DEKEL KEINAN TO REVIVE CAREER AT CARDIFF!

Dekel Keinan keen to revive career at Cardiff
by Phil Blanche, Western Mail
Jan 21 2011

ISRAELI defender Dekel Keinan insists Cardiff City is the best place to revive his career.

Keinan, 26, has agreed a two-and-a-half-year deal with Cardiff and was last night putting the finishing touches to his transfer-window move from Blackpool.

According to the Jewish Chronicle, Keinan will earn £420,000-a-year, slightly higher than his earnings at Bloomfield Road, and receive a £100,000 bonus if Cardiff are promoted to the Premier League this season.



Keinan – who was signed from Maccabi Haifa in a £500,000 deal last season – said: “The current situation at Blackpool is not good for my career.

“Cardiff is the best place for me. There is no reason to just carry on sitting on the bench because it’s important for me to play.

“I want to be much more involved on the pitch. Success, from my point of view, will be getting Cardiff into the Premier League.”

Keinan, who has been capped by Israel, will become Bluebirds boss Dave Jones’ third signing of the January transfer window.

Having already signed £100,000 striker Jon Parkin and Arsenal’s Jay Emmanuel-Thomas on loan until the end of the season, Jones was keen to bolster his defensive options.

Mark Hudson and Gabor Gyepes have often failed to convince as a partnership this season and Keinan’s arrival should provide greater stability in this area.

Keinan made only three Premier League starts for Blackpool, the last coming in a controversial 3-2 defeat in Aston Villa in November when Tangerines boss Ian Holloway was criticised for making 10 changes to his team.

Holloway confirmed that Keinan is on the verge of signing for Cardiff.

“Yes, there is a chance,” Holloway said. “My chairman (Karl Oyston) has been dealing with that, so where that is I don’t know. But, yes, I understand that it is Cardiff.”

Meanwhile, tomorrow’s opponents Watford have signed Tottenham Hotspur winger Andros Townsend on loan until the end of the season.

Townsend, 19, spent the first half of this campaign on loan with Ipswich, but returned to Spurs where he marked his full debut with a goal in the FA Cup win over Charlton earlier this month.

Townsend goes straight into the Hornets squad headed for the Cardiff City Stadium with Watford boss Malky Mackay describing him as an “exciting talent with a fantastic attitude”.

“He is someone we have been tracking while he was at Ipswich, hoping we might have a chance to get him when he went back to Spurs.

“We are grateful to Harry Redknapp and his coaching staff for being so accommodating.

“He is an exciting talent with a fantastic attitude.”

Townsend is Watford’s second signing in as many days following Aston Villa striker Andreas Weimann’s arrival on loan until the end of the season.

Weimann has revealed he consulted former Hornet Ashley Young before making the move to Vicarage Road.

The 19-year-old Austrian said: “I had a good chat with Ashley Young about coming here and he had nothing but great things to say about Watford.

“Watford are flying high right now but I’ve never been out on loan before so I wanted to come somewhere full of confidence.

“But I’m not expect-ing to walk into the side.

“Here at Watford there are probably the two most in-form strikers (Danny Graham and Marvin Sordell) in the league.”

Why the hell are we giving him a pay rise?!! He's sitting on the bench at the moment and he's dropping a division so to me this should equal him taking a pay cut not an increase! Bad business if you ask me!

Wages are the only thing we can offer to encourage players to come to us at the moment... The Malaysians don't want to pay high transfer fees but are happy to pay large wages... so he has only exploited that, like you, me or anyone else would do in his position..

I hope Im wrong but this guy dont have the experiance we need at the back. We need some one who can take charge with more Experience than this guy got.

I hope Im wrong but this guy dont have the experiance we need at the back. We need some one who can take charge with more Experience than this guy got.

This is an Israeli full international player who has champions league experience with macabi Haifa as well as 5 premier league appearances this season. He's not the fastest in the world, but I dont think we can question his determination or experience... Also even at 10k per week hed be earning 520k per year... So to get him for less than 10k a week (or closer to £8k p/week) is still good business? Is it not?

As I said I want to be wrong , I just dont see him as the guy for the job, I pray Im wrong

Must have something in him ad holloway made him his first signing after beating us in the final... Lets hope he does the job anyway... As he's on a £100,000 promotion bonus!