CARDIFF CAN ONLY LOOK ON IN ENVY AS DERBY SPEND BIG

Cardiff City can only look on in envy as Derby County flash the cash in quest to Ram-raid their way to Premier League

Monday 29th August 2016

By Phil Smith

The Championship is increasingly becoming a two-tiered division financially, and with parachute payments about to end for Cardiff, they are set to leave that top tier

Derby County, it seems, are lining up a £14 million move for Bristol City’s Jonathan Kodjia, having just broken their transfer record to sign Matej Vydra in an £8 million deal.

Bluebirds have every reason to look at that with a fair degree of envy. Put those two players at the tip of Paul Trollope’s 5-3-2 and suddenly you have a bit of a force to be reckoned with. Vydra with the pace to run in behind, Kodjia with the presence to bring the likes of Immers and Pilkington into play.

The harsh reality is, however, that the Championship is increasingly becoming a two-tiered division financially, and with parachute payments about to end for Cardiff, they are set to leave that top tier.

What’s truly remarkable about that business from Derby is not just the sums involved. For a good few seasons now, they have stuck fairly rigidly to a 4-3-3 system and Nigel Pearson does not seem set to change it.

That leaves room for one recognised striker, currently Chris Martin.

He is, by any measurement, one of the very finest target men outside of the Premier League. In reserve, they have Darren Bent, whose combined transfer fees are well over £50 million, and the supremely talented Manchester United youngster James Wilson. Nick Blackman, a £3 million January signing, is nowhere to be seen.

In the wide areas, they have Andreas Weimann, Johnny Russell, Tom Ince and Abdoul Camara. This is the environment in which Cardiff are trying to compete.

The end of parachute payments means they cannot even begin to consider matching the spending on offer from the likes of Newcastle United and Aston Villa. Few clubs have been able to live with teams receiving those payments in recent season.

Two of those have been Derby and Brighton, but they not only fill sizeable stadiums every week, but have two local owners who still have the zeal to invest heavily.

Cardiff’s gates are clearly not enough to compensate for the parachute shortfall they will face in the coming years and the days of marquee signings look to be as good as over.

Vincent Tan has made his commitment to reducing the club’s onerous debt clear and that necessitates a prudent approach in the transfer market.

As he said at the start of last season: “I hope to be able to take Cardiff to the Premier League again, but we will not do it in a silly way. We will do it in a more commercially clever manner.

“We made mistakes earlier on but now we are putting Cardiff into a stable situation, we are not doing silly things.

“Yes we will still invest in Cardiff but it must be sensible and commercially viable.”

The spectre of FFP also looms large after last season’s embargo and a fine like the £7.6 million Bournemouth were charged with last season would clearly be ruinous.

That offers a bit of perspective to the current environment, but it is certainly not meant to be a free pass for their transfer shortcomings this summer that were brutally exposed in a disappointing defeat against Reading on Saturday.

To have reached the end of August still asking Anthony Pilkington and Lex Immers to play unfamiliar roles up front is unforgivable.

Frederic Gounongbe may well turn out to be a decent investment in the long run but asking a player to come from the Belgian league and lead the line in a physically brutal environment is naïve at best.

There is no need for blind panic in terms of this season’s prospects, just yet. After all, they remain on the same number of points as Aston Villa, Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday. Had Immers or Morrison scored from some excellent openings, they’d be on the brink of the play-offs going into the break.

For all the understandable talk of a lack of firepower, they’ve still scored three more goals than Derby.

Of course, fans may also point at the table and ask, if money is everything, why are Huddersfield sitting top of the table, unbeaten after five games?

That is certainly a fascinating comparison. For starters, they have committed to a strong, counter-attacking identity and as a result have sold more season tickets than Cardiff’s overall attendance yesterday.

Crucially, having given their manager a few months to assess the squad at the end of last season, they moved unbelievably swiftly to add targets perfect for his style and have been rewarded with a fast start to the season.

