I’ll begin this last off season review piece by going back
six days to our last warm up game against AS Roma, a team which finished third
in Serie A last season and so will be competing in the Champions League this
year.
I can recall watching a friendly game at QPR just over twelve months ago and thinking we can do really well in the coming season because, at times we made an established Championship side look very ordinary that day. To be honest, I had the same feeling while watching us score four times in the first twenty minutes or so at Forest Green – although, of course, allowances had to be made for the opposition being three levels below us.
However, it was the same against Roma in the first half
especially and the Italian exasperation as to what was happening to them could
be gauged by the fact that they were reduced to squabbling amongst themselves.
Of course, much of this was down to frustration at how poorly they were
playing, but I’d say it was as much to do with how they were being outplayed by
opponents who, in the first half relentlessly and aggressively pressed them to
distraction.
The Roma falling out came midway through the second half
after Ollie Tanner put us 4-1 up and. although the visitors generally had the
better of what remained of the game as City introduced three players with a
combined age of forty eight, there were no more goals. Therefore, we ended our
pre season programme with three consecutive victories with a goal difference of
15-3 (20-4 if you include the behind closed doors game with Crawley) – unlikely
as it may have sounded at the time, that 6-0 hammering by Midtjylland seems a
world away now!
There’ve been some impressive results for Championship teams
in pre season games this year – Birmingham beat Barcelona in a penalty shoot
out following a 2-2 draw, Wrexham beat Manchester United and then Leeds and I
thought Bristol City’s 4-1 demolition of Newcastle was an eye catching result
which made a bit of a statement to the rest of the division – although I note a
full strength wurzels team was beaten 1-0 at home by League Two side Walsall in
the First Round of the Carabao (League) Cup last night!
However, I would argue that Cardiff 4 Roma 1 is a more
notable result than any of those. Yes, just like City against Midtjylland, the
difference between the sides in terms of preparedness for the new season was
clear, but this was still a strong Roma side with quite a few what you’d call
first teamers in the starting line up – it’s also worth remembering that Rubin
Colwill, Dylan Lawlor and Will Fish were all absent through injury last
Saturday.
Talk of Newcastle takes me back fourteen years to when we
beat them by that same 4-1 score in our final friendly game before the 12/13
season when we ended up winning the Championship. In many ways, City were as
impressive against Roma as they were in demolishing the Geordies, but you’ll
not get me me predicting a league title for us in nine months time! What I
would say though is that I agree with something Brian Barry-Murphy said at the
end of last season – he thought we’d be a “dangerous” team in the Championship.
I reckon we can be the sort of side that will occasionally stun unwary and,
possibly, over confident, opponents who have far more spending power than us.
The reason I won’t go any further than that is that, even
with those injured players back, I don’t see us as having sufficient squad
depth at present to sustain a top eight, or even top half, position over a long
season – although we have finally seen some activity in the incoming transfer
side and I’ll come on to that presently.
Returning to the Roma game, It’s funny that what was in many
ways a top class performance should contain four such scruffy goals. We’d
already shown that we had the capacity to hurt Roma down the flanks as Chris
Willock found Yousef Salech who forced goalkeeper Mancini into a sprawling save
when Cian Ashford put us ahead with less than three minutes played. Oliie
Tanner got past his man down the right after a perceptive pass by Perry Ng and
pulled back a cross which just evaded Salech only for a Roma clearance to hit
the scorer and loop into the net for a fortunate opener.
City looked up for the game all over the pitch with Alex
Robertson showing that if we do sign a new number six, he can’t just expect to
walk straight into the team – while the Australian may lack the physique some
consider necessary in a deep lying central midfielder, he certainly has the
technique and anticipation needed for the role on this evidence. Tanner was far
better than he was in his half at Forest Green, Joel Bagan was very good again,
Gabriel Osho completed a very encouraging pre season, Salech dominated big
reputation centrebacks with his physicality and Ashford, playing in the number
ten role, showed he should be a contender to occupy that role despite me
thinking that it’s now probably the position we’re strongest in.
Roma looked rushed and rusty as City gave them no peace in a
high octane start which caught the visitors completely on the hop and Willock
and Joel Colwill both went close before Salech made it 2-0 after half an hour.
Salech’s closing down of a defender had created a goal against Forest Green and
here he led the press to charge down Mancini’s intended clearance and was
rewarded by seeing the ball divert into an unguarded net.
Osho and Calum Chambers were an effective defensive
partnership that only got one thing wrong all afternoon as they both pushed too
far forward to allow Wesley to run through a yawning gap to close in on City’s
goal only for Perry Ng to bring him down for a penalty which would have seen
the defender cautioned or maybe worse if there had been league points or cup
progression at stake.
Argentinian World Cup winner Paulo Dybala stepped up to take
the penalty and produced a wretched effort which Nathan Trott was always going
to save if he dived the right way – to be honest, the keeper produced a better
save in denying Wesley a few minutes later.
Roma might have felt there was a way back into the game
after they began to show some attacking teeth, but then Tanner picked out
Salech with a cross and the striker’s header found Ashford who clipped the ball
over Mancini only for a defender reach the it just before the City player and
his desperate attempt to clear crashed against Ashford and into the net.
