"COST CARDIFF CITY £1.5MILL IN WAGES / PLUS "

The Cardiff City star who has averaged just over a game a year since signing for the Bluebirds
Cardiff City's worst ever signing? and cost City £1.5mill in wages, Plus £1.5mill in a fee.

WEDNESDAY 16 MAR 2016


BY STEVE TUCKER



Steve Tucker takes an in-depth look at arguably one of the worst signings in Cardiff City's history as Slovenian striker Etien Velikonja nears the end of his four-year contract with the club





Cardiff City's Etien Velikonja avoids the challenge of Newcastle's Mike Williamson in a 2012 pre-season friendly
Among all the departures and arrivals since Russell Slade took over as Cardiff City manager in October, 2014, one players might have slipped under the radar with Bluebirds fans. But believe it or not Etien Velikonja is still a Cardiff City player.

But not for much longer it seems as the Slovenian striker finally sees his four-year contract in the Welsh capital end this summer.

Here we take an in-depth look at arguably the worst signing in the history of the capital club.



Where did Velikonja come from?

Born in the Slovenian town of Šempeter pri Gorici, Velikonja started his footballing career in the renowned youth system of Gorici and it was there he made his name.


After breaking into the senior side, in his final season he fired 17 goals in 32 games and, despite having to overcome a serious knee injury, he moved to fellow Slovenian outfit Maribor.

He was to go on and make 49 league appearances for Maribor scoring an impressive 20 goals. Then, in July 2012, the Bluebirds came calling.





Why did Cardiff sign him?

Well, this is basically a story that has already passed into legend.

Malky Mackay was manager at Cardiff at the time, but allegedly he had little to do with bringing Velikonja to the Welsh capital at all.

It is said the club’s owner, Vincent Tan, was the man who decided to sign him for the club and that the decision was made on the advice of none other than Jose Mourinho who had apparently seen the striker in action in a Europa League game and was impressed with him.




Apparently a word from ‘the Special One’ was enough and Velikonja duly signed a mammoth four-year contract with the Bluebirds in July 2012 and was handed the No.9 shirt too

He didn’t cost the Bluebirds much money though, did he?

Unfortunately he did. Maybe not too much compared to some other big-money flops, but still a sizable amount for a player who was to make such a minimal impact.

The Bluebirds apparently paid Maribor around £1.5m by way of compensation for the player.

Then there was Velikonja’s wages to take into account for that four-year deal.

Reportedly Velikonja has received more than £1.25m off Cardiff over the last four seasons, that’s more than £300,000 a year or a pay packet of not too short of £6,000 a week.

What a bloody waste. The thing is we will never know if he could have cut it here as he hardly appeared and certainly didn't get a run of games. I really thought we had a gem when he scored against Newcastle in the 4-1 pre-season win.

I suppose the only good news to come out of this is the £1.5m transfer fee and £6kpw wages have been written off with the debt.

Surely we got a lot of those wages back while he was on loan? It's rare someone gets sent out for nothing. Cornelius cost us a lot more than that which makes this mistake small in comparison.

The Cardiff City star who has averaged just over a game a year since signing for the Bluebirds
Cardiff City's worst ever signing? and cost City £1.5mill in wages, Plus £1.5mill in a fee.

WEDNESDAY 16 MAR 2016


BY STEVE TUCKER



Steve Tucker takes an in-depth look at arguably one of the worst signings in Cardiff City's history as Slovenian striker Etien Velikonja nears the end of his four-year contract with the club
Annis why dont you put up the figures with the Cornelius Deal ?????


Cardiff City's Etien Velikonja avoids the challenge of Newcastle's Mike Williamson in a 2012 pre-season friendly
Among all the departures and arrivals since Russell Slade took over as Cardiff City manager in October, 2014, one players might have slipped under the radar with Bluebirds fans. But believe it or not Etien Velikonja is still a Cardiff City player.

But not for much longer it seems as the Slovenian striker finally sees his four-year contract in the Welsh capital end this summer.

Here we take an in-depth look at arguably the worst signing in the history of the capital club.



Where did Velikonja come from?

Born in the Slovenian town of Šempeter pri Gorici, Velikonja started his footballing career in the renowned youth system of Gorici and it was there he made his name.


