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this kind of short term thinking is what's got our squad into this messOriginally Posted by The Hooded Claw
From a playing point of view it is slightly worrying but the main information missing is wage to calculate some sort of value ratio. But if I was playing football manager most of them would be on the transfer list
If we don’t go up which is pretty certain we’ve got a year to blood in some youngsters. High risk strategy and can see a few 30 year old panic buys in 12 months time
There are other free agent right backs other than Gunter.
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/deta...suche/22686578
It’s only short term with an eye to a longer term fix, specifically at right back, where we don’t appear to have a younger option.
An older player in this position might be what we need as part of a transition to bring a younger one through, if the financials stack up.
I don’t advocate this in other positions where we at least have options for now and it doesn’t have to be Gunter.
I’m all for a younger side. It hasn’t done Chelsea any harm this season!
Bugger. There's no overall rating. I'll have to refer to Fifa now
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/deta...suche/22687180Bugger. There's no overall rating. I'll have to refer to Fifa now
That's a better list as some on the previous search were in loans expiring this season.
squad 2.jpg
I saw some people presenting this same info like this for other clubs so I've shamelessly ripped it off (badly).
Format is name, age +years remaining on contract.
Not sure about any youngsters likely to play a part but I could add them in too
I think Smithies is more likely to attract attention than Etheridge, and it's rumoured he's on much more money. Some of the 'bigger' clubs may need a decent 'keeper next season so i wouldn't be surprised if he was sold. But whichever of those two may be sold it worries me that Day would then be back up! I'd offload him asap and get a younger reserve 'keeper in. All three of our goalies are 29 years of age. We have Osei-Tutu now at right back, but he may turn out to be Arsenal's version of Cameron Coxe. No way should Bacuna have to be played there next season, so maybe Gunter is an option.
At centre back, we need to offload Bamba and Flint and bring in younger back up players. Cunningham is an expensive reserve at left back too.
Midfield is OK. But need another creative player, Tomlin will make his cameo appearances next season, starting and being good for 15 minutes or coming off the bench. Having said that he was top scorer and top of assist last season doing that.
Looks like Glatzel and Moore up front, no point relying on Vassell, so Paterson will be back up.
Ou wide Murphy, Hoilett and NML show flashes of brilliance, but Whyte is a lost cause. I would like to see some of the youngsters like Waite, Sang, Mayembe, Harris and others given a chance now and then too. We may have to as I can't see us spending any more money.
squad 2.jpg
Updated with recent outgoings...
Missing Mark Harris, and Sang but he's on loan. Looks so lightweight on paper, in particular for RB, LW/RW, CAM and ST.
I was optimistic that Cardiff maybe looking to invest in a few players this season after the purchase of Moore early on, so thought we may see some more come in around the £1-3m bracket.
But now I cannot see any investment of that kind being made especially when you take into consideration the sale of Paterson for bugger all with 2 years remaining on his contract, that price baffles me.
Perhaps City will lean heavy on the loan market and giving youth a run out this season. Personally was hoping they would go in for Cauley Woodrow, proven he can score at this level and had a successful season partnering Moore at Barnsley in League One. But any hope on that has sailed.
Not so much that they're in their 30's, when looking at the younger group of Whyte, Bacuna and Vassell I'm not sure how they got contracts that long either, but don't think their qualities add enough to the team for money they must be on or length of deal. Feels like Flint was brought in to play with Morrison until Nelson was ready but Nelson was 26/27 and really should have been ready with a pre-season only. Though I can see Pack's value, it feels as if our overall squad is too slow, too inconsistent, lacking creativity and Warnock spent a healthy budget getting us to that position despite doing so well in his first few windows.
Regarding updated depth graphic, Pack is the only one of the deeper midfielders I would describe as being a defensive player so really we have Pack for one position and Ralls, Bacuna and Vaulks for a second - it's too lopsided. Unless we're meant to play with three of them as primary formation? But then our wingers are too inconsistent to be regular threats and I'm struggling to see which is best crosser. The squad assembly seems confused and we've ended up short at RB.
