First of all, apologies for the fact that this so called weekly update is the first one I’ve managed for about a month! My excuses are, first, there has been the not inconsiderable distraction of Wales in the Euro Finals and, second, that I think that this close season so far has seen what is a record number of players linked with us when compared to other summers since this blog started.
So many of the stories linking us with different players have had an air of we’re desperate for hits on our website to them – for example, despite having signed a striker almost as soon as the 20/21 campaign ended in James Collins, that hasn’t stopped various media outlets mentioning us as a possible destination for almost any striker that has attracted interest from a Championship club.
Now, perhaps someone knows something about Keiffer Moore’s future that City fans don’t, but, although it must be accepted that our top scorer could do something for Wales during the Euros that gets the sort of club we could not turn down interested in him, I hope and believe that the intention is definitely to try and keep hold of him for the coming season, hence why so many of the stories seen in recent weeks seem to be pie in the sky to me.
However, among all of the far fetched stuff, there does appear the occasional story which seems to have a ring of truth to it to me and one of those came to fruition this week as, with the end of the month which sees contracts run out getting closer, City made two signings with the strong likelihood that there will be another one soon. One of the new arrivals definitely fell into that ring of truth category I mentioned earlier and I’ll come to that shortly.
First, though some words about a player who has left us for a fee in the last few days. In some cases, I don’t want to hear about players leaving us for a fee (I’ve already mentioned one such example in Keiffer Moore), but there are plenty within our squad who I wouldn’t mind seeing leave, especially if we could get some money for them – even if in this case, what we’re reported to be getting for him represents a small fraction of what we supposedly paid for him.
A confirmation appeared yesterday of something that had been reported the previous day – Robert Glatzel has returned to Bundesliga 2 to sign for SV Hamburg who have paid what has been reported as just over £400,000 for him.
I have mixed feelings over this, because for nearly all of his two seasons with us, I thought Glatzel had it in him to be an effective striker and consistent scorer at this level, but, on reflection, it seems to me that he had trouble adapting to the Championship’s physicality and, rather like Kenneth Zohore before him, City treated him as a target man pure and simple when his real strengths lay in other directions.
I changed my mind to an extend about Glatzel when he was given three weeks or so to make an impact during December/early January following Keiffer Moore’s hamstring injury picked up against the jacks. Glatzel was unlucky in some respects that this period was our least successful of the season and ended up costing Neil Harris his job, but Glatzel had to take his share of responsibility for that because he was unable to impose himself on matches in the manner that Moore had made a habit of doing.
Glatzel’s new club is one that I’m not keen on (the 1967/68 Cup Winners’ Cup Semi Final being responsible for that!) and I’ve enjoyed the fact that a club which, historically, is a giant of the German game has had such problems securing the promotion it must have thought was inevitable when it first dropped into the second tier in that country.
I make it that 21/22 will be Hamburg’s fourth consecutive season in Germany’s equivalent of the Championship – because of their size, they are something of a target for the other clubs in that league and they do seem good in finding ways to miss out on the promotion they must so desperately want. However, it has to be seen as a great move and opportunity for Glatzel because he’ll be playing in front of very big crowds in all of his home games and he could be a real fans favourite if he can score the goals to make this the season the club return to what they must believe is their rightful home – I wish him well because he seemed a decent bloke who tried to fully integrate into the Welsh way of life.
As for the three players who have come in or are coming in, I’ll start with the one that there hasn’t been official confirmation about yet. Rohan Luthra is a nineteen year old goalkeeper who was released by Crystal Palace at the end of last season. Luthra has played for England at Under 19 level and it was reported a few days ago that he will be joining us. If Luthra’s arrival is confirmed, then you do wonder if it might mean that one of the two senior keepers at the club (almost certainly Alex Smithies given his contract situation and alleged wages I’d say) may be allowed to leave. With Joe Day already having gone and finances tighter than they have been for some time, I wonder if there is some thought being given to having George Ratcliffe as back up keeper at the club with Luthra being third choice?
