With the appointment just an hour away I was thinking, Mackay liked to play a 4-2-3-1 formation at Watford. With this in mind, which players should we be looking to sign? GK : Marshall/Heaton/New GK? DF : SuperKev, Hudson, Gerrard, New LB (Keinan, Quinn & Blake as back up) MF: New MF, McPhail? MF : Whitts, New MF, New MF (Wildig? Mackay liked playing youngsters at Watford) ST : New ST (Earnie? Bellers?) I definitely think we need a strong, quick holding player. We've been linked with Emmanuel Frimpong of Arsenal so I hear....
I still believe a Parkin and Earnie partnership upfront being fed by whitts and Bellers should do the trick, but lets see what the new man has up his sleeve, it will probably be totally different to what many of us think anyway.
I have to admit I am a tad concerned with the appointment but will give Malky my 100% support. He's an up and coming new manager and has had some success with Watford. I like the fact he played youngsters but given Watford didn't seem to like spending too much money he probably had to play the youngsters! He's seen us as a step up and apparently will be given funds, how much money is anyones guess. The danger is this may stifle rather than enable him. We punched above our weight last season and the majority of the team have now gone, so welcome aboard Malky and good luck in getting the team together for the promised push to the premiership.
I think it is a good thing that we have lost allot of players. Most managers would love an opportunity to come in and bring in a large number of their own buys straight from the start. To often managers have to have a year or 2 to build their own squad /team MM will have a massive head start in changing what’s left into his team straight from the off. Plus lets not forget weather we supported the players we have lost or think they were a waste of space (for the record I supported most) they simple weren’t good enough to get us up in the end so why would we want them now anyway!!
I just hope he buys sensibly and doesnt jump on the 'spend as much money as I can on 11 players who are guaranteed to get me into the top 4' bandwagon, because unfortunately, when the chips are down and the going gets tough, as the last few seasons have shown, for a lot of those players cardiff will be a stepping stone, and they won't fight till the death to achieve our goal. Look no further than the allegations of players getting p****d a few days before a crucial promotion decider for evidence of the never say die, get promoted or die trying attitudes of some of our superstars last season. We need a team, not a group of individuals, and as long as I see evidence of planning for the future and building a team greater than its parts who want more than anything to get promoted together, Id be quite happy this season with championship mid table consolidation.
He didn't strike me as someone who would jump on that particular bandwagon SFA. Granted he hasn't been in that position so far as a manager but I'm just going on what I saw yesterday. He seems to have an idea of what we need depending on what budget he gets so will be interesting to see what the Malaysians come up with. His "leave your ego's at the door" comment sat very well with me though. Just wish we had that same mindset last year. But hey, that's history now.
Completely agree H Bomb, that comment went down very well with me. And he seems like a very level headed guy who does have the right mind set. The biggest fear for me is impatience on our part adn the part of the press. If undue pressure is put on him, will he be strong, stick to his guns and continue trying to build from grass roots up, and will the owners have the patience to allow that to happen? Or will he revert back to cardiff type. Only the next season or two will tell us, but I personally will be backing him all the way!
I reckon we need a new LB (Andrew Taylor from Boro maybe? Malky had him on loan last year and I've heard he's a good player). We need 2 or 3 new centre mids, I reckon we need about 5 in total so: Mcphail, Wildig (he deserves a shot in the first team), I'd push Whittingham back out wide and that leaves 3 more places to fill. We need a ball-winning midfielder and someone who can actually make a tackle, Lee Bowyer maybe? I know he's an absolute k**b head but he's what we've been lacking in the past few years, if we could get him on reasonable wages then I think he'd be a cracking addition. I've seen on the Watford board that they expect Don Cowie to join us as well, I haven't heard much of him but the Watford fans seem to rate him so he could prove to be another good signing. I've also seen that Reo-Cokers been released from Villa, I didn't rate him at all in the premiership but I think if we could get him on sensible wages then he could turn out to be the real driving force in our midfield. We lost three wingers at the end of last season and this is an area that really needs sorting. I think we need about four wide men and we already have Whittingham. IF (and it's a huge if) we get Bellamy back then there's no doubt in my mind that he can still tear championship defences apart from out wide. Craig Conway is another name I've seen mentioned and as he's played UEFA cup football with Dundee utd and has represented Scotland, there must be something too him (maybe another Burke or even better?). I think we should then look for loan signings as Malky apparently has good links with Sir Alex and Wenger, maybe we could get Lansbury on loan?. And as for the strikers I'd say we need 4 to be competetive again. So, we have Parkin and that leaves 3 more spaces. IF we cn get Bellamy back then he could play either up-front or out wide. It might also be worth Malky putting a bid in for Sordell from Watford? anyone else remember him along with Buckley terrorising us all game at the CCS? I've seen that Kevin Phillips has been released from Birmingham, he might still be worth a put for a year at championship level. Oh ye how did I forget... EARNSHAW
