With My Little Pick and Shovel - A Cardiff City Story

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GENERATION GAME AT CARDIFF CITY
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Cardiff City have today announced the signings of 4 players, all of whom below the age of 20

These signings show a continuation of a policy of youthful exuberance over experience at the Cardiff City Stadium as Hawkins packs his squad full of young stars he believes he can develop and then sell at a profit

So who are they?

First up is the pick of the bunch, Japanese international Yusuke Nakagawa

The 18 year old left back, who has 7 caps for his country has joined the Bluebirds from Japanese side FC Hiroshima for £1.8m
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The full-back, who appeared for Japan at the World Cup is believed to have bags of potential and is a future star

The second signing is that of English centre-back Jason Robinson from Aston Villa
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The 16 year old Englishman has joined the Bluebirds from recently-promoted Premier League side Aston Villa for £450,000

Third up is another centre-back, 16 year old Zac Kearns
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The Milton Keynes-born defender, who can also play left-back has joined Cardiff from Championship side MK Dons for a reported £450,000

Last, but certainly not least, is Northern Irish winger Paddy Boyle who has joined the Bluebirds on a 3 year deal
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The winger, who can play on either side, has joined the Bluebirds from boyhood club Dungannon Swifts for a paltry £70,000

It is believed only Nakagawa will feature in the first team this season
​
 
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SHOCK AS GIBSON LEAVES BLEUBIRDS
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Cardiff City fans have woken up this morning shocked to hear the news of the departure of vice captain and defensive colossus Ben Gibson

The 25 year old Englishman, who joined the Bluebirds from Middlesbrough for £5m in 2015, wanted to leave Cardiff to join a bigger club, and, with his contract running out at the end of the season, manager Matthew Hawkins had to sell.

"It's with a heavy heart we say goodbye to Ben, he's been a great servant to the club and I hope this end to his career doesn't take away from his marvellous career at the club" Hawkins told fans yesterday

Gibson, who made 114 league appearances for Cardiff City, winning the Championship in the process, has joined fellow Premier League side Watford for £10m, breaking Watford's transfer record in the process
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CONTROVERSY REIGNS AS CARDIFF WELCOME NEWBOYS
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Premier League club Cardiff City have sent shockwaves around the world of football with their latest acquisitions, and we can see why

The Welsh club, managed by 27 year old Welshman Matthew Hawkins, who supports the club, have pulled off 2 coups and one of the most controversial signings in Welsh football history all in the space of a few hours

Let's start with the coups

You may remember back in January when we reported that Cardiff City had launched an audacious attempt and landing Alex Meret, one of the best young goalkeepers in the world, and failed
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Well, this time they've succeeded, bringing in the 21 year old Italian shot stopper on a FREE TRANSFER from Udinese in Italy
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The 21 year old, who's contract with Udinese ended on the 1st of July, met Cardiff manager Matthew Hawkins in May, only weeks after the season had ended to bash out a deal

The keeper has signed a 5 year deal with the Bluebirds

Second up is the surprise signing of 25 year old Welsh left back, Ben Davies, from West Ham for £1.2m
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The full back, capped 20 times by his country, has joined the Bluebirds to fill the gap left by outgoing full back Scott Malone when he left to re-join boyhood club Wolves for £3m
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This deal is not without its controversy, however, with the Arsenal supporting full back playing for Swansea for 5 years

Now on to the REALLY controversial transfer, and that is the transfer of 16 year old Welsh midfielder Mitchell Grant for £2.5m
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The young midfielder is hailed as one of Wales' best prospects and has signed a 3 year deal for the Bluebirds, leaving hometown side SWANSEA CITY in the process (he never supported them though)
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The 16 year old is said to be "glad to be leaving Swansea" labelling it a s***hole when talking to friends, no doubt endearing him to the Cardiff faithful
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BLUEBIRDS SPLASH THE CASH
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Cardiff City have today announced 2 signings, with a combined fee of over £20m

