BBC Wales sport page : "The Football League also published its agents' fees list with Cardiff City the biggest spenders in the Championship.The Bluebirds spent £2,828,133, with the total outlay by Championship clubs amounting to £26,124,044." Well I guess there's a few happy people some where, shame they aren't held responsible under a sales act for supplying faulty goods?
Slade started with us on 6th October 2014 so is he responsible for all that outlay or does it also cover commitments by OGS not paid for until on or after 1/10/14? If the latter, then from the haphazard way in which OGS managed and acquired players I can have some understanding while being very unhappy with the outlay. However, if the former and Slade and his transfer committee are responsible for the whole spend then that is extremely poor value for money - must have paid more to agents than in transfer fees judging by the quality of signings made - or lack of it!!! This information warrants further questioning of the club to understand the detail behind the figures.
Here's more information from WoL. It appears much of the spend goes back to Malky (what a surprise!!) and £5m is still owed. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/real-reason-cardiff-city-spent-10528527 Yet more justification, if it were needed for the dumping of Malky and Moody. VT always said more would come out of the woodwork.
Agree Bluey - with that sort of money made available to him, even Alan Durban would have kept us up.......
In fairness to big Russ, the following article suggested he has cut £12m from the wage bill. I don't know what you guys think thats a fab saving and kind of indicates the strenghth of the man when it comes to man management. I,m pretty sure that the club must have a policy on wages, Im not talking caps here but even if signed when we were in the premiership they could have taken advice from other clubs over wages. Why on earth did anyone allow such mediocre players to demand such high wages and get them?
And after promotion with Malky, we started the slippery slope down. Much of that can be attributed to the poor start in the Prem under Malky's jurisdiction. The agents' debts the club has been saddled with relate mainly to the Malky era and will have contributed to the belt tightening regime Slade has had to manage with.
Can't recall a blank cheque book when taking us up from the Championship. Can't remember too many complaining about Caulker, Medel, Katherin, Mutch, Noone, Campbell, Kim, Cowie, Bellamy etc. (I won't mention the 'C' player or the 'V' as these were exceptions. And we were never in the bottom three under Malky. People have short memories.
I believe I complained about MM quite a bit when he was in charge. We got promoted from a very weak championship. During our promotion season our last 8-10 games were relegation form. He was/is s a crap manager. Yes I was over-joyed we were promoted but I am a realist, the money he spent was shameful and his one trick pony management would have seen us relegated, irrespective that we weren't in the bottom 3 under his management.
MM was a cancer that had to be cut out of the club. If anyone cannot see that they are either blind or have no clue about business. I said at the time some of the transfers stunk to high heaven and lo and behold they did.
Some people have rose coloured specs too. He had a MASSIVE budget in the Championship and should have not needed the money he spent when we got promoted. Obviously he didn't need it. It was never about signing the best players it was all about massive back handers for him and his mate. He ripped the club off and anyone with both eyes open can see Tan did what any other owner of any business would have done. He sacked him, which is pretty standard for theft.
No whiff, but we were surely heading there. Ole managed to **** things up completely after Christmas and rightly took the flak, but there's no guarantee that Malky would have faired any better. In fact the way it was going we'd have been shouting for his and Kerslake's heads on here before much longer. Tan may have jumped the gun first because of other matters, but then made the gravest of errors in trusting Dalman's judgement on Ole. Pulis was the guy who could have saved us and he was out of work at the time - bad error. As for the players you mention (even discounting the C word debacle) only Caulker, Mutch and Campbell stayed in the Prem and can't now get a game with their current clubs. Caulker and Mutch couldn't prevent QPR going down the following season so aren't shining examples of high quality signings at that level. Medel and Kim are playing abroad, whilst the Don is playing in the lower reaches. Only Noone remains and has still to live up to that Prem season promise - at the moment he's lost the plot. I've said before the win against Man City in only our second game in the Prem came too early and set us up for a fall. Malky (and the club) couldn't replicate that and we were put on a pedestal at the time from which we could only fall. That it did and the rest is now history - what might have been never will. The discussions will no doubt continue (no problem with that) but maybe it's time to move on.................with Slade. .
Business is about success. MM brought more success to the club than any manager in our history. Despite Tans' henchmen turning Malky's Business and personal records upside down, the only thing they could find is a couple of dodgy text messages. Therefore no theft. No guarantee, obviously...but even the debacle that OGS was only missed out by a couple of points. Considering the relatively easy run in we had, I'm sure Malky would have accrued the extra points needed. But as you say Sparky, there's no guarantee, but if I was a betting man....... Again, not true. For a newly promoted club, we were doing rather well. It was only when Tan started plying silly buggers (remember stopping the players bonuses just prior to the Newcastle game) that the rot set in. I've heard of managers 'losing' the dressing room, but never an owner. Same thing has been said every year. You've still got to do it though. All transfers were sanctioned by the board & I still maintain apart from Cornelius (selling him for a pittance when we desparately needed a striker was as much of a mistake as paying so much for him) & Velinjonka (probably not MM's signing anyway) they were far from disastrous. Good enough to get promoted & hold our own in PL. Your probably right there Sparky, but to be honest there's not much to disagree about at present (we all know Slade should go, Whitts is past his best, we need a striker, Ralls should play in the centre etc.) which is why there's so little enthusiasm at the club (which is reflected on this site). Its' nice to disagree for a change!!!
I agree with that wholeheartedly ! As you say, we all know what's wrong, and what needs to happen to fix it. Tan should be watching Liverpool right now if he needs any proof the difference investing in a top quality manager can make. I understand we'd be shopping in a slightly more modest department of the manager shop than the one that contains Klopp but the point is valid. I think Slade has probably done what he is capable of, any progress will require someone better. Obviously if Macheda comes back fit Slade is irrelevant. He'll smash in 20 goals between now and May then we'll storm the league anyway, with Sparky as his number 1 cheer leader.....
His record does little to defend him against that Nin BUT he has had back surgery this time. My wife was practically crippled before hers. She couldn't walk more than a few hundred metres without suffering agonising pain. 5 months after surgery she walked the Abergavenny 3 peaks gold route with me (20 miles +). I'll be happy to write him off along with everyone else if he can't find fitness and form this time around.
Can't we send Macheda off on the 3 Peaks Gold Route - without a map, and at night, and in a blizzard? Only joking Steve!!!!