Slough born centreback Mark McGuiness is an Irish Republic Under 21 international who has signed a three year contract with City on a free transfer following Arsenal’s decision to release him despite him still having a season left on his deal with them. McGuiness played in a pre season friendly for Arsenal at MK Dons last year where he scored one of the goals in a 4-1 win after being brought on as a substitute and the impression he created that day is probably a reason why some Arsenal fans expressed surprise at the fact that they were prepared to let him move on and also that he would do so for nothing.
Fan reviews at Ipswich, where he spent last season on loan making twenty five appearances in all while scoring once, were more mixed with some saying that he had promise and was pretty good at playing out from the back and others remarking that he was someone who always had a mistake in him. At twenty years old, it’s hard to know if McGuiness has been signed as a “project” or whether Mick McCarthy sees him as someone who will come straight in to the first team squad- if I had to guess, I’d say he’ll start off with the Under 23s once the competitive stuff begins, but it may well be that it won’t take him long in becoming a bit like, say, Joel Bagan or Mark Harris in that he’ll spend more time with the seniors than the Under 23s.
At twenty four, Ryan Wintle, who has signed on a three year deal following his departure from Crewe when his contract ran out, is definitely going to be a part of our first team squad. Wintle is like his former Crewe club mate, Perry Ng, in that he has plenty of experience from playing for them in the lower leagues, having won a promotion from League Two in 19/20. This was the deal which had the ring of truth to it I mentioned earlier and I’ve said before that, although I shouldn’t really make such sweeping generalisations, the fact that the midfielder we’ve brought in plays for a club like Crewe has to be a good sign.
When looking at the response of Crewe fans, it seems universally positive, Wintle, who plays primarily as a defensive midfielder but has filled in an as an emergency centreback at times, was tracked by quite a few Championship clubs and the general view of those who have seen a lot of him since signing for Crewe as an eighteen year old is that he should be able to handle the step up in standards.
There have also been some announcements about pre season fixtures. Clearly, the pandemic means that the sort of opponents teams can play against is limited and this is reflected rather in the first team matches confirmed so far. On Saturday 17 July, we’re playing Cambridge United, newly promoted to League One, at home, we then go to Forest Green on Tuesday 20th, before another home match, against Exeter, on Saturday 24th. The two home games will be played at Leckwith behind closed doors, but it is hoped that they will be streamed for supporters to watch.
With the season starting on 7 August, there is still room for two more fixture announcements I’d reckon and you’d like to think that with restrictions on spectators easing and trial events (for example cricket at Sophia Gardens) taking place in Wales now, that there would be one game played at Cardiff City Stadium before the start of the competitive stuff.
Given the games arranged already, it follows that a return to work for the players is not far away and there’s been confirmation this week that pre season training will begin in earnest on Monday.
Earlier today, the Championship fixtures for this season were announced. City begin with what looks to be a testing home fixture against the division’s surprise team last season, Barnsley, before visits to newly promoted Blackpool and Peterborough and then August will be rounded off with successive Saturday home matches against the wurzels and Millwall.
With Barnsley in the process of losing their manager to West Brom it seems (what are the odds on their best player, the out of contract Alex Mowatt, following him I wonder?) it may be a much changed Yorkshire side that we face, so, even though we always lose at Peterborough and any game with Millwall these days should be treated as a banker draw, it could have been a more demanding first month for us – the full list of games can be seen here
Finally, a few words about Wales. As I expected and feared, we will be playing Denmark in the round of the last sixteen after they thumped Russia 4-1 in Copenhagen on Monday. Belgium’s 2-0 win over Finland enabled the Danes to finish second in their group despite them losing their first two matches, therefore, we will be playing in Amsterdam this Saturday at 5 o clock trying to maintain Wales’ record of always reaching the Quarter Finals of the major competitions they’ve qualified for.
When you consider that we’ll be playing against the country which seems to have become everyone’s second favourite side since what happened to Christian Eriksen, that Welsh fans are not allowed to travel to the Netherlands and that Danish fans have been given a twelve hour dispensation to travel to their near neighbours for the match, it’s not for nothing that I said in my piece on the Italy match that I’d be “very pleasantly surprised” if we were able to beat the Danes.
However, I take some heart from a comment I made in my piece on the Turkey win when I said that “strange and magical things can happen” to Wales when we play in this competition and who’s to say that they can’t do so again?