Just had a very worrying message from my brother, who as some of you know is big buddies with one of the City heirarchy (slaughter me if you want, but you are getting it as I did, and this source has proved reliable in the past, so make your own minds up) A guest at CCS last night was Ralf Rangnick the Schalke 04 manager, now what is he doing in Cardiff when his side has a European fixture in Helsinki on Thursday? Well the Bundesliga club are not mega cash rich, but not skint either, and are looking for a midfield playmaker, Schalke are not likely to make the £30 million + bids that are needed to land the established internationals, but are still quite big players in the general scheme of things. There was good news and bad news, Whitts was the player he was interested in the club have already stated that PW is not for sale, and they want to build the team around him, you can forget Whitts going to a championship rival at any price is the stance being taken by the club, however if he was going abroad or into the premiership, then every player has his price. The fact that Ralf Rangnick was in Cardiff on the eve of a European tie in Finland, shows pretty serious intent, the board have already said that any transfer fees received for players would be available for squad strengthening, which means they haven't ruled out selling entirely, the club no longer HAVE to sell, but like any club will sell if the price is right. So should Schalke come in with a decent bid, how much would that test the clubs resolve? Would it go from "PW is not for sale" to " The price was right and it is a wonderful opportunity for the player, and the club felt it would be unfair to stand in his way" or some other self serving platitudes, I don't KNOW any figures, but the whisper is anything above £6 million would test the clubs resolve severely, and this is well within Schalkes price range...............as I say I hope I'm wrong, and can't find anything about this anywhere else, but the strong rumour is that Schalke will be making a bid, they have other irons in the fire and Witts is not the only player they are sniffing around, will they meet the clubs valuation, or decide to spend their Euros elsewhere? I certainly hope so spend elsewhere I mean.
£6m is a massive amount but I think anything over £3m would get the ball rolling tbh. I very much doubt whether he is good enough to play for a team like schalke who didn't do well last season domestically and lost neuer but are usually in the top 6 of a very competitive European league. Whittingham is good, but not a £6m player until he has proven he can be effective at a higher level than the championship.
Swamp I tend to agree, I'd rather keep Whitts than have £3 million in the transfer kitty tbh, but if they start talking about £5m, and the money WILL be used for transfers, then it would be tempting, however, unless we get a "silly money" bid at this level £5m+ imo, it's important that we hang on to our more influential players, if only as a statement of intent if nothing else. Players (as well as being mercenary) are ambitious, and it can be hard to attract players of the calibre we need to kick on to the next level, if we have a reputation as a selling club, it would appear we have finally lost this tag after many years of being raped by the likes of Birmingham and West Ham, clubs who along with the likes of Leicester, and last nights opponents Brighton are our championship rivals and the clubs we need to be competing with in the transfer market to kick on to the next level, the club have invested a lot of cash in the academy, which is finally starting to pay dividends, if we are developing these youngsters and they are good enough, then we need to show we are going to hang on to them.........selling the likes of Whitts "on the cheap" would send out all the wrong signals..................with this lot in charge I doubt if we would have sold Rambo for £5m, no doubt Arsenal would have got him if determined enough, lets not kid ourselves, but we are finally in the position to set the price. Arsenal paid £5m for Rambo, because they knew that other premiership clubs were sniffing around him, and because they knew CCFC were in dire straits financially. I honestly believe this lot would have set a price ( £8m ?) take it or leave it for Rambo, after all it was what Southampton did with Bale, they were in a position to turn down £7 and then £8m for him, and hung on until Spurs matched their valuation, and I believe it was most of the money up front, and not a promise of "jam tomorrow". I honestly believe that we are now in this position, but it won't do us any good unless other clubs are aware of this,,,,,,,,,selling Whitts, unless the club get the price THEY value him at would send out the wrong signals, and the vultures would gather once again. We need to say that X,Y, or Z are OUR players, hands off, if potential suitors are persistent, well quote them a high price, if they are prepared to pay it, well fair enough, if not they should be shown the door smartish. Mind you this might all be academic, lets see if Schalke come up with a bid
Proph. We will have to see if this rumour has legs but every player has their price. Personally I think Whitts is playing his best football for us at the moment and I would be sorry to see him go but if we had an offer we couldn't refuse there would be money there hopefully to strengthen the squad.
I think it's Been the best aspect of Malaysian ownership tbh - the fact that we've by and large held on to our best players since they've been here or at the very least well hopefully be in the position to dictate the transfer fees received for players. I agree that it's not just the money that's important but the signal that selling whitts would send to the rest of the squad. I think the days of premier league clubs paying £5m or even more for unproven players in the championship are gone, apart from young ones with potential. so our best bet of getting a high fee would be to sell to Leicester.
