Does the way we play work against us in the transfer market?

Before dealing with the question asked in the title, I should say that, if some of the things said about our wage budget for this season are true, then we would never have been able to offer some of the players we were linked with last month a deal which would have tempted them and also I'm sure there were those who did not fancy coming here to be involved in a relegation scrap.

However, preferring Bournemouth's style of play was mentioned as one of the reasons for Nathaniel Clyne backing out of the loan move here that had been agreed early in the window. Similarly, I would have thought that every one who has played professional football first decided to make it their career because of the excitement that they had as a kid when they had the ball at their feet together with the sense of achievement they had at what they managed to do with it when they did. Therefore, even to most hardened pros, I'm confident that I'm right when I say that, given a choice, most players would prefer not to be in a team that plays the percentages as much as we do, is out of possession as much as we are and places such defensive responsibilities on naturally attacking players like we do with our wingers.

it certainly looks as if we set great emphasis on the French market during the window which has just closed and it should never be forgotten that we did manage to entice a player based in that country here for a club record fee, but all of the indications were that he was someone who suited our way of playing - he was acknowledged as someone who was not the most naturally gifted (a scruffy player as our manager called him), but he had made the most of what he had and Cardiff looked a good fit for him.

Apart from Emiliano Sala though, our preoccupation with France over the past month has to be seen as a failure with none of the multitude of players linked with us seemingly coming remotely close to choosing us except for Adrien Tameze.

Of course, I cannot claim that they all didn't fancy Cardiff because of the way we play, but I would say that traditionally French sportsmen and women are expected to play their game in a way that has flair and an attacking outlook to the fore. I'm not saying that French footballers lack discipline, but I think that desire to want the ball and keep the ball is more strongly embedded in their DNA than it is in footballers from some other countries.

That said, my suspicion is that most footballers, no matter where they are from, who are wanted by a couple of clubs of similar standing that are offering similar financial rewards and are based in a similar part of the world would be instinctively drawn to the one that plays in a more "attractive" manner where they are given a greater licence to express themselves - do you reckon I'm right in thinking that?

Definitely. Bournemouth are a much smaller club than us, but at this present moment in time, if any player was looking for a move, and both clubs were offering a similar deal, I’d imagine he’d pick them over us easily.
Sala, apart, we’ve added one player to our woefully inept squad, and imo he’s not any better than what we had already.

Possibly to an extent.

For me though the order would be money > league stature > geography > style.

Managers come and go, styles change, possibly multiple times within the same season.

I think for us money is the main thing, we can't match what even clubs like Bournemouth can, who are now a mid table established PL club who have taken the PL money for a few seasons.

Location if the club is at times a hard sell. Players have to move their families unless single. We aren't in an area surrounded by other clubs so players are going to have to move. Within the UK by many Cardiff is still quite underrated and overlooked. Many foreign players would rather play in London, unless the money offered elsewhere is higher.

Relegation threatened, if you could scrap out relegation or have a more comfortable season at a mid table club which would most players go for.

I wouldn't have said so. If we were looking comfortable in this league playing agricultural football and Bournemouth were playing the fancy stuff and looking like s championship side we would probably have had more success in the window. Especially as it seems we have been sensible with relegation wage clauses.

Location and money are key. A player can commute to Burnley from Manchester, Liverpool etc, so they won't have to move. Bournemouth is commutable from the outskirts of London.

How much does any player, especially one from a non-UK league, know about our style of play? It seems on here that since results have dried up that people have been happier to find things to criticise and go over the top with, and part of that has been joining in with outside criticism of our style of play - but has it always been fair? Garth Brooks earlier said against Brighton that we can't complain about bad tackles because we're not shy of making them ourselves but, apart from two games which were on TV, no one could really remember a tackle in the past 12 months he could have been referring to. We're not a Bournemouth for sure but our football, especially during our short four home game winning run, was really not as bad as say Fulham fans would have you believe.

We're going through a rough patch where everything has been difficult but go back to 29/12/18 and the feeling around the club was at a high for this campaign and the football being played was improving. Didn't our twitter put up a video of our first goal against Brighton to show how we kept the ball and every player had a touch in the build-up? Perhaps if we did more to highlight things like that lazy pundits like Brooks would change their mind.

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Originally Posted by surge

How much does any player, especially one from a non-UK league, know about our style of play? It seems on here that since results have dried up that people have been happier to find things to criticise and go over the top with, and part of that has been joining in with outside criticism of our style of play - but has it always been fair? Garth Brooks earlier said against Brighton that we can't complain about bad tackles because we're not shy of making them ourselves but, apart from two games which were on TV, no one could really remember a tackle in the past 12 months he could have been referring to. We're not a Bournemouth for sure but our football, especially during our short four home game winning run, was really not as bad as say Fulham fans would have you believe.

We're going through a rough patch where everything has been difficult but go back to 29/12/18 and the feeling around the club was at a high for this campaign and the football being played was improving. Didn't our twitter put up a video of our first goal against Brighton to show how we kept the ball and every player had a touch in the build-up? Perhaps if we did more to highlight things like that lazy pundits like Brooks would change their mind.

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I agree with you.

And what would a country and western singer know anyway!

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Originally Posted by jon1959

I agree with you.

And what would a country and western singer know anyway!

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Can I get away with saying I used it deliberately to show lazy fact-checking?

While I accept, and allowed for in my message, the importance of wages, I think people are deluding themselves if they believe the footballing world at large do not have an idea of how we play. Was I wrong when I said that we are a team that plays the percentages, spends plenty of time without the ball and have wingers whose selection seems to owe as much to what they do defensively as what happens when we have the ball?

We have played a bit more football this season and the goal against Brighton that has been mentioned showed we can string together effective passages of play at times, but, essentially, we've been the same sort of team for the past two seasons and it's a style that is hard to admire unless you are a supporter of our club.

If any potential signing had watched the four matches we played last month before Tuesday's then can anyone say they would have been thinking that they would enjoy playing for us? If I had agreed a deal with us and then sat through the Huddersfield and Newcastle matches I would be desperately trying to come up with a reason to go back on my word.

Was thinking about this last night. What factors attract players to specific clubs ? We've always said that it's money, wages and transfer fees, but I think it's as much to do with playing style, the manager, and importantly, contacts. Nowadays it seems those foreign managers have a greater knowledge of what's around in europe. Look at Norwich, who can find players that some Prem. clubs aren't aware of.

Re. style, let's not forget that Prem. managers were always happy to loan their players to Dave Jones, and the likes of Chopra, etc. perfectly happy to sign..

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Originally Posted by nearly 40

Location and money are key. A player can commute to Burnley from Manchester, Liverpool etc, so they won't have to move. Bournemouth is commutable from the outskirts of London.

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Arter commutes from London to South Wales. It isn't an insurmountable problem.