Young Gunt first to ride into the sunset

Last updated : 21 December 2007 By Michael Morris
Gunter is set to be the first of our talented youngsters through the door this January after a deal was struck to sell him to Spurs. I fear it's the start of a fire sale to inject funds into the club to keep it afloat with Joe Ledley, Paul Parry and Aaron Ramsey potential losses as well during the transfer window.

We are used to player sales. Most clubs are selling clubs and when a young player knows that a Premier League club is interested in him he's likely to only have that on his mind anyway but in our situation with court cases, financial woes and huge wage bills it seems even more inevitable that we'll flog off anything not nailed down at the first chance we get.

The rumours are that the deal could be worth upto £4m. Virtually irresistable business but is it really that much? Peter Ridsdale says the lad was interested to hear what Spurs had to say and that the sale is not forced by the financial situation at Ninian Park. I'm not convinced that's right. We've always sold for cash rather than kept players to fulfil ambition.

"I think with the price itself we would have had to consider it no matter what the situation was financially," said Ridsdale.

"Clearly given the challenge we've had with Langston, it's made the financial security of the club more acute that we do look at this sort of transfer.

"But if Chris had said he wasn't interested in going, we wouldn't have sold him."

Good luck Chris Gunter. In a short space of time he's gone from Cardiff Academy player to a first teamer, a full Welsh International and now probably a Premier League player all within a 12 month.