Although I’d seen plenty of on line messages claiming that Mark McGuinness was happy at Cardiff and had no wish to leave, Erol Bulut insisted in his pre game media conference yesterday that City’s best defender wanted to leave and so, in essence, the club had no alternative but to accept Luton’s offer for him once it had reached City’s valuation as there is no point keeping a player who would rather be elsewhere.
I’m sad to see McGuinness go and wish him well for the future, but a transfer offer which might rise to £10 million with all of its various add ons is a lot of money for someone who has not played any Premier League football yet and, to be honest, this is not a Toshack/Ramsey type situation where you could reasonably argue that the club were in a rush to accept a bid which did not match the player’s true valuation.
Although Calum Chambers has come in and played exclusively as a centreback so far, McGuinness going leaves a large hole in the squad which the club have moved quickly to fill with not one, but two new players.
Jesper Daland is right footed, but has played most of his recent football as a left sided centreback, he’s twenty four years old and arrives on a four year deal for a fee which could rise to around £3 million from Belgian club Cercle Bruges. I’d seen Daland described as Cercle Bruges'”key player” and, although not yet the holder of a senior cap for his native Norway, he’s been a regular on the substitute’s bench for them in recent games. I’ve seen stats which have him rated as second in Belgium’s top division for winning aerial challenges and among the best for getting in defensive blocks – put this together with a reputation for being able to pass well from the back (he often used to bring the ball out into a midfield position for Cercle apparently) and, on the face of it, he looks a good replacement for McGuinness, who, according to Bulut, is ready to step straight into the team on Sunday.
Will Fish is also on the brink of signing for us it seems. Fish played for Manchester United in some of their recent pre season matches before sustaining an injury which he has now recovered from it seems. He had a couple of loan spells in the Scottish Premier League with Hibs that were widely regarded to be successes and had told his club that, at the age of twenty one, he feels he is best served by going to a club where he will be getting regular first team football. The word is that the fee involved could be as much as £2 million and that there was plenty of Championship interest in the centre back who can also fill in at right back. Even if Fish’s transfer is confirmed in the next day or so, it seems unlikely that he will be considered for the Swansea game
Bulut also talked of the need now to move players out and, on that score, Eli King moved to League One side Stevenage on a season long loan, while it looks lile Keiron Evans will be spending his season with Newport County on another temporaray deal.
Unfortunately, however, it feels a bit back to square oneish as far as a move for a striker is concerned. While we have got Wilfried Kanga, bringing in someone who could find the net on a consistent basis was supposed to be the number one priority for the summer, but, to hear Bulut talk yesterday, it looks like we are going to be relying on the Premier League loan market for a signing very late in the window.
Anyway, that’s the transfer talk done and it leaves me with little time to talk about Sunday’s latest trip to Swansea, so I’ll just limit myself to here’s the seven questions for today’s quiz – the answers will be posted on Monday.
60s. Born in a place which is known for a classic scoreline that has probably never ever happened, this forward never played senior football in his native country, but did experience life in three others during what would be called a journeyman’s career, He started off with spells as an amateur with red shirted Yorkshire rivals, but could not make the breakthrough to the first team with either. Bizarrely, his subsequent drop into non league football as he found himself besides the seaside in another country did not involve a change of ground name as his career prospered while turning out for the Lilywhites. Indeed, his form was so good that he secured a move to the Second Division and, although he was never to become an established first teamer for his new club, he was able to create a continental scoring record which can never be broken. His next move took him to a club City have been quite familiar with lately where he did pretty well until the arrival of one half of a famous scoring duo saw his chances limited to the extent that he was loaned out to Swansea where he managed a single goal in eight appearances. After that, he had a short spell in South Africa and then with Harrogate Railway before retiring, his whereabouts now are uncertain – he emigrated, but while one of the sources I used says he’s in South Africa, the other says he’s in Australia, who am I describing?
70s. Three players with the same name represented Swansea during this decade with one of them going on to represent Wales – what name did the trio share?
80s. He didn’t do a great deal for the jacks during his spell with them late in this decade, but he is still the highest scorer in the Football League for another club that wears white and is likely to keep that record for a good while yet. Besides that he took part in what has become a notorious testimonial game played at the Hawthorns in 1979, can you name the player?
90s. Tory leader moves to the left as Swansea defender!
00s. Wander with Ray to Yeovil? (6,3)
10s. Note midfielder nearby!
20s. Which current Swansea player has turned out for Everton, but on a different continent?
Answers:
60s. Born In Forfar (Forfar 4 East Fife 5), Sandy Allen played as an amateur with Barnsley and then at Belle Vue with Doncaster. A move to Wales to another Belle Vue to represent the Lilywhites of Rhyl gave his career a boost as he scored enough goals to persuade City to pay what was a tidy sum in 1967 of £12,500 for his services. The highspot of Allen’s time with us was a headed hat trick against Mjondalen in 1969 – it was the first time someone had managed such a feat in European competitions. Allen then signed for Bristol Rovers and did pretty well for them over three years before the arrival of Bruce Bannister (one half of the “Smash and Grab” partnership with ex City striker Alan Warboys that scored plenty of of goals for Rovers in the mid seventies) saw Allen move to Swansea on loan.
70s.Fifty two times capped Welsh goalkeeper Dai Davies is perhaps best known for his spell with Swansea in the early eighties, but he played a few times for the jacks in 69/70 at the beginning of his career and was then loaned to the club from Everton in 1974 when he played six times. There was also a Dai Davies who played twenty odd games for Swansea as a centreback between 1973 and 1975.The third Dai Davies, a midfield player, made a single substitute appearance as a 16 year old in 1973 before former Swansea manager Harry Gregg brought him to Crewe Alexandra where he went on to make more than 200 appearances.
80s. Stewart Phillips is Hereford United’s leading Football League goalscorer, he also played for the Black team against a team of white players in a testimonial game for West Bromwich Albion’s Len Cantello in 1979.
90s. Michael Howard played over 200 games for Swansea, most of them at left back, between 1998 and 2004 – his Gorseinon born namesake led the Conservative Party between 2003 and 2005.
00s. Darren Way.
10s. Mark Gower.
20s. Swansea’s new goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux played for Chilean side Everton de Virla del Mar in 2019.