With City having put so much into the first half and BBM not
making substitutions as early as he’d been in previous friendlies, they lost
some of their intensity and it wasn’t really a surprise when Dybala pulled one
back from around fifteen yards out. However, any thoughts of Roma turning
around the deficit were ended within minutes by a fourth home goal as
Robertson’s long pass was out of a defender’s reach to leave Tanner free on
goal, only for the winger to lose control of the ball which was then played
straight back to him and he then placed his shot beyond the keeper.
To be fair to Roma, they could have been given a free kick
for a foul by Chambers in the build up to the goal. However, it seemed a bit
over the top for Dybala and midfielder Soule to almost come to blows as the red
mist appeared to gather over many of their players.
The visitors hit the post late on as the game inevitably
flagged with so many substitutions being made, but there was no doubting the
worthiness of City’s win which was achieved in what has become the BBM style.
Unfortunately, there have been no video highlights on the
club website yet of another notable City win from last Saturday as the Under
21s went to Liverpool and won 4-3. Thierry Katsukunya and Caden Voice both
headed in from corners to put us 2-0 up in eight minutes and Cody Twose added a
third goal before the break. Liverpool scored early in the second half only for
Jake Davies to restore our three goal lead and, despite a home fightback which
saw Liverpool score twice late on, we held on for a win to go with the draw we
got at Chelsea a couple of weeks ago.
The Under 18s won their latest friendly in midweek as they
edged out Japanese side Gamba Osaka 2-1 – we took the lead with an own goal and
then Leo Papirnyk provided a late winner after the visitors had levelled early
in the second half.
On the transfer front, I’ll start with the bad news that we
had to admit defeat in our bid to sign Jens Dahl. In the end, Tromso got the
bidding war they wanted to an extent as Hull submitted an offer which was, it
seems, not far short of £10 million and this took the player out of our
financial reach. This all happened last weekend and. after an initial claim
that Dahl was on a plane which flew from Tromso to Cardiff on Sunday, it became
inevitable that the Norwegian was headed for Humberside to sign for a team that
nobody outside of Hull expects to stay up this season – I say “inevitable”
mind, but I’m not aware of Dahl’s transfer being confirmed yet.
About the time the news of Hull’s bid broke, it was claimed
that City were in negotiation with Lincoln City for their attacking midfielder
Jack Moylan. This was a name no one had mentioned as a possible target among
the media and City podcasters, but it turns out that a Lincoln supporting
friend of MAYA Feedback section contributor Mike Herbert had informed him that
we were after Moylan in the week before the story broke – I’m claiming this as
a Mauve and Yellow Army transfer exclusive for no other reason than it’s the
closest we’ll ever get to having one!
My initial reaction to the Moylan link was mixed. On the one
hand, it “felt” right, but, on the other, it seemed odd that newly promoted
Lincoln would sell him to one of the teams which came up with them. My
scepticism also came from the knowledge that as Moylan was widely regarded as
Lincoln’s best plater, was many people’s choice as League One player of the
season (he was selected in the League One team of the season and was a nominee
for League One Player of the season), he was probably destined for a higher
rated team than us.
However, as the week went on, it became clear that this may
well be our first outfield signing of the summer and Moylan’s arrival was
confirmed on Wednesday evening. Moylan has signed a four year contract and,
after initial reports that there there was a release fee in his Lincoln
contract (reported as either two or four million pounds), it seems this is not
the case, so my guess is that we’ve ended up paying nearer four million than
two million for him.
As for what sort of player we’re getting, Moylan describes
himself as a number ten who tends to favour the left hand side. The eleven
goals he scored last season despite injuries limiting him to just thirty one
league appearances is above par for him over his career, but with him generally
regarded as the player who gave a disciplined and largely functional Lincoln
team most of its “Xfactor”, he contributes as much, if not more, on the
creative side of things compared to just goal scoring – to my mind, if someone
asked me to think of a BBM type attacking player, I’d come up with someone like
Moylan.
As I mentioned earlier, Moylan plays in a position where we
may well be at our strongest, so could it be that Rubin Colwill will operate
more as a number eight or is the injury that has restricted Rubin’s pre season
reckoned to be serious enough to keep him out of games on a regular basis?
Another question which springs to mind, is Moylan our plan B
to Dahl’s plan A? I think not, they’re different types of player and so I’d say
it’s more likely that he is one of the three targets we were hoping to sign
this week as reported by Wales Online about ten days ago.
As to whether we end up with three new players by the time
we play Swindon tomorrow, that seems very doubtful now. However, the same
reporter wrote yesterday that this was still the hope and, if that could not be
managed, then the plan would be for the other two to arrive early next week.
Yesterday’s story stated that one of the targets was someone who played all
along the front line and would be a loan signing, while it was also claimed
that there was still an intention to bring Omari Kellyman back to the club
despite the arrival of Moylan and the possible arrival of another front player.
So, that’s the end of these reviews for another year. The
plan now will be for me to publish a report on the Swindon game either tomorrow
evening or on Sunday morning and then it will be back to the normal programme
of quizzes, reports and comment throughout the season.
My thanks to those who stuck with the blog over the summer
and I’ll finish by saying that while I would prefer more players in than we’ve
seen up to now, I’ve not looked forward to a Championship season as much as
this one in ages!
