Why Cardiff City must put up a 'desperate fight' to keep

Why Cardiff City must put up a 'desperate fight' to keep Aston Villa target Neil Etheridge


It's vital that Cardiff do everything they can to keep Neil Etheridge, according to Scott Johnson


By Scott Johnson


Wednesday 26th June 2019









When Neil Etheridge rejected a new three-year deal at Walsall to join Cardiff as a free agent in the summer of 2017, there were plenty of Saddlers supporters that were quick to offer a lukewarm assessment of their departing goalkeeper. Whether or not that was sour grapes remained to be seen. After all, Leeds fans were happy to see Sol Bamba depart too and he had been a revelation.

As it turns out, Etheridge has been really rather good. He still kicks like a mule on occasion, but you could argue that he has gone on to become Cardiff’s most important player.

Were it not for Etheridge, it’s safe to say that Cardiff would not have lasted as long as they did in the top flight. Granted, if you’re a goalkeeper for a struggling Premier League side, you can expect to be kept busy, but Etheridge exceeded all expectations, saving three penalties (a joint league high) and keeping 10 clean sheets.

Etheridge may have even topped David Marshall’s heroics from Cardiff’s previous Premier League campaign, which is no mean feat, as both scooped the club’s Player of the Year award for their respective efforts.

Neil Warnock is now tasked with plotting a swift return and he has the good fortune that not too many of his players are likely to attract interest from elsewhere, allowing him to retain and add to the nucleus of what remains a very good squad. You would imagine that holding on to Etheridge would be an absolute priority, but public utterances on the subject have suggested otherwise and even some supporters have been surprisingly receptive to his potential sale.


At the tail end of last season, Warnock mentioned: “one of the lads, I don’t know if they were joking, said; ‘we’re going to get a £20m offer for Etheridge, gaffer! What would you do?’ Neil was sat there and I said, ‘I’d put him in my car, drive him there and not let him out until he’d signed.’”

You can put this one down as classic Warnock mischief making and he made a point of adding that: “as far as the others are concerned, then any good offers for our players would have to be considered,” because that is Cardiff’s reality to an extent. Even so, it still begs the question as to why Cardiff would even consider selling Etheridge at present.

Etheridge does not seem to be pushing for a move and does not seem to be the type to do so. I’m sure that he could have his head turned and in that sort of scenario, the club should do right by him, but in public at least, they should be keen to express how desperate they are to keep him.

Etheridge was one of a raft of players that agreed a new deal last summer and after such an outstanding campaign, the club should probably be looking to again extend those terms to bring him line with Sean Morrison, Joe Ralls, Josh Murphy, Callum Paterson and Bobby Reid, who are all committed until 2022.

Another player that has three years left to run, one more than Etheridge, is his understudy Alex Smithies. You have to feel for Smithies, who joined last summer as one of the best goalkeepers in the Championship and probably fancied his chances of ousting Etheridge. Instead, his time at the club has surely been very frustrating.

Restricted to cup games, Smithies was likely hoping to capitalise on Etheridge representing the Philippines at the Asian Games last January, but he didn’t go in the end and Smithies instead sat out the whole league campaign.

Cardiff’s goalkeeping situation all feels a bit odd at the moment. What with Etheridge’s potential availability, for the right price, there have also been murmurings of Smithies potentially leaving on loan and rumours of a move for Newport County’s highly regarded stopper Joe Day.

Maybe Warnock feels that he already has an adequate replacement for Etheridge in Smithies, who he has often praised in the past. When he signed, Warnock stated: “I wondered if he just has a blinder when he plays against us, but having watched Alex for a while, there is no doubting his pedigree.” Yet, when addressing the Etheridge and Day speculation recently, Warnock’s response was: "we're looking at how we can get more competition in all sorts of areas and goalkeeping is one."

The comment slightly undermines another Warnock claim that he was happy that no Etheridge bids had been forthcoming because: “we think that the goalkeepers that we've got are very good," leaving the element of doubt that what looked like a rather solid area of the squad may in fact be about to head towards a period of flux.

The two clubs that have been linked with a move for Etheridge are Liverpool and Aston Villa. Both would likely appeal, but for different reasons. Liverpool are looking for a new number two, with their number one, Brazilian international Alisson, their undisputed first choice. His deputy would likely get all domestic cup games and maybe the odd Champions League appearance, but barring injury or suspension, regular first team football would be out of bounds for the prestigious Champions League holders.

At Aston Villa, he would be linking up with the manager and coaching set up that worked with him at Walsall, so both parties would know exactly what they were getting. Thankfully, we are only dealing with speculation, as Warnock recently confirmed: "I've had no offers whatsoever for Neil. I've read comments that we've turned down an £8m offer from this club and that club, but I've not received any phone calls and I don't think Ken Choo has.”

That may change in the coming weeks though, as players return from holiday and clubs work their way down their list of targets. Hopefully clubs will leave Etheridge well alone and he will be between the sticks when Cardiff commence the season at Wigan. Should interest materialise though, hopefully Cardiff put up a fight for him because his loss would surely be a major blow.

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Disagree, we will never get more for him than we will now and we have a ready made replacement. Just because we have parachute money it doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking to cautious in the transfer market. You only have to look how teams struggle badly in season 2 after relegation.