Cardiff's transfer war chest at the beginning of the season was an estimated £50m, and was buoyed by the sales of Ben Gibson, Scott Malone and Nick Powell, among others

The first player to walk through the gates at the Cardiff City Stadium was English winger, Andre Green, who joined Cardiff for £11.5m from Premier League champions Manchester United
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The 20 year old winger, produced by Aston Villa, joined United for £2m in 2016 but failed to make a league appearance for the Red Devils, spending time on loan at West Brom and Preston North End, both in the Championship
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Matthew Hawkins hopes the Englishman can step up to the plate and be a shining light in the Bluebirds' fight for survival

The second player signed by the Bluebirds is English central defender Jake Cooper, who signed from Championship club Sheffield Wednesday, managed by Hawkins' former assistant Paul Trollope, for £9m
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The 23 year old has been signed by Hawkins to replace the out going Ben Gibson, who was sold to Watford for £10m
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At 23 years old, Cooper is two years younger than 25 year old Gibson and is considered to be of an equal standard, time will tell if he is
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Great story mate. I'm managing cardiff myself. Just wondering how joe ralls has developed for you?
 
shaggy31 said:
Great story mate. I'm managing cardiff myself. Just wondering how joe ralls has developed for you?
Click to expand...
Cheers mate

Joe Ralls has developed pretty well for me, he's a good all round midfielder now, and works pretty well as a first teamer or a rotation option
 
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AVDIJAJ IN PREMIER SWITCH
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Cardiff City have today announced the signing of German forward, Donis Avdijaj from Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen for £11.5m

The 22 year old, who also qualifies for Albania, has signed a 3 year deal with the Bluebirds following his move from the Champions League side
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Avdijaj playing for Schalke last season

The 22 year old, renowned as a cool finisher, was well thought of by coaching staff at Leverkusen and it was believed that he would be the future of the German giants as they attempt to challenge Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund from Bundesliga supremacy

Avdijaj joined Leverkusen for £10.5m last season following a season in which he made his debut for Schalke, when he scored 1 goal in 11 substitute appearances
Avdijaj playing for Schalke last season
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Celebrating a goal for SK Sturm Graz

Avdijaj made only 1 appearance for Leverkusen, a 2-1 victory over Hannover in the German Cup, in which Avdijaj scored

Amazingly the club he has played the most for in his relatively short career is Austrian side SK Sturm Graz, for whom he made 49 appearances over 2 years, scoring 21 goals
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What do people think of my signings?

The August update will be up tonight :)
 
AUGUST
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We won the league in my second Championship season, what we can do in our second Premier League season?

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
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West Ham United 1-2 Cardiff City
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Meret, Gunter, Cooper, Ilori, Davies, Zielinski 45+1, Forshaw, Green (Ralls 65), Oliver (Reed 65), Duelund, Perovic
We used the formation we trialled in the last game of last season and it seems to have worked again, surprisingly going down to 10 men improved us as we faced a top side in West Ham United. Ilori and Perovic scored within a couple of minutes of each other to bag us all three points. I'm not sure what happened to Zielinski in those 5 minutes at the end of the first half but he seems to be over it now, despite the death threats

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
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Cardiff City 1-2 Southampton
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Meret, Gunter, Cooper, Ilori, Davies, Rossiter (Reed 28), Forshaw, Green, Oliver (Diba 76), Duelund, Perovic
I have no idea what happened, but I'm quite sure Virgil van Dijk was on some kind of drug, not only did he score 2 goals, but he also won 13 of his 13 headers, made 16 interceptions and 2 key tackles. His partner in defence and love (he could be) Neven Subotic won 18 headers. Dusan Perovic has 2 in 2

LEAGUE CUP SECOND ROUND
Cardiff City 3-0 Stevenage
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Meret, Jedvaj, Ilori, Cooper, Cook, John, Ralls, Rossiter (Zielinski 58), Harris (Oliver 73), Perovic (Diba 73), Boyle
We played a 5-3-2 (Wing backs) against Stevenage here and it worked a treat, 3 goals in the first 35 minutes wrapped the game up and meant we could take our foot of the gas as we try to gain fitness for the rest of the season, nice to see Greig Boyle grab a brace