After breaking into the senior side, in his final season he fired 17 goals in 32 games and, despite having to overcome a serious knee injury, he moved to fellow Slovenian outfit Maribor.

He was to go on and make 49 league appearances for Maribor scoring an impressive 20 goals. Then, in July 2012, the Bluebirds came calling.





Why did Cardiff sign him?

Well, this is basically a story that has already passed into legend.

Malky Mackay was manager at Cardiff at the time, but allegedly he had little to do with bringing Velikonja to the Welsh capital at all.

It is said the club’s owner, Vincent Tan, was the man who decided to sign him for the club and that the decision was made on the advice of none other than Jose Mourinho who had apparently seen the striker in action in a Europa League game and was impressed with him.




Apparently a word from ‘the Special One’ was enough and Velikonja duly signed a mammoth four-year contract with the Bluebirds in July 2012 and was handed the No.9 shirt too

He didn’t cost the Bluebirds much money though, did he?

Unfortunately he did. Maybe not too much compared to some other big-money flops, but still a sizable amount for a player who was to make such a minimal impact.

The Bluebirds apparently paid Maribor around £1.5m by way of compensation for the player.

Then there was Velikonja’s wages to take into account for that four-year deal.

Reportedly Velikonja has received more than £1.25m off Cardiff over the last four seasons, that’s more than £300,000 a year or a pay packet of not too short of £6,000 a week.

So hypothetically if we had not sold Gestade, Campbell for peanuts and paid way over the odds for Cornelius, Velikonja, Macheda,le Fondre,Adeyemi,Ekrem, Begnet we could have kept Caulker, Medel or at the very least Jordon Mutch or Mats Møller Dæhli

He was never given a chance so how he can be blamed or touted as the worst signing in our history isn't really fair on the guy. Him and Fillip Kiss parked next to me once before a game and they were both decent lads and were desperate to be given a run in the side.

Worst every signing? If we're talking money, it's acorn by a country mile.

Worst every signing? If we're talking money, it's acorn by a country mile.

The reality is that almost every recent player can be labelled 'the worst' ever signing as not many ever increase there transfer value after signing!

Worst every signing? If we're talking money, it's acorn by a country mile.

The reality is that almost every recent player can be labelled 'the worst' ever signing as not many ever increase there transfer value after signing!

Your not wrong. Either a bad signing or a wasted signing, we've had some clear quality players too but shunned them and sold them at a loss.

Worst every signing? If we're talking money, it's acorn by a country mile.

The reality is that almost every recent player can be labelled 'the worst' ever signing as not many ever increase there transfer value after signing!

Your not wrong. Either a bad signing or a wasted signing, we've had some clear quality players too but shunned them and sold them at a loss.

Who are the "clear quality" players that we sold at a loss?

Worst every signing? If we're talking money, it's acorn by a country mile.

Your right acorn easily the biggest balls up in our history ,bloody awful signing by milky and moody ,we're did the famous dossier go on signing that plank ?

Who actually signed him is anyone's guess, however MM did go on record, saying in the programme notes of our pre season friendly v Newcastle UTD on the 11 August 2012 that he had been following EV for more than two years, & didn't hesitate to sign him when the chance came up, the previous July. Not only that, but he was even registered with the No 09 shirt for that coming season, 2012/13 season we eventually got Promoted.

Interestingly, the No 09 shirt the following Premiership season went to none other than a certain Andreas Cornelius,,,make of those facts what you will!

Yet Another wasted burden on City's wage bill will be going soon!

Who actually signed him is anyone's guess, however MM did go on record, saying in the programme notes of our pre season friendly v Newcastle UTD on the 11 August 2012 that he had been following EV for more than two years, & didn't hesitate to sign him when the chance came up, the previous July. Not only that, but he was even registered with the No 09 shirt for that coming season, 2012/13 season we eventually got Promoted.

Interestingly, the No 09 shirt the following Premiership season went to none other than a certain Andreas Cornelius,,,make of those facts what you will!

Yet Another wasted burden on City's wage bill will be going soon!

100% a milky signing ,the tan haters love to put bad signings down to tan and good signings to milky ,the fact is the manager signed them

Who actually signed him is anyone's guess, however MM did go on record, saying in the programme notes of our pre season friendly v Newcastle UTD on the 11 August 2012 that he had been following EV for more than two years, & didn't hesitate to sign him when the chance came up, the previous July. Not only that, but he was even registered with the No 09 shirt for that coming season, 2012/13 season we eventually got Promoted.

