Mon Feb 24, 2014 6:44 pm
Of the promoted teams and as the runaway Championship winners you would have expected Cardiff to be achieving the most in the top flight. In fact, to date, it is the opposite.
Whereas both Hull and Palace have had managers with Premiership experience, we have had Malky & Ole neither of whom have managed in the Premier League. The first worrying signs of the season was when there were very few signings with premiership experience. Yes, Medel played in a decent league for Seville, Odemwingie for West Brom and Caulker for Spurs but other than that we were lightweight when it came to Premiership experience. Ole added Fabio & Kenwyne Jones who were both out of favour at their clubs.
In contrast both Bruce and Pulis/Holloway brought in players with Premiership experience. They invested wisely. Bruce has been there and done it for some time in the top flight and he added Curtis Davies, Huddlestone, Livermore, Long & Jelavic. Yes, Palace have made many signings but yet again they brought in players who have played in the Premiership and more importantly another manager who had managed for some time in the Premiership in Pulis.
There is no doubt that all the background upheaval has not helped but I argue that you cannot beat experience and who knows why we did not go for this in the first place. How can we go into our first campaign with Campbell, Maynard (now on loan !) & and untested Cornelius as our strikers. There have been many Premiership players made available since last summer some of whom could have done a good job for us and with them that experience. For example, Huddlestone, Long, Jelavic Chamakh, Dann, Jerome, Wayne Bridge, Figueroa, Shelvey, Anelka, Loic Remy, Downing, Scott Parker, Puncheon, Scott Sinclair, Assou-Ekotto, Stephen Ireland, Lukaku, Victor Moses & Gutierrez just to name a few. Some may have been out of outreach but all have that experience in the top flight.