Why Isaac Vessell?

The reasons Birmingham City summer signing hasn't been playing for Cardiff City despite stunning debut



By Glen Williams

Tuesday 17th September 2019


Bluebirds forward Isaac Vassell immediately endeared himself to fans after scoring the winner on debut

Just minutes into his debut, Isaac Vassell sent Cardiff City Stadium into a frenzy.

The striker was a £2million deadline-day signing from Birmingham City and, following that game against Luton, it looked like it could have been the bargain of the summer.

He replaced Robert Glatzel in the 91st minute with the scores locked at 1-1 and with Neil Warnock needing something, someone to nick a winner and get their Championship campaign up and running.

Just five minutes later, Junior Hoilett lofted a beautifully-weighted cross into the box and Vassell leaped to put a glancing header into the back of the net. Cue the bedlam.

The following week, City's goal hero was called upon once again with the team failing miserably away to Reading, trailing by two goals at half time.

But that wasn't his day. He barely got a kick of the ball as the Royals ran riot and is yet to be seen in the league since – having been handed only a solitary half of football in the dismal 3-0 Carabao Cup defeat by the Luton.

Despite the successive 3-0 defeats in his last two outings, his lack of game time is still curious. He was not the only player to feature in both matches.

So, what's the full story? Well, there are a few reasons.


Neil Warnock is a huge admirer of Robert Glatzel, the marquee forward signing this summer, so he is the first and most pressing obstacle to Vassell.

Although the German took six games to get off the mark — he scored a penalty against Derby County on Friday night — he has undoubtedly showed his ability.

It means, therefore, that Vassell is earmarked only as
Secondly, he is working his way back from a slight ankle problem. The 26-year-old was omitted from the squad for the 1-1 draw with Fulham before the international break after having an injection in his ankle.

He warmed the bench against the Rams on Friday, but managed to score in the Under-23s game against Sheffield Wednesday on Monday, a fixture in which Neil Etheridge made his return to action.

And, lastly, he is not the only player vying for that back-up striker berth.

Warnock and his coaching staff have been hugely-impressed with Omar Bogle this summer, citing his markedly improved attitude and performance.


Bogle was on fire in pre-season and netted in the opening-day defeat by Wigan, so looked a somewhat unlikely shoo-in to be Glatzel's understudy.

But Vassell's Luton heroics threw a spanner in those works and now the pair are battling it out to get minutes under their belt.

Bogle was the preferred option at Pride Park, but Vassell will be champing at the bit to get his chance once again when Middlesbrough come to town this Saturday.

He hasn't endeared himself to me, cant help feel its a pointless signing especially when we haven't moved any of the others on. We must have a huge wage bill for players who hardly play.

i questioned this signing when it was announced and got shot down, because it was more about warnocks comments that annoyed me, warnock said, he's a player i was looking at back at rotherham, and it hit me that, he wasnt building a promotion chasing team, he's building a team that can get mid table.

Why indeed.

Yet another utter utter waste of a fee and a wage for a player who from almost day one Sir Neil has decided isn't a starter.

Why does our lamentable transfer committee sign off on these deals?

If we hadn't got the German who would be Sir Neils main striker?

Vassel, Madine? No, probably Paterson.

Another worrying signing. Who could be good with 2 upfront, but our one striker with no support does not suit any of our current squad. Our sole striker will always be isolated with limited scoring opportunities in our style of play.

A 2 out of 3 of Gratzel, Vassell, Bogle could be a potent strike force in the Championship.

Why indeed.

Yet another utter utter waste of a fee and a wage for a player who from almost day one Sir Neil has decided isn't a starter.

Why does our lamentable transfer committee sign off on these deals?

If we hadn't got the German who would be Sir Neils main striker?

Vassel, Madine? No, probably Paterson.

It’s called a squad.

He doesn’t want to play Madine and Ward and tried to shift them on with no luck.

Glatzel is his main striker at the moment with Vassel and Bogle as cover. Three strikers are needed.

Understand the requirements of a squad.

Sir Neil plays one striker, we have five and he has signed every one of them. In addition to which he favours a player he signed as a right back over most of the strikers he has signed.