LEAGUE TABLE
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Two games in and we sit mid-table, to be expected after 1 win and a loss

TOP SCORER: DUSAN PEROVIC + GREIG BOYLE (2 GOALS)

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
JAKE COOPER
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A great first month for the lad, putting in some formidable tackles at centre back that earned him the Man of the Match award on his début in the game against West Ham​
 
SEPTEMBER
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The squad is set. The season has started and we have a pretty tough month, yay!

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
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Manchester United 3-1 Cardiff City
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Meret, Gunter, Ilori, Cooper, Nakagawa, Rossiter (Zielinski 74), Reed, Duelund (Boyle 64), Green, Perovic, Avdijaj
A very frustrating game, we should have won here against a United side who played more or less the whole game with 10 men but we just couldn't score, we even missed a penalty for God's sake
Mikkel Duelund had a 5.7 match rating, he was fined 2 weeks wages

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
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Cardiff City 2-1 Liverpool
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Meret, Gunter, Ilori, Cooper, Davies, Rossiter (Zielinski 66), Reed, Green, Oliver, Duelund (Boyle 74), Avdijaj
What a win! Donis Avdijaj scoring a brace on his home début for the club against none other than Liverpool! In typical fashion, both of Avdijaj's goals were pure poacher's efforts, Mignolet had no answer to the German/Albian striker

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
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Cardiff City 1-0 Watford
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Meret, Gunter, Ilori, Cooper, Nakagawa, Rossiter (Zielinski 77), Reed, Green, Oliver, Duelund, Avdijaj (Perovic 66)
We followed up last week's big win with a solid 1-0 victory over Watford with Mikkel Duelund grabbing the all important goal, glad you left now, Ben?

LEAGUE CUP THIRD ROUND
Cardiff City 4-1 Newport County
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Meret, Gunter, Pleguezuelo, Cooper, Nakagawa, Rossiter, Johansen, Green, Oliver (Ralls 59), Duelund, Boyle (Avdijaj 57)
Utter domination against Wales' third best club, slightly nervy after their goal made it 1-1 but our quality shone through with Duelund putting us ahead and Avdijaj grabbing 2 (penalties)

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
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AFC Bournemouth 1-4 Liverpool
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Meret, Gunter, Ilori, Cooper (Jedvaj 78), Nakagawa, Rossiter (Zielinski 56), Reed, Green, Oliver, Duelund, Avdijaj (Boyle 63)
Back-to-back 4-1 wins! Incredible as we continue our good start to the season, 4-0 at half-time and the game was done, Duelund continued his good form and Donis Avdijaj continued his great introduction with a hat-trick

LEAGUE TABLE
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6 games in and we're in 4th position, amazing! I'm not getting too excited, as last season is fresh in my mind

TOP SCORER: DONIS AVDIJAJ (7 GOALS)

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
DONIS AVDIJAJ
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7 goals in 5 appearances. What more can I say?​
 
Good start to season interested to see how green does


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
OCTOBER
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Can we continue our good start to the season and turn Oktoberfest into Ok-goal-fest? I'll show myself out...

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
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Cardiff City 2-1 Aston Villa
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Meret, Gunter, Ilori (Jedvaj 75), Cooper, Nakagawa, Rossiter (Zielinski 75), Johansen, Green, Oliver (Cook 75), Duelund, Perovic
Centre back Jake Cooper was the man of the moment as he scored not once, but twice against recently promoted Aston Villa. His two goals in the space of just over 15 minutes was a nice way to showcase our first half dominance, unfortunately Meret's sheet was soiled and had to be put in the wash following Villa's breakaway goal

