' Cardiff City's Transfer Embargo/How Will City Fare? '

Nottingham Forest and Blackburn Rovers have suffered badly under transfer embargoes... how will Cardiff City fare?

Sunday 17 Jan 2016

BY PHIL SMITH


Both clubs fell behind the league's pace setters when their bans were imposed, and Cardiff will fear a similar fate


Can Cardiff now realistically expect to hold on to players like Connolly?

The lure of Premier League riches has turned the Championship into a financial minefield, and Cardiff have now become the latest victims of the struggle to match promotion ambitions with a need to cut costs.

With a new TV deal to take effect next season, the clubs above the Bluebirds will be looking at this window as a critical moment in their future plans. If they think a player can take them into the hallowed land of the top division, they will throw money at it.



Middlesbrough have brought in a regular from Atheltic Bilbao in Enrique Sola. Derby have swooped to sign Nick Blackman, adding to their eye-watering spending in the summer.


Cardiff are already five points behind their play-off rivals, so how far away are they going to be come the summer?

The club are confident they will be able to do business then, but by that point they could have to spend significant amounts just to catch-up to where other teams are at now.

Add to the mix dwindling attendances and the clock ticking down on their Premier League parachute payments, and this suddenly begins to look like serious cause for concern.

That Burnley have been linked with their defensive rock Matthew Connolly says much.


The Championship is on the brink of becoming a two-tier division, split between those able to splurge parachute money on talent, preying on those below them unable to resist hard capital.

Burnley are hardly the richest club in the land, but parachute payments enabled them to poach Andre Gray from rivals Brentford. Such a deal looks a million miles away for Cardiff, and will only become more and more distant as this embargo begins to bite.

Burnley's Andre GrayBurnley's Andre Gray is the top scorer in the division, and shows the power of parachute payments
They need only look at Blackburn and Nottingham Forest to see how debilitating these embargoes can be, even if they are only in place for a short time.

Both are clubs who believe their history demands they take their place in the upper reaches of English football. But both are increasingly battling against the realities of the modern footballing world, hamstrung by an inability to match their rivals spending.

Nottingham Forest thought they had bought a magic ticket in the form of striker Britt Assombalonga, but a serious knee injury struck and the crippling restrictions of FFP meant they could not replace him.

Blackburn Rovers had two of the best strikers in the division not so long ago, but they were forced to sell Rudy Gestede to Aston Villa and have not been able to bring in the quality needed to provide Jordan Rhodes with the bullets he needs.


Cardiff will be worrying that this embargo will see them join that company, unable to reverse their stagnation.

Of course, it could be argued that the Bluebirds were heading in that direction regardless, unwilling to spend the kind of money that would make their squad as strong as the likes of Boro and Derby.



Becoming promotion or play-off challengers will be even tougher next season as the clubs who come down look to spend their way back to the top. Parachute payments will only become bigger, and the kind of deals that brought Andre Gray to Burnley will only become more and more regular.



Cardiff are now facing a disturbing reality where clubs with relatively small fan bases such as Burnley and Bournemouth can outspend them. The Bluebirds will be forced to simply watch on, hamstrung by the mistakes of the past few years.

Even if they regroup in the summer and start seriously investing, the gap to the top may already be too sizeable.

The second tier of the Championship money league will be a turbulent place to be. This transfer embargo may have ended any hope Cardiff had of avoiding it.

Nows as good a time as any to get the youngsters in the matchday squad

several clubs have started with less than city and now play in premier! its all about how you conduct your buisness and the kind manager and players you bring in,

The championship will shortly be called the administration league.

23 clubs start the season and only 3 can go up, the others that gamble can very quickly become unstuck.

In regard to the parachute payments,a lot of success is to do with how you were run during the premier league. We managed to do OK, our expensive recruits were quickly despatched. Most of the promotion squad were still there.

It was the Ole reign that has killed us. His ill thought out strategy with the Committee headed by Dalman caused this mess. Too many average championship players on low premier league or top end championship wages, with many sitting on the bench or at other clubs on loan.

I think we'll do OK, we just need a manger we all believe in who has a plan.

several clubs have started with less than city and now play in premier! its all about how you conduct your buisness and the kind manager and players you bring in,

Money gives you a hell of an advantage but your totally correct the list is endless of teams making the top flight on limited spends, look no further than the two teams mentioned in the article Bournemouth and Burnley. They might be spending now, but Burnley went up on a shoe string and Bournemouth hardly bust the bank in going up.

Leicester are also a good example of what can be achieved, yes it's more difficult but not achievable. We havev also had better teams in the last under DJ that cost a fraction of the current team yet would wipe the floor with the current team

several clubs have started with less than city and now play in premier! its all about how you conduct your buisness and the kind manager and players you bring in,

Money gives you a hell of an advantage but your totally correct the list is endless of teams making the top flight on limited spends, look no further than the two teams mentioned in the article Bournemouth and Burnley. They might be spending now, but Burnley went up on a shoe string and Bournemouth hardly bust the bank in going up.

Leicester are also a good example of what can be achieved, yes it's more difficult but not achievable. We havev also had better teams in the last under DJ that cost a fraction of the current team yet would wipe the floor with the current team

Teams going up are fairing better than in previous years even though more money available in premier? Also relegated teams dont do particularly well in champ either, even with parachute payments!!

Thats why you need to build a certain philosophy at a club like Bournemouth ,Swansea and Southampton instead of chucking money at it which could be good short term but not long term.

Unfortunately times are changing. The difference between money available to the PL and the football league is growing all the time, and so will the gap between the have's and have not's. We are creating an elite league where it will become more and more difficult for outsiders to join. Could end up with just over 20 teams competing at the top, and about half a dozen teams continually swapping places with each other between Championship and the Premier League.

Unfortunately times are changing. The difference between money available to the PL and the football league is growing all the time, and so will the gap between the have's and have not's. We are creating an elite league where it will become more and more difficult for outsiders to join. Could end up with just over 20 teams competing at the top, and about half a dozen teams continually swapping places with each other between Championship and the Premier League.

I do agree with this however Football isn't quite as straight forward as that, we did however blow a golden opportunity to join that elite even if it was to yo yo, pigs year and we can only move forward

The championship will shortly be called the administration league.

23 clubs start the season and only 3 can go up, the others that gamble can very quickly become unstuck.

In regard to the parachute payments,a lot of success is to do with how you were run during the premier league. We managed to do OK, our expensive recruits were quickly despatched. Most of the promotion squad were still there.

It was the Ole reign that has killed us. His ill thought out strategy with the Committee headed by Dalman caused this mess. Too many average championship players on low premier league or top end championship wages, with many sitting on the bench or at other clubs on loan.

I think we'll do OK, we just need a manger we all believe in who has a plan.

This in a nutshell. To be fair to malky bar cornelius the other buys he bought we managed to get a decent price for (medel,caulker, and poss Brayford, mutch) and teams tended to want the players he bought. ole bought Kenwyn on silly wages, fabio who I do like but is probably on way more than a championship squad rotation player should be on, and other average players and put them on wages so high that they are unsellable unless we pay them off. Christ knows what he was thinking spanking all the parachute money on so many players when 2/3 quality additions would have been enough with what we still had.