Reply With Quote£4 million for Greg Cunningham, what was he thinking?
| + Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
When Neil Warnock took charge as Cardiff City manager in October 2016, there is no doubt the club was in big trouble. Vincent Tan and his board's appointment of Paul Trollope had quickly proved a disaster and City were sitting second from bottom of the Championship, having gained just 8 points from their first 11 games and having just been beaten 2-0 by Burton Albion.
Warnock inherited a side that realistically should never have been in such a position, containing as it did the likes of Joe Bennett, Bruna Manga, Sean Morrison, Lee Peltier, Joe Ralls and Aron Gunnarsson - six players who would be regular starters for the Bluebirds in the Premier League during 2018/19.
The squad also included Matt Connolly, Anthony Pilkington, Craig Noone and Peter Whittingham who, although clearly in decline, were still decent players by Championship standards, and Kenneth Zohore, who had yet to show anything like his best form until Warnock got hold of him. Upon his arrival, the manager was quick to bring in free agents Sol Bamba and Junior Hoilett, and both would prove excellent signings as Warnock led City to a mid-table finish.
His work in the transfer market during the summer of 2017 was inspired. Warnock brought in Neil Etheridge, Callum Paterson, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Loic Damour and Danny Ward on free or relatively cheap deals, and all would prove important as City upset the odds and battled for automatic promotion to the Premier League. The only permanent signing Warnock made during that transfer window who proved a disappointment was the only player he paid a serious transfer fee for - Lee Tomlin, who was reported to have cost Cardiff around £2.5 million when he arrived from Bristol City, but only made a handful of appearances and scored just one goal in 2017/18.
It was during the January 2018 transfer window that Warnock's signings started to become more costly and have less of an impact. The permanent signings he made during that and the next three transfer windows are listed below along with the reported transfer fees and contract lengths. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions about how beneficial or otherwise those signings proved to be:
January 2018 - Jack McKay (free, two and a half year contract)
January 2018 - Paul McKay (free, two and a half year contract)
January 2018 - Gary Madine (£5 million, three and a half year contract)
June 2018 - Josh Murphy (£11 million, four year contract)
June 2018 - Greg Cunningham (£4 million, three year contract)
June 2018 - Bobby Decordova-Reid (£10 million, four year contract)
June 2018 - Alex Smithies (£3.5 million, four year contract)
January 2019 - Leandro Bacuna (£3 million, four and a half year contract)
January 2019 - Emiliano Sala (£15 million, three and a half year contract)
June 2019 - Joe Day (free, two year contract)
June 2019 - Curtis Nelson (free, two year contract)
June 2019 - Will Vaulks (£2.1 million, three year contract)
July 2019 - Aden Flint (£4 million, three year contract)
July 2019 - Robert Glatzel (£5.5 million, three year contract)
July 2019 - Gavin Whyte (£1 million, four year contract)
August 2019 - Marlon Pack (£750,000, three year contract)
August 2019 - Isaac Vassell (£1 million, three year contract)
"Neil Warnock did a good job taking us up to the Premier League, but then he created a bad side and bought the wrong players. Murphy cost £11 million, hardly scored any goals, and then left on a free transfer. He was never worth that money. I was conned." (Vincent Tan, November 2022)
£4 million for Greg Cunningham, what was he thinking?
It would be interesting to see who the agents were, of all Warnock's signings.Originally Posted by SOXY BOY
McKays were for the u21 side, we'd binned plenty off the start of that season.
Cunningham was a squad player bought with an eye on if we relegated, not the worst purchase given he'd been playing well for Preston.
Nelson did pretty well, not good enough compared to a Kipre, but got worse after Warnock left. Flint and Pack weren't as bad as many made out.
It just goes to show Warnock was good with little money to work with, poor when given money.
Under-23's, allegedly. They were both 21. One of the dodgiest and potentially costly deals in the history of the club.
Only due to the death of Sala.
The contract offers to them were dodgier than Godfrey Ingram or Jorn Schwinkendorf?
Yeah, minor detail, that.
Was signing McKay's sons a dodgier deal than either Ingram or Schwinkendorf? Oh, I think so.
Id love to know the thinking behind 3m for Bacuna and a 4 1/2 year deal. If the fee isnt bad enough im sure Bacuna wouldn't have neede 4 1/2 years to leave Reading.
Who said Sala's death was a minor detail? What an odd bit of snark. Players in setup below first team level has happened plenty of times at plenty of clubs, Warnock's son was in our setup. The kid didn't kill Sala, the pilot did.