We have one right back and next to no midfield cover.

Our squad is imbalanced. Our squad lacks creativity. Our squad lacks a dead ball as specialist.

Clubs says it wants to live within means which is commendable and I have no problem with that.

My issue is signings with fees, wages, agents costs for too many players that Sir Neil then decides he doesn't fancy afterall.

Understand the requirements of a squad.

Sir Neil plays one striker, we have five and he has signed every one of them. In addition to which he favours a player he signed as a right back over most of the strikers he has signed.

We have one right back and next to no midfield cover.

Our squad is imbalanced. Our squad lacks creativity. Our squad lacks a dead ball as specialist.

Clubs says it wants to live within means which is commendable and I have no problem with that.

My issue is signings with fees, wages, agents costs for too many players that Sir Neil then decides he doesn't fancy afterall.

I agree with most of that but the OP was about Vassel.

He’s seems like a good back up from what I’ve seen (not a lot) and I’ve already explained that the club tried to get rid of the other strikers. So if he doesn’t want Madine (yes a terrible signing), Ward, etc he’s brought in Vassel and kept Bogle.

That’s fine by me.

I've not seen enough of Vessell yet to form a view or to compare to our other options.

That in itself is curious seven games in when we've not exactly been burning it up. Since coming on and scoring against Luton he has been an unused sub three times, played the first half in the cup fiasco to Luton and came on as a half time sub in the Reading embarrassment.

That hardly shows he has become someone Sir Neil is confident in. We play a lone striker and Sir Neil tries various options as a number 10 or withdrawn or back up striker call it what you will. We simply don't play two out and out strikers. A fit Tomlin seems a good option as a number 10 but Sir Neil uses Paterson in that role a lot. Its certainly not going to be Vessell in that role.

I don't think we are likely to see much of Vessell and on that basis I question his signing and cost.

I appreciate we got Glatzel after Vessell but I wonder if we would have signed Vessell if we had already secured Glatzel?

It was the same with Niasse. He came in just before Sala. Would we have gone for Niase if we had already secured Sala, tragic events not withstanding?

I doubt we would.

No idea what happens behind scenes and these transfers and agents must be a nightmare to conclude but it seems to me these are both examples where we've had more than one target, not sure we were going to get our number one target, settled on a back up, then number one target thinks bugger I may miss out here and becomes available leaving us with a signing who is not Sir Neils first choice yet costs us significant money that we don't have to spend on anyone else. Its happened in other windows as well but can't recall the names involved.

Sorry, post about Vessell. For all of above don't think we will see much of him.

Cutting through all of that, Warnock obviously see’s him as a number 2 or 3 behind Glatzel at this moment in time.

If Glatzel fails or gets injured then Vassel or Bogle will jump in and have to grab their chance. That’s what a squad is all about and I’m happy with that. It’s quite plain and simple.

Cutting through all of that, Warnock obviously see’s him as a number 2 or 3 behind Glatzel at this moment in time.

If Glatzel fails or gets injured then Vassel or Bogle will jump in and have to grab their chance. That’s what a squad is all about and I’m happy with that. It’s quite plain and simple.

I get that but surely he has a responsibility to the club to move on other players first. He has 6m Medine and 1.5m Ward behind them no doubt on decent wages. If he couldn't move them on then imo we shouldn't have signed Vassell.

Cutting through all of that, Warnock obviously see’s him as a number 2 or 3 behind Glatzel at this moment in time.

I completely agree.
Club says it living within its means which is great but then it acts like this. Its a contradiction. Added to which, our manager says he is retiring and these signings of players that don't play are only tieing our hands together for future budgets and a new managers appetite for his own players. Sir Neil has his own players and lots of them he no longer fancies. As I've said earlier on this thread, my instinct is that we wouod find Paterson playing before we would see the second choice strikers we've signed. It doesn't matter how cheap they are, if they're not making us better signing them is a false economy.

If Glatzel fails or gets injured then Vassel or Bogle will jump in and have to grab their chance. That’s what a squad is all about and I’m happy with that. It’s quite plain and simple.