Interestingly, the No 09 shirt the following Premiership season went to none other than a certain Andreas Cornelius,,,make of those facts what you will!

Yet Another wasted burden on City's wage bill will be going soon!

100% a milky signing ,the tan haters love to put bad signings down to tan and good signings to milky ,the fact is the manager signed them

You don't honestly believe that's how football works in this day and age do you Wez.

You attribute Saadi & Zahore as Slade signings?

Who actually signed him is anyone's guess, however MM did go on record, saying in the programme notes of our pre season friendly v Newcastle UTD on the 11 August 2012 that he had been following EV for more than two years, & didn't hesitate to sign him when the chance came up, the previous July. Not only that, but he was even registered with the No 09 shirt for that coming season, 2012/13 season we eventually got Promoted.

Interestingly, the No 09 shirt the following Premiership season went to none other than a certain Andreas Cornelius,,,make of those facts what you will!

Yet Another wasted burden on City's wage bill will be going soon!

100% a milky signing ,the tan haters love to put bad signings down to tan and good signings to milky ,the fact is the manager signed them

You don't honestly believe that's how football works in this day and age do you Wez.

You attribute Saadi & Zahore as Slade signings?

Maybe not these now, since the milky f**k ups Cardiff have put a transfer committee in and I don't blame them

Who actually signed him is anyone's guess, however MM did go on record, saying in the programme notes of our pre season friendly v Newcastle UTD on the 11 August 2012 that he had been following EV for more than two years, & didn't hesitate to sign him when the chance came up, the previous July. Not only that, but he was even registered with the No 09 shirt for that coming season, 2012/13 season we eventually got Promoted.

Interestingly, the No 09 shirt the following Premiership season went to none other than a certain Andreas Cornelius,,,make of those facts what you will!

Yet Another wasted burden on City's wage bill will be going soon!

100% a milky signing ,the tan haters love to put bad signings down to tan and good signings to milky ,the fact is the manager signed them

You don't honestly believe that's how football works in this day and age do you Wez.

You attribute Saadi & Zahore as Slade signings?

Maybe not these now, since the milky f**k ups Cardiff have put a transfer committee in and I don't blame them

No doubt from Malky the professional manager angle, it was an epic failure that transfer window

Who actually signed him is anyone's guess, however MM did go on record, saying in the programme notes of our pre season friendly v Newcastle UTD on the 11 August 2012 that he had been following EV for more than two years, & didn't hesitate to sign him when the chance came up, the previous July. Not only that, but he was even registered with the No 09 shirt for that coming season, 2012/13 season we eventually got Promoted.

Interestingly, the No 09 shirt the following Premiership season went to none other than a certain Andreas Cornelius,,,make of those facts what you will!

Yet Another wasted burden on City's wage bill will be going soon!

100% a milky signing ,the tan haters love to put bad signings down to tan and good signings to milky ,the fact is the manager signed them

You don't honestly believe that's how football works in this day and age do you Wez.

You attribute Saadi & Zahore as Slade signings?

Maybe not these now, since the milky f**k ups Cardiff have put a transfer committee in and I don't blame them

No doubt from Malky the professional manager angle, it was an epic failure that transfer window

I think that any owner looking at hiring him would see his transfer dealings as a concern

Worst every signing? If we're talking money, it's acorn by a country mile.

The reality is that almost every recent player can be labelled 'the worst' ever signing as not many ever increase there transfer value after signing!

Your not wrong. Either a bad signing or a wasted signing, we've had some clear quality players too but shunned them and sold them at a loss.

Who are the "clear quality" players that we sold at a loss?

Did you ever recall who these players were?

Worst every signing? If we're talking money, it's acorn by a country mile.

The reality is that almost every recent player can be labelled 'the worst' ever signing as not many ever increase there transfer value after signing!

Your not wrong. Either a bad signing or a wasted signing, we've had some clear quality players too but shunned them and sold them at a loss.

Nubbsy

Despite a couple of prompts, we are still waiting for your list of "clear quality" players that the club has sold at a loss.

Have you managed to find the list yet?