Helguson (retired)

Player to watch: Andreas Cornelius

Surprisingly, Cardiff's promotion winning side lacked a regular goalscorer. Heidar Helguson topped the charts with just nine in all competitions last term, something Mackay hopes to have addressed by welcoming Andreas Cornelius. The 6 ft 4 in striker is a battering ram built perfectly for the rigors of Premier League football, while his 20 goal tally last season is also pretty promising. Anything close to the impact Michu has enjoyed with Welsh rivals Swansea will be a huge boost for Cardiff's survival hopes.


Something to Prove: Nicky Maynard

Nicky Maynard was tipped to lead Cardiff's promotion charge after joining from West Ham last summer, but a serious knee injury three games into the season ruled him out until May. The 25 year-old striker will feel like a new signing to Cardiff supporters, and he'll be desperate for a flying start to prove that knee ligament damage hasn't hampered his ability to perform at the highest level.

Predicted finish: 16th

Title odds: 5,000/1

Your view:


Cardiff fans, will your team survive this season? Why? http://t.co/SmiaAh0yLU

FROM @ITVFOOTBALL ON TWITTER

@itvfootball Yes, if we can make Cardiff City Stadium a fortress again. We also have a chairman not afraid to open his wallet if needed.

FROM @CLLRHUGHES ON TWITTER

@itvfootball I think we can gutted to got get Ince but we've got some great buys in other areas in desperate need of a winger

FROM @JOHNY_BUDD ON TWITTER
Top transfer rumours
Premier Leagues done deals
Tweet
Recommend

I'm thinking we'll finish at least 15th with Sunderland, Stoke, Aston Villa, Hull and Palace finishing below us. But we have every chance of finishing a few places higher.

Sunderland, Stoke and Aston Villa are a lot stronger though. You lot remind me of Reading last season.

I disagree, with the signings we've made so far with more quality certain to come judging by potential targets plus we have a few decent players ready to make that step up, Kimbo particularly, I think will be stronger than those sides come the end of the month.

I Personally think we will be finishing higher than 17th possibly 15th if we perform to our full potential.

How can anyone predict when there is another 4 weeks to go before window shuts plus another one in January