Paul Trollope, in comparison, lost Fabio, a key part of his new plans, the day before the season and has now lost his captain just days before the window shuts.

It is hard enough to build a new philosophy without having to firefight in the short-term. He and his backroom staff started the long process of professionalising Cardiff’s off-field approach in the summer and there is no doubt that in this sense, they’ll make the Bluebirds better than they have been in recent times.

There are teething problems with the on-field progression that should not be ignored, clearly. Reading may not have done a great deal with their 60 odd per-cent possession at the Cardiff City Stadium but it is alarming to see Cardiff on the back foot like that in a home game. The balance of the team does not look quite right with the current system and width in advanced areas is lacking.

Again, Reading are a team who have committed to their new manager’s philosophy and have backed him with the according players.

All of this is merely to point out that are there no shortcuts for Cardiff, who face a long journey of readjustment to get anywhere close to where they want to be.

This remains a fairly strong squad and they will improve over the course of the season, and knee-jerk reactions to the new management will not help matters.

Clearly, however, movement must be made in transfer market to ease the transition.

I'm sure in the past Kodja has been linked to us and i think mentioned on here and few were saying hes not that good..
14 million I know if we had paid 14 million for him many would be fuming

Derby will be hit by FFP regulations hard if their promotion bid fails, spent big for a few seasons now.

And are below us in the league money doesn't buy success in this league

Kodgia is a really good player. Of course, if only we had a billionaire foreign owner.........er!

Kodgia is a really good player. Of course, if only we had a billionaire foreign owner.........er!

Yes they have rich owner but how long can he throw money at the club without success ? This is second season of spending millions but like tan he will not get it back unless get promoted and that will be easier said than done especially with villa ncastle looking strong!

Huddersfield are top of the table, and Barnsley are third. They haven't spent much. It is quite difficult to buy yourself out of this division. Even when we got promoted, we didn't spend big on fees (although wages were high).

Bristol City must have fancied their chances to challenge this year and their fans must be gutted that they've sold their best player, even if it was for a stupid amount of money.

With their spending last season, Derby will be under an embargo in January. If they don't get promoted this season, they will be in a worse position than us. Hence the reason they are going for it in this window.

With FFP regulations, a billionaire owner can do nothing other than guarantee a club will not go under. Some people supporting this club need to wake up and understand that.

You can't compare Derby County to us, way way bigger club. Smaller City but bigger club. Average over 30,000 per game

With a much better history than us also.

With a much better history than us also.

Very true

It's not just Derby that have spent big but at least 8-10 of the other Championship teams. Money does not guarantee success however when teams like us weaken and teams weaker than us strengthen its a far more level playing field. Sooner or later teams like Sheff Weds, Villa etc who have had a slow start will kick on.

The problem is with Cardiff is that we are not only not buying big neither are the club prepared to dip into the transfer market to spend up to a couple of million on a striker. Every player coming in is a freebie or loan signing. Cant see the point in wasting wages on average/below average loan/freebie players. We have had enough of those over the past 18 months-2 years.

May find a hidden gem but more often than not none have produced the goods.

It's not just Derby that have spent big but at least 8-10 of the other Championship teams. Money does not guarantee success however when teams like us weaken and teams weaker than us strengthen its a far more level playing field. Sooner or later teams like Sheff Weds, Villa etc who have had a slow start will kick on.

The problem is with Cardiff is that we are not only not buying big neither are the club prepared to dip into the transfer market to spend up to a couple of million on a striker. Every player coming in is a freebie or loan signing. Cant see the point in wasting wages on average/below average loan/freebie players. We have had enough of those over the past 18 months-2 years.

May find a hidden gem but more often than not none have produced the goods.

8 or 9 teams spend big but unfortunately only 3 can go up? Then what happens to those clubs that spent big and no reward ,spend more following season in hope be one of the 3 again! You cannot sustain spending or ffp will kick in

I wouldn't say look on in envy with the figures banging about and how much they spent in past 3 seasons.

Very poor piece written by Phil which is sad because he has wrote some good pieces.