Dear Mr Rangnick, In these tough financial times, you would be better advised to spend your £6+m elsewhere. Peter Whittingham is, at best, a squad player who rarely gives more than 70/75%...when selected. The reason he is still with us is that nobody else wants him and he is clearly just happy picking up his wages. His ball control can only be described as woeful, his distribution is shocking and I can't tell you the number of times I've nearly had an eye out by one of his pitiful 'attempts' to hit the target. As one of the senior players at our club, his inadequacy to influence our new, younger squad members this season has already been highlighted, even at this early stage. Please don't be swayed by the above opinions of this "player". As admirable as they are, they are simply blinded by their love of our club. However, we do have an excellent left back at the club who I'm sure would interest you, by the name of Naylor. His versatility needs to be seen to be believed and whether he plays in defense, midfield or up front, he invariably puts in a MOM performance. Unfortunately, he didn't play last night as his services off the pitch have become invaluable in bringing through our Academy players so he has graciously past the left back birth onto a reasonably adequate replacement. I'm sorry you had a wasted journey to the CCS and I hope you can (s)chalk it down to experience. regards, Fu bonbu
I like whitts very much and i have said before that he has quality. i think he is worth £5 million of anybodies money...It would be a shame if you did lose him but yes to a premiership club an no to go abroad. I hope he stays with you guys and he has a good season that his value will increase by the end of the season...
H I know that Mr Rangnick is in Finland today, but I will endeavour to get the E mail address of Schalke 04, so you can forward this to them, I'm sure he would appreciate the inside info from someone who obviously watches the team regularly, after all how can you judge a player on just one sighting, Mr Rangnick could do his club a favour AND save them some cash, it wouldn't be fair to stand in Naylor's way and deny him this opportunity, we would have to just stand back and watch whilst Schalke stole him from us at around £2 - £3m, I dare say we could live with it
H I know that Mr Rangnick is in Finland today, but I will endeavour to get the E mail address of Schalke 04, so you can forward this to them, I'm sure he would appreciate the inside info from someone who obviously watches the team regularly, after all how can you judge a player on just one sighting, Mr Rangnick could do his club a favour AND save them some cash, it wouldn't be fair to stand in Naylor's way and deny him this opportunity, we would have to just stand back and watch whilst Schalke stole him from us at around £2 - £3m, I dare say we could live with it
Would Whittingham want to leave the UK though? His girlfriend was one of the factors as to why he didn't want to leave cardiff and signed a new deal. Although the chance of european football and a nice wage, will he settle?
It hardly matters as players who left did not win us promotion, last night we needed him to dictate things but Brighton had the run of the place. We had hard working players for the first two games but were slack last night...this was a home game and if we had CMS we would have won. If we had swapped Whitts for him we would have won. I like Whitts but he needs to control the game so it actually makes a difference.
A problem with MM's signings is they work hard, but do not have much flair. Whitts is the only player on our books with creative flair. Very tough to replace him when we probably need 2 more creative players and 2 more defenders.... and a tall forward.
I think that is harsh. I thought Whitts had a good game last night, better than most of the other players. As you said, the performance wasn't all there and Whitts can't help it too much if the other players are having a bad night. I think our fitness and teamwork isn't there yet but that will come after a few more games
Like a lot of people I think that Whitts is being played too deep, hitting good passes for the front runners through the channels is Whitts forte, but it's unreasonable to expect just about any player to hit sixty yard passes along the ground time and time again, play Whitts further forward, and let him hit 15 - 20yd passes to feet, if we are expecting players to knock the ball up to front players from 60+ yards, then they are going to be in the air, so a big man up front is what we need IMO if we are going to play that way, when Gunnar is back and fit, we can push Whitts forward and play the "Malky Way", whilst Whitts is being played so deep, then we need a big man/small man combination, and Gestede gets my nod over Parkin, Miller or Earnie (preferably Earnie) coming off the bench to run at defenders in the last twenty minutes could wreak havoc......still I'm sure that MM won't be happy with what he saw the other night, and I expect changes for our visit to Turf Moor
H A P.S. to your letter: - By the way we also have an excellent centre forward by the name of Jon Parkin who is one of the most mobile and free scoring players in the Championship. I am sure he would do well in the Bundesliga. I don't know if you are familiar with the BOGOF concept in Germany but if you pay the asking price for Naylor, £2m to £3m then we will throw in Parkin as a BOGOF - Buy one, get one free. Simples!!!
Another view of Wednesday is that Mason was exposed, not Whitts. Against Brizzle two 'light weights' in midfield was OK. Whitts probably missed Gunnarson along side him. In season's past it's been a failing. We get swamped in midfield and don't win the second ball. Whitts needs some grunt along side to allow him to do his job. Not a major criticism, just a lesson learned. MM is learning about his players as the players are learning about his style. Most of us have been saying it would take 10 games to bed in. We got seduced by our flying start. Proph got his wish and we got our loss out of the way. It will only be a bad 3 points to lose if we don't learn from it. To the main point of the thread, I wouldn't want Whitts to go, but if it means we can bring in three £1-2M signings (value, not just expensive) by his departure, so be it. Which ever way you look at it, it was £300k well spent by DJ.