You seem to believe an agents sons being brought into the u3 setup is dodgier that the Godfrey Ingram deal, where even the player didn't now if it were a transfer or a loan and the Schwinkedorf deal, heavily rumoured to involve brown paper envelopes.
Seems more like your objection to my view is that Warnock wasn't involved in either of those.
Warnock did well when he was spending little or no money. When spending significant amounts, overall a disaster.
Bacuna must have a very good agent !
No wonder he keeps taking jobs if he pisses money up the wall so recklessly.
Word of the week: snark.
What was your previous username?
In relative terms we spent loads of money with davr Jones on wages
Robbie Fowler.....waste of time
Kevin Campbell ......May as well chopped his legs off
Short memories Mr Gunman
..
Let’s remove hindsight and review. We overpaid but we had just been promoted to the Premier league and Josh Murphy Bobby Reid and Alex Smithies were all top end Championship players ( Bobby Reid is a regular top 10 premier league player now) and Greg Cunningham highly regarded at the time so I could understand the logic of those 4 signings, even if they were inflated fees. The money spent on Madine was madness , it wasn’t necessary and was too high for a player who was not of good character and was just going through a purple patch at the time. I guess the thinking was a few goals from him would seal promotion but he would have been way out of his depth in the premier league so a very short sighted signing . The worst on the list however is the length of contract ( and fee) given to Bacuna, who has always been an below average Championship performer and we all knew would never amount to anything more than that !
The signings in 2019 were a mixed bag. Nelson was highly thought of at Oxford. Vaulks and Flint accomplished championship performers ( though the fee for Flint was ridiculously inflated)
Finding a striker is always a gamble, Glatzel was a more expensive one than Vassell but neither came off . At the time the one I didn’t rate the most was Marlon Pack as he was already slowing down before we signed him!
Says he who goes to review with hindsight.
What was the anonymous disguise you used during your unsuccessful boycott?
Section 113 saw straight through you.
It's really ironic that you and others complain the standard of debate has gone downhill yet you're one of the ones responsible for the decline.
More than happy to discuss football, which I thought was the point of this forum.
I don't think anyone would believe the McKays kids being at the club was a worse case in and of itself over and above the Ingram and Schwinkendorf examples. Agents, managers, coachng staff kids get taken on all the time. Warnock's son was here. Pochittino's son was on Spurs books.
You missed out ‘A disqualified, debarred’ agent’s sons. Two sons who would never get near the first team as long as they had holes in their arses. So the question is, why were they signed by the club? There was an iffy ulterior motive, a likely way for their crooked dad to worm his way into a few deals in cahoots with Warnock.
Ingram & Schwinkendorf we’re both first teamers, whatever the circumstances of their arrival & departure they added to the team/squad. McKay’s sons? Decidedly dodgy, that’s as plain as day, eventually disappeared as if by magic when the shit hit the fan.
Agree on Campbell. Disagree on Fowler - his legs were gone, and sadly wasn't able to play much for us, but he scored goals. I'd say Fowler was also signed with an eye on trying to increase income from merchandise, ditto Hasslebaink.
We'd cut basicallya n entire years worth of kids from the setup when they joined. Were they on the wages, adjusting for inflation, of Ingram or Schwinkendorf? Doubtful.
I don't disagree them joining was dodgy. I just question if it's dodgier than either the Ingram (first teamer who returned to America very quickly) or Schwinkendorf deals. There are many deals we could question if we went down the entire club history.
Bacuna played more than 100 times for us over three-and-half years, including in the premier league.
He was also a mainstay in the team that made the play-offs
He’s now playing for a team who are 10 points ahead of us.
I fail to see how he is mentioned in lists of disaster signings
Oooh, he's getting personal again....
So what was your previous username, snarky?
Decent enough player, just didn't work out for him here. Sometimes players are just bad fits for systems, managers.
He?
Nice misgendering.
Sure.
Bacuna seemed a good signing to me at the time - although the fee was high and the contract length bizarre. He had been an effective midfielder for Villa in the Premier League and Reading in the Championship for years - although sometimes played out of position at RB - a minor tradition we chose to continue.
He had good games and bad games and unlucky games - and suffered from being used as a utility squad player filling in when others were injured. Not a disaster. But his attitude at the end of his time with us was poor - although not justifying some of the abuse he got.
It was time to move on.
Posting Permissions