Andreas Cornelius

[2b2bdoo]

Re: Andreas Cornelius

I agree. I’m not defending the signing. We had a certain budget no doubt but for that budget Tan expected - rightly or wrongly- to be doing well.

From memory I’m sure I read it was the biggest budget a promoted club had ever had (at the time). He was certainly well backed but even after being sacked Malky would not admit he was ever wrong but then I guess managers don’t.

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: Andreas Cornelius

From memory I’m sure I read it was the biggest budget a promoted club had ever had (at the time). He was certainly well backed but even after being sacked Malky would not admit he was ever wrong but then I guess managers don’t.

Wouldn’t admit he was wrong about what?

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Re: Andreas Cornelius

As I recall it was Malky speaking of his ‘potential’ or a project which upset Tan. Tan thought every signing could be a bargain like the Swansea Spanish guy who’s name I can’t spell.

That was after he signed, when it was clear he was miles off it. He wasn’t bought for his potential, we couldn’t afford that. It’s been done to death, he’s had a decent career, he’s never been worth the fee we paid and he’s struggled at almost every club he’s been at in a top 5 league. His signing was, and still is, an indication of the issues of Tan’s reign

[Optimistic Nick]

Re: Andreas Cornelius

As I recall it was Malky speaking of his ‘potential’ or a project which upset Tan. Tan thought every signing could be a bargain like the Swansea Spanish guy who’s name I can’t spell.

Tan thought his marquee signing would be ready for first team football. He wasn't. I actually have some sympathy with tan on that. We needed a striker and we didn't get one. I can only assume malky did think he was ready but changed the story a bit when it became apparent that he wasnt.

[Ivortheengine]

Re: Andreas Cornelius

When Andreas Cornelius signed a five-year contract for Cardiff City in July 2013, he had just turned 20 years of age. To put that into perspective, he was a few months younger than Chanka Zimba is now. He'd had one full season in the Danish Superliga and had finished top scorer with 18 goals in 32 appearances. He was also already a full Danish international and had scored a hat-trick for his national team against Canada and further goals against Mexico and the Czech Republic. He clearly had bags of potential.

During the car crash season that was 2013/14, Cornelius was given a grand total of six months to prove himself and he was injured for a significant portion of that time. By the time Vincent Tan had made him a scapegoat for the club's failings and had shipped him back to Copenhagen, he was still just 20 years-old.

His transfer was clearly an error of judgement on Mackay's part and the player obviously couldn't cope with the weight of expectation that was placed on him. However, given what he had done before he arrived in Cardiff, the way in which he was written off and publicly humiliated was clearly ridiculous. But let's be honest, much of what was going at Cardiff City in 2013/14 was clearly ridiculous.

You are spot on. McKay was way out of his depth , but by the time the owners realised it, it was far to9 late. He should have been relieved of his duties the minute promotion was achieved. It was never going to work.

[Rjk]

Re: Andreas Cornelius

Tan thought his marquee signing would be ready for first team football. He wasn't. I actually have some sympathy with tan on that. We needed a striker and we didn't get one. I can only assume malky did think he was ready but changed the story a bit when it became apparent that he wasnt.

yeah I think that's probably spot on.

Malky took a punt with tans money and he clearly hadn't done enough research into the signing, as he wasn't ready to be our main striker, and when we did play him we didn't play to his strengths at all, we saw he was tall so we lumped the ball towards him from 40 metres away and expected him to hold the ball up.

this then led to the "transfer committee" which clearly still didn't add any football expertise to the recruitment process, but at least the manager had to demonstrate they knew what they were getting from the transfer and that they had a plan to use them.

going back to Cornelius, it's hard to argue it wasn't a bad signing at the time, but he's gone on to have a good career at a good level of football since, so you could argue that selling him when we did was just as bad a decision

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Andreas Cornelius

You are spot on. McKay was way out of his depth , but by the time the owners realised it, it was far to9 late. He should have been relieved of his duties the minute promotion was achieved. It was never going to work.

Yeah, we could have had Ole for the whole season then. People can go on till the cows come home about how Mackay got us relegated, but the facts are that we were clear of the bottom three when he left and yet we ended up bottom of the league - we were undoubtedly a worse side in the second half of 13/14 than we were in the first half of that season (eighteen points from the first nineteen, seventeen points from eighteen under Mackay and twelve from nineteen in the second half, eighteen under Ole).

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: Andreas Cornelius

You are spot on. McKay was way out of his depth , but by the time the owners realised it, it was far to9 late.

I made no reference to Mackay’s abilities as a manager. The fact is we’ll never know if he would have kept his team in the Premier Division because Tan sacked him.

[ToTaL ITK]

Re: Andreas Cornelius

He was saved by leaving cardiff that couldn't develop a cold under covid.

[2b2bdoo]

Re: Andreas Cornelius

Yeah, we could have had Ole for the whole season then. People can go on till the cows come home about how Mackay got us relegated, but the facts are that we were clear of the bottom three when he left and yet we ended up bottom of the league - we were undoubtedly a worse side in the second half of 13/14 than we were in the first half of that season (eighteen points from the first nineteen, seventeen points from eighteen under Mackay and twelve from nineteen in the second half, eighteen under Ole).

We will never know either way, personally thought he should have gone after Villa away, we were getting worse and worse and more defensive game by game. Not sure we even had a shot at Villa and that was before all the bullying and racist evidence (allegedly?)

Personally think we made the same mistake twice on promotion and both Malky and Warnock should have been instantly replaced.

[Delbert]

Re: Andreas Cornelius

Two types of signing characterise the VT era. One is a young player with potential where the fee paid assumes he will reach that potential. The other is the journeyman pro where despite there being no competition in the market we pay full price with premium plus big wages and long contract for no apparent reason.

Cornelius is an example of the former, maybe worth a punt for a club to take for a fraction of that fee but certainly not for a promoted side to take that gamble. Josh Murphy is another.

One can only wonder how the future of the club would have been different if VT had employed a professional recruitment strategy along the lines of say Brighton or Brentford. At its nadir our expertise consisted of the transfer committee - VT, Dalman, Ken and ‘our Neil’ - supported by Neil’s pal and Chief Scout Glyn Chamberlain, Neil’s son James and the lads at Unique Sports Management plus various chancers lurking in the background like Willie McKay. With a set-up as shambolic as this sadly the club never had a chance.