This was confirmed in a letter dated 18 May from the Council to the club's auditors which said;-
"Further to your email please take this letter as confirmation from Cardiff Council that the Leckwith Development Agreement went unconditional on Friday 4th May 2007."
This news did not attract too much attention because it was generally thought to be just a rubber stamping exercise, but, in this extraordinary season, nothing was ever that straightforward and this information became a central plank in a legal case brought against the club which still threatens to cast a shadow over what is looking to be a brighter future all around for Cardiff City.
Around this time Peter Ridsdale took to assuring supporters that our days of having to sell players were now over - we may sell in the future, but it would be under our terms. Given this news, it seemed strange that our manager and chairman chose to start giving us regular bulletins right through to his eventual sale in July saying that we had not yet received any bids for Michael Chopra! .
Next up on the playing side was the list of players not retained and there was absolutely no way that Chopra was going to feature here!. In a way, it was a surprise to see so many of the side that reached the quarter final of the FA Youth Cup released, but, when you consider that by the end of this season Blake, Gunter, Ramsey and Brown had all played first team football for City, then that's not a bad return at all from that crop of youngsters. Also leaving were three players who the club must have had high hopes for just a year or two earlier - Jamal Easter, Curtis McDonald and Joe Jacobson had all played a fair bit of league football while on loan at other clubs, but could only muster two substitute appearances in the league for City between the three of them. As it turned out, out of the ten or twelve youngsters released at the end of the season only Joe Jacobson perhaps has made City regret their decision - he has been a regular in the Bristol Rovers side after signing for them last summer, is captain of the successful Wales Under 21 team and has just been called up to the national senior squad.
Amongst the more senior players, Kevin Campbell retired with many City fans believing he had made that decision a year too late, Luigi Glombard was released after making very little impact at Ninian Park and the same could be said of Andrea Ferretti who returned to Italy while Kerrea Gilbert, Iwan Redan and Simon Walton all returned to their clubs after loan spells which could hardly be termed successful.
If all of this was fairly predictable, the transfer listing of Steve Thompson was not. Thommo had provoked much discussion on message boards and in the press - there was much in his game to be commended, but, in the end, six goals from forty three appearances was just not good enough and, at the time, it appeared that the Scottish International striker had played his last match for the club.
The transfer listing of Thommo may have divided opinions, but it has to be said that the decision not to offer Neil Alexander a new contract was met with almost universal condemnation. The popular Alexander had spent six seasons at Ninian Park and had fought his way back to finally gain International caps after a rough spell that had seen him demoted to third choice keeper at the club. Once he had got his place back half way through the 2004/05 campaign, Alexander had held on to the number one shirt and had become a good quality Championship keeper - it was hard to avoid the suspicion that there was more to his departure than just footballing grounds.
The decision to let Alexander go looked worse and worse as the new season wore on . While Alexander was featuring week in week out for an Ipswich side near the top of the table (and saving penalties galore in the process!), City were struggling to replace him as no less than six keepers featured in match day squads throughout the campaign and there must have been embarrassment in January at Ninian Park when Rangers moved in to sign the player we let go for nothing for £500,000!
Before leaving the subject of players departing the club, I should briefly mention that Chris Barker was freed after his loan spell with Colchester and joined QPR, while Willo Flood was going to play no part in the upcoming campaign because he had gone out on a season long loan contract with Scottish Premiership side Dundee United.
As far as players coming in were concerned, the signing of Plymouth's Tony Capaldi on a Bosman transfer was confirmed in late May. Although he had been born in Norway, Capaldi was a Northern Irish international who had played mostly as a left midfielder for his former club. Capaldi, who was going to be used as a left back by City, had spent the best part of four seasons at Home Park and the fact that the last three of them had been at Championship level and that Sunderland had, apparently, been willing to pay £200,000 for him a few months earlier appeared to indicate that we had signed a decent quality player.
The next few weeks brought much in the way of speculation, but nothing in the way of new players until a couple of them turned up at the same time in late June! Once again, there was no fee involved for either player with central midfielder Gavin Rae arriving on a free from Rangers and striker Steve MacLean from Sheffield Wednesday on a Bosman. A few weeks earlier, Peter Ridsdale had denied newspaper speculation linking Rae with Cardiff and it appeared as if he was going to sign for Norwich, so the announcement that the ten times capped Scotsman was coming here came as a shock. To be honest, the signing of Rae didn't impress me too much because I had misgivings about his fitness - he had missed the whole of the 2004/05 campaign and had not featured much the following year either, but, despite this, Rangers were, apparently, prepared to offer him a new one year contract. As it turned out, Rae made me look a mug by playing the whole season and I would now rate him as the best of our summer 2007 signings.
