| With a cup competition against a lower league side happening this weekend you could forgive Dave Jones resting some of his senior players. Just one or two mind, this is still the FA Cup no mater who the opposition. It deserves respect. |
There's little doubting that "Mr Consistency" and scorer of the winning goals in City's last two matches, Joe Ledley, has earned a weekend off.
But in this incidence it would send out the wrong message. There's no secret that Joe Ledley is a wanted man. Bids are said to have been made by Wolves, there is interest from Charlton and any number of unknown Premiership clubs are monitoring his progress, with Everton the latest linked.
If Joe is "rested" from tomorrow's cup tie then it will not be interpreted as a "rest" but as a decision not to cup tie him making him a more attractive proposition to another club.
If Cardiff are to show any ambition then we must try to keep our top performers and young hopefuls and not just take the first decent offer for them.
I somehow doubt we'll refuse a decent bid for Joe but I'd like to think we can keep him at least until the end of the season when you never know, he might have helped us towards the Premiership ourselves. Keeping our best players will give us that option. Not selling them.
Chairman Peter Ridsdale thinks Joe will still be here come Feb 1st but it's all talk. You don't have to be a genius to work out that if the money is waved at Cardiff City they are most likely to grab it. We have lost Chris Gunter, it would be a travesty to have to lose Joe as well so we can continue to afford the wages of a few overpaid "superstars", two of which are crocked.
"If I were a gambling man, I would bet money Joe will still be with Cardiff City once the transfer window closes," said Ridsdale. "We have had offers for players, but I cannot at this point in time see any of what are regarded as our first-team players leaving the club. "Those who will leave are ideally those who do not fit into the first-team set-up." But, and there's always a but. The finances mean those sentiments are on shaky ground. Ridsdale added, "People get an emotional attachment to certain players and I am the same, I do have my favourites. "But my main responsibility is to ensure that the club can operate on a sound financial footing, that is the task I have to juggle. "Whilst the intention may be to hold on to individual players I do not have a crystal ball and we are only in early January and I do have to refuse to rule out anything at this point in time"
Hopefully Joe will take his place in the team at Chasetown tomorrow, and hopefully he'll take his place in the team that runs out at The Britannia aginst Stoke on Feb 2nd. |
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