The squad looks really poor at the moment Ojo and Whyte as options are poor at best, midfielders are all pretty much alike. Tomlin the only number 10, right back is weak and if Moore gets injured we are light upfront.
This is a squad that will struggle in my opinion.
I think for a playoff push we are about 4 good players short.
left back ans Centre back we are fine, could probably do with offloading Flint.
We look much weaker than last season. Ward and NML will be big misses. We need another right back, cover for Tomlin and a winger who can cross the ball. If only we had a functioning academy we wouldn't need to purchase players we'd have ready made replacements coming through.
Bacuna is 29
I think many alluded to this type of situation playing out after the decision to allow Warnock to have another crack at going for promotion last summer.
The squad at that stage required wholesale changes with essentially the spine of the team from centre back to striker requiring new faces and cover at right back and right wing.
Warnock despite only verbally committing to one season was given the option to fill in the gaps and spent over 12-13m on new recruitments. As well as the parachute payments, the sale of Zohore and Reid helped to bolster this transfer kitty, but to allow a manager who was always going to be on his way out to secure new signings on 2+ year contracts was short sighted in terms of future planning.
So with that decision to retain Warnock this was always going to shackle his replacement with a squad that was going to then take more than a season to allow whoever did replace Warnock to put their own mark on it. And the impact of covid complicates matters further, as it would appear that cost cutting has taken precedent over squad depth, unless City plan to recruit and backfill the majority of the positions vacated this summer.
Perhaps as others have stated it's time to put faith in some of the youth to get their chance plying their trade in the first team. But with only two players initially being named as part of the first team, and one of those being sent out on loan already, my optimism to the promise of decent youth prospects being given a shot in the first team is relatively low. Hope to be proven wrong by anyone who is given their shot in the first team, should it come.
A tough year of transition for Neil Harris to contend with, hopefully he can pull it off, and City at least do enough to avoid any worries of relegation battle.
When you see it on paper it's worrying. Mid table/relegation if we don't buy a few quality players.
squad 2.jpg
So this is where we've ended up.
I think most people would agree we had a pretty good transfer window in difficult circumstances. With the squad being pretty unbalanced from the previous manager.
However it's clear from the image that we will have a huge amount to do in the next 2 transfer windows, at the same time as our parachute payments will be running out.
Assuming all the loanees go back, we won't have any specialist right backs, and unless we're offering new contracts to Bennett or Cunningham (who will both be in their 30s) then we won't have any left backs either. Hopefully Joel Bagan can develop or we could be looking for 4 fullbacks next summer.
Centre backs we will have Morrisson and Flint, although it seems like it'd be sensible to offer Nelson a contract extension as he's 27. Either way we'll need more players in that position.
Centre mid we will be ok for players - albeit they will all be a year older.
On the wings we will have Murphy and Whyte so players needed there.
Attacking midfield we will have Tomlin but he'll be 32. You'd have to think we'd need another there,
Upfront we will be ok and in the GK position we are looking good fora few seasons.
We could be looking at 9 or 10 players to bring in next summer, which is a big ask.
Loan players could feature heavily again, but over the years those seem to have been more miss than hit for us.
Although I guess the argument could be made that as the parachute payments will have run out then it isn't necessarily a bad time to have a big clear out, to sign players on lower wages.
https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/news...er%20of%202023.
Nelson signed an extension til 2023 so one less to worry about.
that seems sensible.
I think the loan market is the way to go as you only pay them for one year and if we get to the Premier League and they have been a success we can probably sign them permanently. Better than spending millions on signing players on long contacts that turn out to be crap or injured as we have done in the past?
how many crap loans have we had over the years though?
It's about spending time to make sure we get the right loans and not a last minute panic. It has to be the way forward I. This climate, we can budget accordingly. And not be tied to players like Flint.
Not as many bad loans as crap long term signings, look at Warnock’s 100m on permanent signings and you only have to pay them for a year not 3-5 years if they don’t work out? Two of his few good signings were loans? Camasara and Arter?
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