If the disappointment expressed by Sheffield Wednesday fans at the departure of MacLean was anything to go by, it looked like we had got ourselves a bargain. Although he had spent much of the previous season on the bench at Hillsborough, MacLean had a record of scoring almost a goal every other game during his career and, if fans at his old club were to be believed, it appeared that he was particularly good at bringing other players into the game - worryingly though, the Wednesday fans were saying just what the Plymouth fans had said about Capaldi, he had no pace!
Although MacLean had cost us nothing in terms of a transfer fee, it soon became obvious that we had made him an offer that Sheffield Wednesday just could not match and with rumours around that Capaldi had also received a substantial pay increase from what he was getting at Plymouth, it appeared that we were going back down the road taken by Sam Hammam of paying bigger than average wages for our new players - over the coming weeks this suspicion was to turn into fact with a vengeance!
City players returned for pre season training on 29 June and it was around this time that stories about our interest in Robbie Fowler began to surface - apparently Dave Jones had bumped into the player Liverpool fans call "God" whilst on holiday in Florida and things developed from there with both sides again speaking later during a Charity golf day at Chepstow. I must admit that I did not believe the rumours at all at the time, but they would not go away with it even being reported that City's plan was to go for a Fowler/Chopra strike partnership for the new season!
Whilst supporters and the media love to speculate about the signing of strikers, in City's case the real priority had to be a goalkeeper as we only had the one senior keeper, David Forde, on the books. Speculation centred on us bringing in a young Premiership keeper on loan for the season (not for the first time, the name Scott Carson was mentioned - frankly, it was less credible than it had been first time around!) . Names like Richard Wright were also mentioned, but no one "in the know" seemed to have come up with Michael Oakes who joined on a one year deal following his release by Wolves. Thirty three year old Oakes had a wealth of Premiership experience behind him, but, significantly, had not played a single senior game during the previous season - I just hoped that he had been signed up as a back up to the keeper who was meant to replace Neil Alexander.
City started their pre season programme just as they had done the previous season with simultaneous games at Carmarthen and Merthyr. All three of the new players were in action at Carmarthen where the home team came out on top by 1-0 but at least there was no repeat of the previous years defeat at Merthyr by the same score as City overcame a rusty looking first half display to win 2-0 with the half time introduction of 16 year old Aaron Ramsey having much to do with the improvement after the break.
Both goals were scored by Michael Chopra and very of few those City fans present that afternoon would have realised that they were watching his final appearance for the club, but, in a deal which took very little time to complete once news of it had leaked out, our leading scorer was sold to newly promoted Premiership team Sunderland for a club record £5,000,000.
By selling Chopra City had continued the policy of the three previous summers of cashing in on their most saleable assets. Whilst this policy might be frustrating and made any sort of continuity almost impossible, those in charge of the club argued that the club's financial predicament made the sales of the likes of Earnshaw, Gabbidon, Collins, Jerome and now Chopra inevitable and it could not be denied that this time we had got a very good price for a player who we had only paid £500,000 for.
It seemed that we had Peter Ridsdale to thank for getting such a good deal for Chopra as he wasted no time in telling the media that he had negotiated a new contract with the player only a month or so previously which included a clause whereby there was a minimum release fee of £5,000,000 for the player - that is, once a club bid that amount, the City had to accept it. Strictly speaking though, Sunderland were not paying the reported fee because the deal was that they paid £4.5 million with the £500,000 being dependent on appearances, goals scored etc.
Chopra flew back from Portugal where City were to play a couple more warm up games to complete the deal but the squad size was maintained by the arrival of 34 year old Trevor Sinclair who had been released by Manchester City at the end of the season. The versatile Sinclair had been a regular in the England side during the 2002 World Cup Finals tournament in Japan/South Korea and, with twelve caps for his country, was just about the highest profile player we had signed since Kevin Ratcliffe had arrived during the 92/93 Championship winning season. However, just as in the case of Ratcliffe, it was obvious that we were signing a player who was coming to the end of his career and recent years had seen Sinclair hit with a series of pretty bad injuries (later on in the season, Sinclair would admit that he had been advised by the specialist who has treated over the past few years that he should seriously consider retiring from the game given the nature of his injuries).
