Mike Morris of Cardiff City.com has produced an excellent response which I've re-printed here followed by my observations. What do you think?
| PEOPLE IN GLASS HOUSES |
Not everyone is against us. We have received some goodwill messages from Man City fans, some reasonable and balanced coverage from some of the tabloids, broadsheets and tv/radio stations but there is an underlying current of resentment about our signing of Craig Bellamy. Some of the comments from the more gutter radio shows have been jaw-dropping.
I think there is an element of disbelief from the EPL that we took one of their star players. An element of jealously from the Football League that we have made ourselves favourites for promotion but moreso the thing that wrankles them is that we were close to going bust a few weeks ago and now we have signed a player who reportedly earns around £90K a week.
Instead of looking at our current situation or what we have been trying to achieve we get backpage headlines like the one from the Daily Express "How can a club which has faced 4 winding-up orders sign £85,000 a week Craig Bellamy".
Well if they did some resaearch they'd find that Man City are paying most of his wages. Cardiff are paying a percentage. All perfectly legal and within the loan rules. Loan moves happen all the time. Parent clubs tend to pay the bulk of the wages. Same thing happening here. No need to threaten his registration or to throw ones toys out of the pram.
The carefully planned outburst from the Motherwell Chairman shocked the football world nearly as much as Bellany signing for us. He called us cynical for not paying our bills. Actually, I agree to an extent. We should not still be owing Motherwell. We are tackling these debts and that one in paticular has not yet been fully resolved. The matter should be sorted soon but it does beg the question of the hypocrisy of a man who saw his airline company go bust leaving thousands stranded and out of pocket, click here, and the same chap was at the helm of Motherwell when they went into administration leaving their creditors with just 15p in the pound, click here.
Cardiff City did not take the easy option of administration and a chance to get away without paying everyone but instead chose (thanks to the new investment from Malaysia and from current directors) to tackle the debts head on.
Portsmouth, the tax man claims, owes £37m to HMRC. Cardiff City owe then the July payment at most. Just about all the footballing debts have been settled by the new reigime at the CCS. The random borrowings by Peter Ridsdale are being sorted, the debts to other clubs are being covered. The players/staff wages are all upto date and the tax man has dismissed his intended high court action because we have delivered the money we promised.
We still have a debt, mostly to Langston (Sam Hammam's interest) but it's a fraction of the debt owed by some top Premier League sides but crucially it's a debt we are facing and not bailing out from by taking the administration route.
Maybe the Football League should be investigating Crystal Palace who went into admin, have offered their creditors a couple of pence in the pound and are now about to sign Edgar Davids. They should still be investigating how Portsmouth can get away with settling already mega rich players bonuses while leaving the tax man to fight for scraps.
Cardiff's signing of Craig Bellamy has close on paid for itself already. We don't know the exact amount Cardiff have to pay in wages but it's thought to be £20K a week. 24 hours after his signing we sold nearly 4,000 shirts @ £40 each, 500 season tickets @ £300 each and the gate will be increased by about 5,000 @ £20 each on Saturday.
Roughly that's about £400,000 on the back of him signing. 20 weeks of wages brought in from the first 24 hours of business.
The man pays for himself. Cardiff have not paid a penny in transfer fees this summer. Season long loans for Olofinjana, Koumas, Drinkwater and Bellamy. Free transfer for Tom Heaton. Upto 10 players leaving who are now off the wage-bill. At the same time debts settled by re-structure or in some cases the exchange of debt to shares in the club.
The football world should be applauding the efforts of TG, Vincent Tan, Steve Borley etc for their dedication to honouring what we owe while at the same time making Cardiff City Football Club a force in the Championship and hopefully becoming a Premier League by the end of the season.
Cardiff City have made a statement of intent this week. We've shocked the football establishment and they don't like it.
Keep them stones in your pockets people.
Excellent piece although, as I see it, the bottom line from football, media and assorted "personalities" has not entirely been hatred, ignorance (even though much of it is) but envy.
The club have pulled off an audacious deal but, in Bellamy's case, we were the only club ever likely to. As City have rightly said, any other ambitious club in the Championship would have moved hell and earth to do eactly the same if they had such a chance.
I also got a funny feeling we'll see a few more Prem stars in the Championship once final squads are announced. Aaron Ramsey looks set to be one such player - will anyone moan then? Davids to Palace after they hit the wall is another good example.
However, boot on the other foot, if Bellers had gone to another club on loan and one who have had more than their fair share of troubles, I can't help thinking Cardiff City fans would have had plenty to say themselves and little of it complimentary. It happens.
I well remember the general outcry on here about how Stoke "cheated" their way to the Premier League with all the loan singings they had a couple of years ago. Now we're playing a similar game - and it's not before time that Dave Jones used the loan market cleverly! - we applaud it.
Whoever said it's a funny old game has it spot on!