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
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Stoke City 1-2 Cardiff City
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Meret, Gunter, Ilori, Cooper, Nakagawa (Davies 43), Zielinski, Johansen (Reed 79), Green, Oliver, Duelund, Avdijaj
Ryan Shawcross provided us the platform to go on and beat Stoke at the Britannia with a truly awful display, emphasised by his own goal in the 25th minute. Donis Avdijaj bagged yet another goal just before half-time to make 2-0. Stoke had a late revival and were knocking on the door but it was too little, too late from The Potters

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
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Cardiff City 0-1 Burnley
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Meret, Gunter, Ilori, Cooper, Davies, Zielinski (Rossiter 55), Johansen, Green, Oliver, Duelund, Avdijaj
I knew that we would lose at some point, I just didn't expect it to be at home to Burnley. Danish striker Yussuf Poulsen put us too the sword and scored Burnley's only real chance of the game. Disappointing. On a side note, Burnley are the only Premier League team we have failed to score against in our season and a bit in the Premier League

LEAGUE CUP THIRD ROUND
Cardiff City 2-1 Blackburn Rovers
After Extra-Time
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Meret, Gunter, Ilori, Cooper, Davies, Rossiter (Zielinski 74), Johansen (Duelund 45), Ralls, Green, Oliver (Avdijaj 74), Boyle
We fielded a pretty strong team against Blackburn but just couldn't score for some reason. We absolutely dominated the match and had the lion's share of possession and chances and the game should have been put to bed by half-time, never mind extra-time. Quite disappointing that we only scraped past Blackburn but at least we're through

LEAGUE TABLE
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We sit nice and high in the league but we won't stay there, we have some pretty tough matches coming around the corner that we will have to be on top of our game for if we want any points

TOP SCORER: DONIS AVDIJAJ (8 GOALS)

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
JAKE COOPER
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What a revelation this guy has been since signing! He's averaged an 8 Match Rating in the league this month and has performed brilliantly next to Tiago Ilori​
 
NOVEMBER
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A pretty tough month against some top sides, hopefully we can pick up at least 1 point, hopefully...

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
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Newcastle United 2-2 Cardiff City
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Meret, Gunter, Ilori, Cooper, Ralls (Reed 56), Rossiter (Davies 45), Johansen, Green, Oliver, Duelund (Perovic 73), Avdijaj
A very even game at St James' as we grabbed a point off of the Magpies. Donis Avdijaj gave us the lead with a typical Avdijaj goal, finding space and latching onto the through ball. Unfortunately we couldn't build on the goal and lost the lead before half-time, Newcastle then took the lead through one of the league's top scorers in Ayoze Perez. Fortunately Oliver continued his fine form this season with a 70th minute equaliser to bag us a point

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
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Cardiff City 3-4 Arsenal
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Meret, Gunter, Ilori, Cooper, Nakagawa (Davies 45), Zielinski, Johansen (Ralls 72), Green, Oliver (Perovic 65), Duelund, Avdijaj
A game for the age as we lost narrowly to Arsenal 4-3. Our wingers really turned up today with Andre Green bagging a brace and Mikkel Duelund scoring from a Green cross. A surprisingly even game which we deserved at least a point from, unfortunately the quality of this expensively-assembled squad won through in the end, with right back Hector Bellerin scoring the last minute winner

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
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Manchester City 2-0 Cardiff City
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Meret, Jedvaj, Ilori, Cooper, Nakagawa, Rossiter (Zielinski 71), Johansen, Green, Oliver (Boyle 71), Duelund, Avdijaj (Perovic 52)
A spirited performance away to Manchester City as the Manchester club's quality shone through. We defended well but unfortunately we couldn't keep City out of our goal, 2-0 a fair result

LEAGUE TABLE
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We're still in the top half! Its around this time last season we started slipping away so hopefully we can hold strong and stay up there

TOP SCORER: DONIS AVDIJAJ (9 GOALS)

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
OLIVER
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He's been instrumental this month, proving he is one of the best playmakers in the league​
 
I've made quite a big signing who will be joining in January, I'm very excited about him...
 
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