City's preparation for the upcoming season continued with a 2-1 win over a Portuguese select eleven. Despite their impressive sounding name, the opposition were actually a collection of players who had been released by their clubs a few weeks earlier and were now looking for new employers. City also used the game to play three trialists themselves - one of these players was Cyprus International Costas Charalambides who had also featured in the game at Carmarthen and, at the time, it seemed that he was well on his way to earning a contract with the club. However, with Sinclair favouring the same right sided midfield position as Charalambides, even his thirty yard rocket shot to give City the lead in this game was not enough to get him a deal - Matt Green added a second after the break, but Kevin McNaughton's own goal ensured their were a few awkward moments for the team before their win was confirmed.
Three days later the side faced Vitoria Setubal in what was expected to be a far tougher examination of their credentials and this was reflected in a strong looking starting line up. As it turned out, City gave a good display against opponents who were to finish sixth in the Portuguese League this season and won the game with a Steve MacLean goal.
While City had been in Portugal the Fowler speculation had been bubbling away in the background. It had become clear that City's interest in him was genuine and when it emerged that our only serious rivals for his signature was Australian team Sydney FC then my initial scepticism about our chances of getting him started to fade. There was talk of Leicester City being interested in Fowler and the Mandaric millions may have swung things in their favour, but it never seemed to develop into anything and on the evening before City next played, at Yeovil, BBC North West reported that the player had agreed to sign for us.
It took a few more days for the deal to be confirmed, but Robbie Fowler did become a bluebird. While his signing had to be seen as a gamble given his injury record over the past seven or eight years, it also emphasised that the club had moved on significantly in the recent years - the notion of players such as Fowler and Sinclair signing for City even at this late stage in their careers would have been unthinkable five years ago.
With the benefit of hindsight, what should have attracted more attention than it did was the fact that although both players had missed a lot of City's pre season training programme, Sinclair, his recent injury problems notwithstanding, was able to take some part in games virtually straight away whereas we were told that Fowler needed more time before he would be ready to play.
So it was that Fowler was sat in the stands watching when City went to Stockport to play their latest warm up game. However, I am getting ahead of myself somewhat here because a week earlier, City had continued their encouraging pre season programme with a comfortable 2-0 win against a Yeovil side that had been contesting the League One play off Final just over a month earlier. Both goals came in the first half and they both came via the penalty spot - Warren Feeney opening his City account by scoring at the second attempt after his original effort was saved and Steve MacLean maintaining his career 100% scoring record from the spot.
With four wins from five matches and just two goals conceded, nobody could have forseen what would happen at Stockport. First ever City goals for Gavin Rae and Trevor Sinclair had the team 2-0 up in no time as they showed a lot of flair going forward, but then it all went well and truly pear shaped at the back in a crazy fifteen minutes or so which saw the home side score four times! City were generous to a fault during this spell with Rae and Darren Purse both putting into their own net to bring Stockport level and then further goals from Taylor and Poole completed the transformation - MacLean did get a goal back before the break, but, incredibly, City went in at half time 4-3 down! Inevitably, the second half was quieter than the first, but there were still three more goals with Dickinson and Pilkington putting the home team well clear before Peter Whittingham completed the scoring as a breathless match finished up at 6-4.
David Forde had played the first half at Stockport and Michael Oakes the second and it's fair to say that neither of them had done their chances of starting the season between the sticks for the team much good especially when you consider that sat alongside Robbie Fowler watching the game was Middlesbrough keeper Ross Turnbull who had joined the club on a season long loan deal.
To be honest, it was hard to know what to make of Turnbull because you got conflicting signals as to what we could expect from him. On the downside, he was still Middlesbrough's third choice keeper and at 22 was of an age where clubs at all levels look to get rid of players who had not made the first team breakthrough yet. While Turnbull had played the occasional game for Middlesbrough, he had hardly established himself and his league experience up to then had mostly consisted of loan spells with the likes of Darlington, Bradford and Crewe - there was also the almost obligatory Ridsdale connection when it comes to City new signings because he had played thirty games for Barnsley in a couple of loan periods in 2004.
If none of this was particularly inspiring, then at least the fact that Middlesbrough were willing to offer Turnbull a new contract suggested that we had signed a keeper who was rated by a Premiership side and Dave Jones soon made it clear that he would start the campaign as our first choice keeper.
(To be continued. Keep checking the website for the next installments. A great read - MM).