Carl Curtis : Update on Cardiff City FC
Vincent Tan will fly into Europe next week where he will meet Russell Slade here and also visit KV Kortrijk, his new Belgian club.
The initial plan was that the meetings with Slade would only take place in Malaysia but Vincent Tan wants to come to the UK to hold the first get together to set out the plans ahead of next season.
The meeting with Slade is to discuss a list of players who are intended targets and how the club wish to move forward next season.
Russell Slade has been assured that he has a ‘substantial’ amount that he will use on acquiring his two main targets. Slade has identified the two players he wants and has been informed that he will have the backing financially to try and seal the deals.
As well as the two players that Slade wishes to spend the majority of his summer transfer budget on, he will add more players to the squad but knows he will be fishing in the ‘very cheap or free transfers’ market and the spending on these additional players will be limited to small amounts in terms of transfer fees but mainly targeting players with just a signing on fee required.
The budget is something that the club is still trying to reduce by selling players in the close season and cutting the wage bill further. Vincent Tan would like to see at least 10 players off the current wage bill and expects Russell Slade to move them on.
Two Chesterfield players have been linked recently with Cardiff City, the Spirietes are cutting costs themselves and are looking to move players on and it seems that Russell Slade is ready to exploit their situation of reducing their wage bill after failing to gain promotion this season, with Sam Morsy and Sam Clucas on City’s radar.
A third Chesterfield player who is attracting interest from City is Tendayi Darikwa, he is rated at £500k and not so long ago was very much in the thoughts of several Premier League clubs, Chesterfield are ready to cash in on Darikwa but if City want him they will have to fend off interest from Leeds Utd also.
In total last season Cardiff City had 14 ‘Police Free’ games, further indication to the good behaviour of City fans and more savings for the club on expenses.
Since the win away to Nottingham Forest on the last game of the campaign, season ticket sales have steadily improved, I was told this afternoon that the club is nearing the 5,000 figure for sales to date.