Disagree, we will never get more for him than we will now and we have a ready made replacement. Just because we have parachute money it doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking to cautious in the transfer market. You only have to look how teams struggle badly in season 2 after relegation.

NEVER, EVER sell your best players unless you absolutely have too!!

Etheridge if he keeps on improving will be the best keeper in the championship next season, with our solid and consistent defence in front of him and Smithies as a back up in case of injury we could and possibly should keep 15+ clean sheets next season.

That is an excellent platform for a promotion push

Disagree, we will never get more for him than we will now and we have a ready made replacement. Just because we have parachute money it doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking to cautious in the transfer market. You only have to look how teams struggle badly in season 2 after relegation.

NEVER, EVER sell your best players unless you absolutely have too!!

Etheridge if he keeps on improving will be the best keeper in the championship next season, with our solid and consistent defence in front of him and Smithies as a back up in case of injury we could and possibly should keep 15+ clean sheets next season.

That is an excellent platform for a promotion push

You mean like Norwich last season selling Maddison and Murphy? Didn't seem to effect them much if im honest while those who chucked the money about struggled.

We need players in other positions and in my opinion the best way to do that is to sell Etheridge and use it to for a quality midfielder. Again just my opinion but I think that would make us stronger together with spending the budget.

Disagree, we will never get more for him than we will now and we have a ready made replacement. Just because we have parachute money it doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking to cautious in the transfer market. You only have to look how teams struggle badly in season 2 after relegation.

NEVER, EVER sell your best players unless you absolutely have too!!

Etheridge if he keeps on improving will be the best keeper in the championship next season, with our solid and consistent defence in front of him and Smithies as a back up in case of injury we could and possibly should keep 15+ clean sheets next season.

That is an excellent platform for a promotion push

Lads I think you need to balance it.I wouldn't like to see him go but it depends on whether the players had his head turned or not.If he has theres no point keeping him here but we can at least play hardball over the fee.

Yeah, I'm getting tired of Wales Onlne making up stories about this player leaving, which then get quoted in waves around other sites every week or so.
He's not for sale, but if anyone wants him he's 15/20 million, which is what it'd cost us to buy an established premiership quality goalkeeper.

Wales Online were doing the same fake news crap last year about Bennet and I think they were so successful that we bought a replacement left back and didn't use him.

Why does anyone take that publication seriously ?

Disagree, we will never get more for him than we will now and we have a ready made replacement. Just because we have parachute money it doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking to cautious in the transfer market. You only have to look how teams struggle badly in season 2 after relegation.

NEVER, EVER sell your best players unless you absolutely have too!!

Etheridge if he keeps on improving will be the best keeper in the championship next season, with our solid and consistent defence in front of him and Smithies as a back up in case of injury we could and possibly should keep 15+ clean sheets next season.

That is an excellent platform for a promotion push

You mean like Norwich last season selling Maddison and Murphy? Didn't seem to effect them much if im honest while those who chucked the money about struggled.

We need players in other positions and in my opinion the best way to do that is to sell Etheridge and use it to for a quality midfielder. Again just my opinion but I think that would make us stronger together with spending the budget.

Totally agree you make a good point about Norwich, but that was probably a one off... and if I remember correctly I think although Murphy and Maddison were probably their best two players both were widely inconsistent and as you you know the one thing you need to get out of the championship is consistency which is what you will get from Etheridge

I’d like to keep Etheridge of course. But if we sign a striker and start scoring 2 or 3 goals per game it will diminish the need for a goalkeeper of Etheridge undeniable quality.

It’s an interesting conundrum this one

I certainly wouldn’t sell him for less than £10m possibly £15m

I’d like to keep Etheridge of course. But if we sign a striker and start scoring 2 or 3 goals per game it will diminish the need for a goalkeeper of Etheridge undeniable quality.

It’s an interesting conundrum this one

I certainly wouldn’t sell him for less than £10m possibly £15m

For me it’s all about getting value for money. To me that’s the right way to run a football club. £15m+ inc extra add ins then I’d certainly listen.

I’d definitely want to keep Smithies if we do sell as he’s a great keeper at this level by all accounts. We’d then have Day plus the young lad competing for back up. Not bad at all...esp if we get half the Etheridge fee to compliment our strike force and central midfield

For me it’s all about getting value for money. To me that’s the right way to run a football club. £15m+ inc extra add ins then I’d certainly listen.

I’d definitely want to keep Smithies if we do sell as he’s a great keeper at this level by all accounts. We’d then have Day plus the young lad competing for back up. Not bad at all...esp if we get half the Etheridge fee to compliment our strike force and central midfield

I mean the adds on would need to be extra. Ie if villa for example stay up and he’s number one plus an extra sell on clause in case Liverpool come in for him off Villa

I'm a big fan of the lad but if a £10 million plus offer comes in he goes.

Cant turn that down, outside of the top top LEVEL, where the top top goalkeepers are a cut above there's probably 40-50 keepers out there that are all on a par.

Norwich looking for goalie but not mentioned on here is that because not as highly rated by others as by our fans! all seems to be talk rather Than anything concrete

This lad has proved his worth to our club . Glad the manager kept faith with him in the Championship last time round .