Quote Originally Posted by dml1954 View Post
Not quite correct - quote from Wikipedia - ‘On 2 September 2009 Ledley was offered a new four-year contract by Cardiff City, which was later rejected.’ The offers from Stoke were received during the previous season and turned down. West Ham and Hull were interested during 2009/2010 but offers were refused. Seems to me the club did quite a bit to try to keep him but he wanted to play at a higher level, which is fair enough. However, the problem came when he signed for Celtic, as that was the only option where City would not get any fee. Quite why he wanted to play in Scotland, when he could have gone into the Premier League with a number of clubs, is the mystery. It can only have been for the money but that option gave his home town club nothing. From City’s point of view and his own footballing career he probably made the wrong choice and that is what is a bit difficult to take. No doubt the money was nice though.
Didnt the story go that he was upset with the contract offer because is was quite low. Especially at the time where Cardiff were paying Robbie Fowler such a high salary. Ledley was captain of the club and making a far greater contribution than Fowler.

The club were gambling in getting a high level of compensation for Ledley and a move to the premier league seemed on the cards

However the premier league clubs interested also felt that a high compensation case was likely and didnt makes/removed their offers, Celtic was the only option left of the table, which left no compensation was due to the club.