I get that but surely he has a responsibility to the club to move on other players first. He has 6m Medine and 1.5m Ward behind them no doubt on decent wages. If he couldn't move them on then imo we shouldn't have signed Vassell.

Cutting through all of that, Warnock obviously see’s him as a number 2 or 3 behind Glatzel at this moment in time.

I completely agree.
Club says it living within its means which is great but then it acts like this. Its a contradiction. Added to which, our manager says he is retiring and these signings of players that don't play are only tieing our hands together for future budgets and a new managers appetite for his own players. Sir Neil has his own players and lots of them he no longer fancies. As I've said earlier on this thread, my instinct is that we wouod find Paterson playing before we would see the second choice strikers we've signed. It doesn't matter how cheap they are, if they're not making us better signing them is a false economy.

If Glatzel fails or gets injured then Vassel or Bogle will jump in and have to grab their chance. That’s what a squad is all about and I’m happy with that. It’s quite plain and simple.

I get that but surely he has a responsibility to the club to move on other players first. He has 6m Medine and 1.5m Ward behind them no doubt on decent wages. If he couldn't move them on then imo we shouldn't have signed Vassell.

I completely agree.
Sir Neil says he's going at end of this season and these signings will impact on future budgets and signings.
Clubs says it wants to live within its means which it should but its the same old story.
The fact the club can't move these players on speaks volumes for how bad they were as signings and the wages we have committed to. I already see Vessell as another Madine and Ward simply because that's the form we have.

Cutting through all of that, Warnock obviously see’s him as a number 2 or 3 behind Glatzel at this moment in time.

I completely agree.
Club says it living within its means which is great but then it acts like this. Its a contradiction. Added to which, our manager says he is retiring and these signings of players that don't play are only tieing our hands together for future budgets and a new managers appetite for his own players. Sir Neil has his own players and lots of them he no longer fancies. As I've said earlier on this thread, my instinct is that we wouod find Paterson playing before we would see the second choice strikers we've signed. It doesn't matter how cheap they are, if they're not making us better signing them is a false economy.

If Glatzel fails or gets injured then Vassel or Bogle will jump in and have to grab their chance. That’s what a squad is all about and I’m happy with that. It’s quite plain and simple.

I get that but surely he has a responsibility to the club to move on other players first. He has 6m Medine and 1.5m Ward behind them no doubt on decent wages. If he couldn't move them on then imo we shouldn't have signed Vassell.

Now that's where I disagree.

With Madine, especially, on good wages a deal to move them on couldn't be made. He rates Vassel higher then Madine so that's why hes here.

Its obviously not breaking the bank as he has the backing of the money men in Tan and Choo.

In a perfect scenario they would have been shipped out but football in all clubs doesn't work like that.

Cutting through all of that, Warnock obviously see’s him as a number 2 or 3 behind Glatzel at this moment in time.

I completely agree.
Club says it living within its means which is great but then it acts like this. Its a contradiction. Added to which, our manager says he is retiring and these signings of players that don't play are only tieing our hands together for future budgets and a new managers appetite for his own players. Sir Neil has his own players and lots of them he no longer fancies. As I've said earlier on this thread, my instinct is that we wouod find Paterson playing before we would see the second choice strikers we've signed. It doesn't matter how cheap they are, if they're not making us better signing them is a false economy.

If Glatzel fails or gets injured then Vassel or Bogle will jump in and have to grab their chance. That’s what a squad is all about and I’m happy with that. It’s quite plain and simple.

I get that but surely he has a responsibility to the club to move on other players first. He has 6m Medine and 1.5m Ward behind them no doubt on decent wages. If he couldn't move them on then imo we shouldn't have signed Vassell.

Now that's where I disagree.

With Madine, especially, on good wages a deal to move them on couldn't be made. He rates Vassel higher then Madine so that's why hes here.

Its obviously not breaking the bank as he has the backing of the money men in Tan and Choo.

