Good, Bad or Ugly?

The unusual season continues with our customary not good but not bad start. 2 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses sums up how we have played for the last couple of seasons. Difficult to beat, but too many draws. The absence of spectators from stadia seems to have removed a lot of home advantage from games - both of our wins this season have come away from home, with 2 defeats and 2 draws at the Cardiff City Stadium. Lets hope the team can get over this, as it seems unlikely that any fans will be attending games until at least 2021.

The Transfer Window.

This has finally ended (until January), and it has been fairly successful for the club. In addition to the previous acquisitions of Keiffer Moore, Sheyi Ojo and Jordan Osei-Tutu, the club has also done a very useful piece of business in getting Liverpool player and Welsh international Harry Wilson in on a season long loan. Wilson was at Bournemouth in the Premier League last year, and at Derby County in the Championship in the season before that. His left foot has a little magic in it, and he also has a good bit of pace. He should take a little of the creative pressure off Lee Tomlin and it is always nice to have current Welsh internationals in the biggest club side in Wales (Moore, Wilson and Will Vaulks). It's a long time since we had 3 current Welsh internationals in the side.

Harry Wilson celebrates his first Cardiff City goal .

In addition to Wilson, the club also signed Phillip Benkovic on loan from Leicester City - a young and promising central defender who drew good reviews whilst on loan at Bristol City last season.

Fillip Benkovic.

CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS:

Cardiff 0 Sheffield Wednesday 2

Nottingham Forest 0 Cardiff 2

Cardiff 1 Reading 2

Preston 0 Cardiff 1

Blackburn 0 Cardiff 0

Cardiff 1 Bournemouth 1

Cardiff 1 Middlesborough 1

A slow start to the season, but I also feel that we have already played 2 of the best teams in the division already, including the only 2 teams in the league who remain unbeaten after 7 matches. Bournemouth have been better than I expected after letting go some of their better players following relegation from the Premier League. Reading are 5 points clear at the top of the table already. They have been a bit of a surprise, but were showing signs of improvement towards the end of last season. There's a long way to go in this strange season, but it is quite conceivable that they could go all the way.

The games come thick and fast, with 2 games a week over the next few weeks, Unfortunately there have been a few injuries at both left and right back for the team, but there have now been 2 complete games for youth team product Joel Bagan who has stepped up in a capable manner at left back and is likely to have a successful career in front of him. 

Joel Bagan (on loan at Notts County last season).

For what it's worth, I'm still in a fairly positive mood to suggest that we can finish in the top 6 again this season. Let's watch this space.

Here we go again!

Well, just 43 days after we completed the 2019/20 season, its time to start 2020/21! The continuing influence of the COVID-19 virus means that there still won't be fans in stadiums for a while - at the time of writing this blog it seems likely to be 2021 at the earliest. We just have to carry on with the "new normal" for the time being.

So what can we expect from the new season?

There have been 3 new signings to the club during this limited off-season so far. Welsh international Kiefer Moore has joined from Wigan to increase our attacking options. His form for Wales in two international matches last week looks encouraging, especially with him scoring the winning goal in the game in Finland. As mentioned in my last blog, Moore is a bit of a late developer but first indications are encouraging.

Jordi Osei-Tutu at Bochum

We have also signed two young players from Premier League clubs on a season long loan - Jordi Osei-Tutu from Arsenal and Sheyi Ojo from Liverpool. Osei-Tutu is a right back - an area where the club definitely needed help following the departure of Lee Peltier and Jazz Richards last season. He scored 5 goals in 21 appearances on loan at Bochum in Bundesliga 2 last season which is a pretty good scoring rate for a fullback - lets hope he can defend too!

Sheyi Ojo at Rangers last season.

Sheyi Ojo has played a dozen or so games for Liverpool over the last 4 or 5 years but has spent time out on loan at Wigan, Fulham, Wolves and last season at Rangers in Scotland. Its difficult to fully assess his ability as he is 23 now but has recently been given a new contract by Liverpool prior to his loan so presumably he is still rated there.

The transfer window extends for another 4 weeks yet so there may yet be some more comings and goings within the squad.

Kiefer Moore scores the winner for Wales against Finland.

The Big Question

Can we get promotion back to the Premier League? I would rate our chances about the same as last season - we should be good enough for a top 6 finish at least, and are capable of getting an automatic spot. Of the 3 teams relegated from the Premier League I would only think that Watford have a good chance of returning straight back to the Premier League. Both Norwich and Bournemouth have had their best players "cherry-picked" back to teams in the Premier League and must be considered as only outside chances of a top 6 spot although Norwich always seem to do it when least expected. Of the teams already in the Championship I fancy Stoke to perform better this season with a new manager in place, and from experience we shouldn't rule out what Neil Warnock might achieve at Middlesborough.

So here are my top 6 predictions for the Championship this season ( in no particular order) :-

WATFORD

CARDIFF

STOKE CITY

MIDDLESBOROUGH

BRENTFORD

NOTTINGHAM FOREST

I'm hoping that as we have been able to keep the bulk of our team together from last season while other teams have had to sell some of their better players (eg Ollie Watkins from Brentford) will give us a good chance of making the top 6. However, a lot rests on the fitness of Lee Tomlin and perhaps the club needs to find a near equivalent player to take some of the work off his increasingly injury-prone body.  

But, this is the Championship where anything can happen where almost any team can get promoted or relegated. If I had to pick a team from "left field" then Coventry City might be a team that will do unexpectedly well. Football is back!

What a Season THAT was!

I had the best of intentions last season to update this blog regularly and put lots of deep meaningful insights into the state of our Championship season. But due to a combination of health issues, holidays and the COVID-19 crisis I didn't manage to do any of this! But I refuse to give in and will do my best to keep up with things this next season, which is only just over 3 weeks away (we think).

I'm pleased to say that I successfully managed to predict 4 of the top 6 teams before the start of last season (Fulham, Brentford, West Brom and ourselves). I was a little surprised how bad Stoke were, but I think that with a new manager in place that this coming season could be their chance to get back up to the top of the division. Bristol City flattered to deceive again with a poor second half to their season, especially after the lockdown break.

Neil Harris.

Of course, we now find ourselves with a new manager following the departure of Neil Warnock last November. Many fans were underwhelmed by the appointment of former Millwall boss Neil Harris, but as the season progressed he has gradually on the fans over, and after the resumption of the season following lockdown he had clearly been able to impose his own ideas on the team and they were much improved. This means that we can look forward to the coming season with confidence.

Lee Tomlin - key to the attack.

Our final position of 5th in the Championship table was probably deserved. As we were under Neil Warnock, the side became very difficult to beat under Neil Harris, but unfortunately we were unable to turn enough drawn games into wins. Without Lee Tomlin in the team, we lacked a creative edge and couldn't give sufficient support to our strikers. Despite being at his fittest for many years having lost 2 stone in weight during last off season, Lee still suffered some knee, ankle and hamstring injuries which kept him out of the team for a while. The lockdown actually helped us from this point of view as the delayed resumption to the season meant that he was able to return to the team when he would otherwise have been out for the last 10 games of the season. But that's another season in the books and only a short break until the next one. I wonder if we'll get to go to a game this season?

Kieffer is a Bluebird

We have made our first signing of the new season - Welsh international striker Kieffer Moore has joined from Wigan. He has had a "slow burner" of a career playing at low levels in the west country until his breakthrough season with Barnsley 2 years ago.He now has a few Wales caps to his name too, and appears to be a shrewd signing. We certainly need a regular goalscorer .

Full season preview to come before opening day of 12th September 2020.