As a very satisfying season draws to a close, a sole issue remains.
Three of this season’s star performers will walk away from the club at the end of next month, as it currently stands. Perry Ng, Ryan Wintle and Joel Bagan couldn’t have picked a better time to have potentially their best ever year. They couldn’t hold stronger bargaining positions and all we can do now is wait and see, with everything crossed.
It’s a broadly similar situation to last year, when Andy Rinomhota, Joe Ralls and Aaron Ramsey all faced an uncertain future. After circling the Championship drain for several seasons, Cardiff were finally flushed down to the third tier, which will have certainly complicated matters in this regard.
Rinomhota’s situation was comparable to Wintle’s in that both were/are 28 and had just been crowned the club’s Player of the Year after a renaissance season. Rinomhota was very much out of the picture under Erol Bulut and had been shipped out on loan to Rotherham. When he was sacked, Rinomhota returned and thrived as a right back and what looked like an inevitable departure soon turned to a clamour for him to stay. Other renewals were prioritised and Rinomhota rejoined Reading, but the move also serves as a timely reminder that the grass is not always greener, as he has found playing time there extremely limited.
Embed from Getty ImagesWintle was also shown the door by Bulut, but he returned this season to become the fulcrum of Brian Barry-Murphy’s midfield. The moving parts all around him often changed, but Wintle was the mainstay and Cardiff’s new possession based approached revolved around him.
The only outfield player that recorded more minutes than Wintle was Bagan, who played a mighty 3635 minutes over the course of 45 league matches, so roughly 80 minutes of every game and when you factor in a further 526 cup minutes, he soared past 4000 minutes in a marathon campaign. In and around the Cardiff side for six years now, it has taken Bagan until the age of 24 to finally cement his place at left back and he has been a model of consistency.
Ng, the oldest of the three at 30, looked like his place was in jeopardy at the start of the year, as the rookie Ronan Kpakio was favoured, but as the season progressed and the stakes raised, Ng was reinstalled and in turn thrived. He matched his best return for the club in terms of goals and assists and the two-time former Player of the Year will have plenty of admirers.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe understanding is that all three have already been offered new terms and that sealing promotion would likely be the catalyst for signing, but two weeks later, there has not yet been any movement. When you also factor in Nathan Trott, who has a purchase option at a set price in his very successful loan deal, we’re waiting on four key components of the promotion side who would all play significant roles when Cardiff return to the second tier.
Losing them would be a huge blow and replacing them would also prove a very expensive enterprise, when attention and budget should be devoted to other areas of the squad. The club finding themselves in this situation again is also disappointing, but this particular scenario is likely more a legacy of relegation rather than poor housekeeping.
Barry-Murphy was keen to stress that these matters were to be addressed once the campaign drew to a close, so the next week will surely be pivotal and the hope is that these pressing concerns can be resolved before players scatter away on their summer holidays. The longer they drag on, the less likely a positive outcome will be found, so in the meantime we await either the icing on the cake or the sting in the tail.