In a perfect scenario they would have been shipped out but football in all clubs doesn't work like that.

but where does it end? when he signed Medine he obviously rated him higher than Ward and Bogle, things change quickly. Now its flipped back and Medine is out the picture on a big wage not even making the bench and we now have Glatzel, Vassell, Ward, Medine, Bogle for one position.

It doesn’t matter if he has the backing of the money men or not, its still wasted money and money putting further debt on the club for no reason. I agree ideally they would have been shipped out but if not imo we don’t sign anyone. It wouldn’t concnern me in the slightest to have Medine, Bogle and Ward fighting it out for 2 places on the bench and I don’t think it would make us any weaker.

I can already predict people will be moaning about lack of signings next season because of our wage bill and ourt inability to get rid of players with such an unbalanced squad.

Cutting through all of that, Warnock obviously see’s him as a number 2 or 3 behind Glatzel at this moment in time.

I completely agree.
Club says it living within its means which is great but then it acts like this. Its a contradiction. Added to which, our manager says he is retiring and these signings of players that don't play are only tieing our hands together for future budgets and a new managers appetite for his own players. Sir Neil has his own players and lots of them he no longer fancies. As I've said earlier on this thread, my instinct is that we wouod find Paterson playing before we would see the second choice strikers we've signed. It doesn't matter how cheap they are, if they're not making us better signing them is a false economy.

If Glatzel fails or gets injured then Vassel or Bogle will jump in and have to grab their chance. That’s what a squad is all about and I’m happy with that. It’s quite plain and simple.

I get that but surely he has a responsibility to the club to move on other players first. He has 6m Medine and 1.5m Ward behind them no doubt on decent wages. If he couldn't move them on then imo we shouldn't have signed Vassell.

Now that's where I disagree.

With Madine, especially, on good wages a deal to move them on couldn't be made. He rates Vassel higher then Madine so that's why hes here.

Its obviously not breaking the bank as he has the backing of the money men in Tan and Choo.

In a perfect scenario they would have been shipped out but football in all clubs doesn't work like that.

but where does it end? when he signed Medine he obviously rated him higher than Ward and Bogle, things change quickly. Now its flipped back and Medine is out the picture on a big wage not even making the bench and we now have Glatzel, Vassell, Ward, Medine, Bogle for one position.

It doesn’t matter if he has the backing of the money men or not, its still wasted money and money putting further debt on the club for no reason. I agree ideally they would have been shipped out but if not imo we don’t sign anyone. It wouldn’t concnern me in the slightest to have Medine, Bogle and Ward fighting it out for 2 places on the bench and I don’t think it would make us any weaker.

I can already predict people will be moaning about lack of signings next season because of our wage bill and ourt inability to get rid of players with such an unbalanced squad.

Agree.

Maybe the clubs enormous coaching staff and analysts should take a look at itself and question why it can't make these players better and do on a football pitch what Sir Neil wants them to.

He "fancies" them and likes what they bring when they are playing somewhere else but after a short time with us too many of them don't cut it in the managers eyes.

Warnock seems to make lots of mistakes in the transfer window and on the face of it has a bit of a scatter gun approach.
I don’t think he’s any different to the majority of managers who get a lot wrong and I, personally, would have liked to see a higher quality type of player brought in during the last window but perhaps he thought they were higher quality.

I still support him and think he’s right to have brought in Vassel if HE thinks it’s an improvement on what we had. That, of course, is a matter of opinion and time will tell.

Selection against Boro today seems to confirm worst fears.
Bogle replaces German whilst Paterson retains second striker role with Tomlin and Vessel unused from bench despite us having two shots on target. Just as well Boro were woeful.

Selection against Boro today seems to confirm worst fears.
Bogle replaces German whilst Paterson retains second striker role with Tomlin and Vessel unused from bench despite us having two shots on target. Just as well Boro were woeful.

Vassell wasn’t on the bench today.

He injured, ill or simply not selected for Boro?

I know Warnock now gone, but with all the talk of still needing a new striker this thread from start of season makes interesting read.

Thank god Tomlin started to play and be effective.

And after WBA looks like Paterson back to what we've seen him capable of before.

As for all of Sir Neils striker signings...............