Once upon a time, the PFA Awards were the undisputed measure of a season’s most valuable players. Voted for by the Professionals themselves, the response to their announcement was one of awed hush and consent – how could mere onlookers presume to know better than those involved in the rough and tumble of the actual sport? But the saccharin, sentimental and simply silly award of the 2009 Players’ Player award to Ryan Giggs changed all that. In one fell swoop, footballers were shown to be as susceptible to a bit of old fashioned press lobbying as the rest of us….
All posts tagged Cardiff
The Monday Profile: Joe Mason
Unless some misguided King is willing to pay your club say, £35m for the inconvenience, then losing an upwardly mobile, home-grown striker would usually trigger outrage amongst supporters. Yet, when Plymouth Argyle flogged 20 year-old Joe Mason to Cardiff for a cut-price £150,000 last summer, there was hardly a murmur from Devonians worldwide. That said a lot more about the severity of Argyle’s financial plight than Mason’s potential. Many had hoped that a new team would be built around the Mason family’s third attempt at producing a professional footballer – Joe’s older brothers Anthony and Dennis having failed to make…
Trading Places: Time to Reform the Football League’s Loan System?
To look closely at the associated regulations is to acknowledge the Football League’s existing loan system as nothing less than a free for all. ‘Temporary loan transfer’ is the umbrella heading which comprises the following three types of move permissible under the current system: • ‘Standard Loans’ (half or full season in length and arranged during the two transfer windows); • ‘Emergency Loans’ (28-93 days in length and arranged both within the two transfer windows and during fixed periods outside these dates); • ‘Youth Loans’ (identical to ‘Emergency Loans’ but applies to scholars or new professionals on a work experience-type…
The Thursday Preview: Cardiff Vs Middlesbrough
It has been a while since we previewed a Championship game, instead focusing on the no less riveting events further down the ladder. But which to choose? Two of last year’s big-hitters, Leeds and Reading, meet at Elland Road this weekend, but neither have done much to grab the attention so far this term. Meanwhile, events off the field would overshadow any assessment of Sunday’s Solent derby between Portsmouth and Southampton. No, the weekend’s most intriguing XI vs XI should take place at Cardiff City Stadium, between the eponymous hosts – in third place before kick-off – and fourth-placed Middlesbrough….
The Monday Profile: Filip Kiss
If Cardiff City’s line up for their 2-1 victory at Reading at the weekend was shorn of the strutters that were on show at the time of their last visit to the Madejski Stadium during last May’s play offs, the XI still had a familiar ring to it.Refreshingly, the club – and Malky Mackay in particular – have done a lot to win friends among supporters of opposing teams over the past half year. Gone are the players we always suspected they could not properly afford given the organization’s financial travails – Jay Bothroyd, Michael Chopra and high profile loanees such as…
James: Are the wealthy middle classes really the ones to back a football team...
Lanterne Rouge: Garath McCleary on signing for Reading today:
"It's amazing to be a...
Lloyd: On the Oxford / Reading thing, Lanterne, you write that "there is no c...
Ben: Yes, it does loom a bit, doesn't it? Moxey's comments on the ground re...
