Home grown players would be:- Bellamy Maynard Cambell Mason Smith Harris Ralls Whittingham Noone Brayford Hudson Caulker Turner Connolly Nugent Lewis Moore We got plenty of home grown players! And that's just off the top of my head,
Kiss, Velikonja, Lappin I reckon are deffo non-starters. All the rest can be counted in so far because of the 21 rule. As others come in I think you have to start looking at Smith Harris and
A couple of other useful youngsters like Healey and Coulson not in that list and there are probably more. Harris was only 20 in June so he stays although Championship/Div 1 loan experience wouldn't do any harm if he is not going to get in the main 18. Malky seems to like Smith - started yesterday - so I'm not sure if he would discard him yet.
I don't think Smithy has any chance of missing out this season - Malky rates him highly for his attitude and experience. Another couple coming in would shake up the pack though - Kiss, Lappin and even Conway look vulnerable to me.
Smith is also one of those players that can cover a number of positions in midfield or just behind the striker. We have a fow of those with Bellamy, Kim, Mason, Conway and possibly FC and Maynard. As you say Sparkey, Conway looks the most vulnerable of those. An out and out left wing should see us there or there abouts. If we can stay up this season I can see some churn in the squad next year. I suppose it would be the same if we went down but for different reasons.
Cardiff have the most English players in their team of any of the Premier League teams - 16! Don't know about Conway, for what he lacks in creativity and pace he more than makes up for in defensive work. Could see him playing a part especially away from home. The same goes for Cowie.
Jefferson Montero who is one of the 'irons in the fire' I believe. I think Conway and Cowie will make the 25.
With the emergance of Declan John and with Kev able to play both sides I don't know we'll look at another FB. Certainly a left wing, possibly another right wing. If there are other signings above that we'll be needing to move players on.
I think Malky originally said after signing Cornelius we didn't need another striker but I saw something last week that contradicted that and that he was still on the look out. Hence the speculation last week about Odemwinge. ccfc you are right about another winger - there was speculation about an Ecuadorian last week, Montero, as mentioned above. We appear to have enough full backs but is the quality high enough for the Prem? At centre back we have Caulker, Turner and Hudson with Connolly also able to play there and Nugent out on loan. Is that enough or are we still in for the one who was mentioned 2 or 3 weeks ago, Hector Moreno, Mexican from Espanyol?
With Nugent out on loan Turner is the only left footed CB we have. Not sure what the recall is and he's only loaned him out until January. You are right about the quality of full backs and the same could be said about the midfield beyond first choice. You can't change everything overnight and if we are in the PL next season you can imagine more new faces to compliment this year's signings. Year on year MM has increased the quality of what we have and you can't expect that to stop. You have to think that Cowie, Conway and Smith are padding for the squad. Bellamy on the left and Noone are probably the two genuine wide men though Smith Conway and Mason will do a job but don't give the same width. Started to get excited now.
Me too but in a very nervous way. A draw would be good to kick us off next Saturday. That will ensure CCS is bouncing when Man City visit. Then I will know we are really there.
We look very 'championship' at full back despite the additions. If a totally untested 18 year old is our 2nd choice Lb we're pretty tight imo. Surely the money is going to have some kind of limit? We're at 30mill with a winger to come. I was really surprised to see Kev given another year tbh. He struggled at championship level last year, having said that high quality wingers seem to bring the best out of him for some reason and he has been fantastic for us in the past.
Aguero will get a warm welcome from Medel. Pity Tevez isn't still there. There is nervousness undelying my excitement too. Hope Belamy plays on Saturday. What a thrill for him to walk out in the first PL game for us. Talk about dreams come true. I've got us down to beat WH 2-1. First few games of the season adrenaline will up our performances, though there are a few tough games in the first few weeks (not that any of them will be easy). I also expect a raucous CCS for the first home game. With Man City having a new manager and a change in players, early is the time to play them and we may sneak a point. To be honest though, you look down the fixture list and wonder where the hell 40 points are going to come from.
It will be interesting to see how Malky deploys El Pitbull particularly against teams who have "star" attacking players, bearing in mind his little romps with Messi. I am particularly looking forward to him showing Taarabt the first couple of rows of seating when we play Fulham. Mind you, from the video clips I have seen, Medel is more than capable of scoring some cracking goals himself. Perhaps the opposition will need to man mark him?
