FM 12: Cardiff City Thread

Cardiff City Football Club (Welsh: Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) are a professional football club based in Cardiff, Wales. The club competes in the English football league system and is currently playing in the Football League Championship. Cardiff City is the best supported football club in Wales, averaging approximately 22,500 for its home games in the 2011-12 season[citation needed]. It plays its home games at the Cardiff City Stadium, where it moved to in 2009 after 99 years at nearby Ninian Park.

Cardiff City were founded in 1899 and are the only non-English side to have won any of the three major English competitions. They won the FA Cup in 1927, during a decade when they were one of the strongest sides in the English league, finishing runners-up in 1923–24 and also losing 1–0 to Sheffield United in the FA Cup Final of 1925. They have also been regular winners of the Welsh Cup, and as the winner of the Cup in 1966–67 gained entry to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, reaching the semi-finals in 1967–68.[1] They played in old Football League First Division periods of 1921–29, 1952–57 and 1960–62.

In 1986, they were relegated to the Fourth Division, and over the next 14 years slipped into the league's basement division three times. In 1996 they were the league's third lowest placed team. However, a Football League Second Division playoff triumph in 2003 lifted them into the Football League First Division; In the 2008–09 season they failed to make the play-offs for the Premier League on goals scored to Preston on the final day of the season. However, in the 2009–10 season they managed to secure a place in the play-offs for the Premier League with two games to spare after beating Queens Park Rangers 1–0. In the semi-final they drew 3–3 on aggregate over two games against Leicester City, before winning 4–3 in a penalty shoot-out. In the final they lost 3–2 to Blackpool at Wembley Stadium after being ahead twice. The following season the team finished fourth in the table again, but ended the season by losing 3-0 on aggregate to Reading in the play-off semi-finals. Manager Dave Jones soon parted company with the club, before being replaced by Malky Mackay.

Stadia

Ninian Park

Cardiff's first ground was at Sophia Gardens recreational park where they played from their founding in 1899 until 1910 when, due to the lack of facilities at the ground and the increasing amount of support for the club, Bartley Wilson contacted Bute Estate, who owned large amounts of Cardiff at the time, in an attempt to find land suitable for building a stadium. They eventually agreed on an area of waste ground on Sloper Road. The land was a former rubbish tip and required extensive work to get a playable surface, but with the assistance of Cardiff Corporation and volunteers the work was completed. The ground was originally to be known as Sloper Park but was instead named after Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart, who was a large force in helping the club get the ground built, and became Ninian Park.

The stadium was initially built with one stand before the opening of another in 1928 which could hold 18,000 people to replace an earth embankment. The club record attendance in the ground is 57,893 which was achieved during a league match against Arsenal on 22 April 1953. The record has stood for more than fifty years and is unable to be beaten due to the scaling down of the ground throughout the seventies and eighties due to safety fears which have seen the ground capacity fall to 22,000. In its final year in use, the ground was the only one above League One level that still contained standing areas.

Cardiff City Stadium

Main article: Cardiff City Stadium

In June 2009, Cardiff City completed a state of the art 26,828 seater stadium on the site of the now demolished old Cardiff Athletics Stadium. The project also includes a retail park and required the rebuilding of the athletics stadium, to be known as Cardiff International Sports Stadium, on the opposite side of Leckwith Road in Cardiff.

The plan required the demolition of the Cardiff Athletics Stadium, and the council initially insisted that its replacement be built before the start of construction of the Cardiff City Stadium, which would allow the city to have a major athletics facility for the 11 months between the demolition of the old stadium and the building of a new athletics facility nearby. But developers said that the main infrastructure work including highway improvements, drainage, gas supply and electricity cables could be carried out in a way that would allow Leckwith to remain open until July 2007.

On 20 September 2007 it was announced that the Cardiff Blues rugby union club would leave their Cardiff Arms Park home to become tenants of Cardiff City at the new Leckwith stadium.

Construction began on the new Cardiff International Sports Stadium in January 2007, and that venue was opened in January 2009. The new football ground, officially named Cardiff City Stadium, opened in July 2009.

From Wikipedia

Squad:

1 GK David Marshall

2 DF Kevin McNaughton

3 DF Andrew Taylor

4 MF Filip Kiss (on loan from Slovan Bratislava)

5 DF Mark Hudson (club captain)

6 DF Anthony Gerrard

7 MF Peter Whittingham

8 MF Don Cowie

9 FW Kenny Miller

10 FW Robert Earnshaw

11 MF Craig Conway

12 DF Dekel Keinan

14 DF Paul Quinn

15 FW Rudy Gestede

16 FW Jon Parkin

17 MF Aron Gunnarsson

18 DF Lee Naylor

19 DF Gabor Gypes

20 FW Joe Mason

21 MF Jonathan Meades

22 GK Tom Heaton

23 DF Darcy Blake

25 DF Ben Turner

27 MF Kadeem Harris

30 GK Jordan Santiago

31 DF Alex Evans

32 MF Ibrahim Farah

37 MF Stephen McPhail (vice-captain)

40 MF Theo Wharton

52 MF Joe Ralls

A good enough squad if you can hang on to Whittingham I would sell Gypes and try to bring another Midfielder and striker on loan

1 post wtf is this, loads last year.

Carling Cup final not inspire anybody

Latest patch, title chalenge ambition!

Sold:

Paul Quinn 325k - Ipswich - Not good enough, brilliant mental stats but Kev and Darcy will always be priority.

Anthony Gerrard - 575k - Ipswich - 1 year left on deal, I had players similar to him already.

Signed:

Teko Modise - Sundowns - 350k - Brilliant technical,mental and not shoddy physicals to grab a first team choice at CAM

Lewis McGugan - Forest - 1m - Dosen't look much but like him in real life, stretched the budget to its max to squeeze him in, brilliant backup behind Modise and Whitts

Haris Vukic - Newcastle - loan - signed in real life so I also signed him, annoyed that Lawrence isnt for us on the game despite being till end of season?

Andros Townsend - Spurs - loan - Exactly what we need in real life, a proper winger.

Pat McCourt - 275k - Celtic - Very good winger, lacks a bit of pace but is a game-changer.

Nathan Delfouneso - Loan - available, looks raw yet exciting, will compete with Miller and Mason for the lone striker role.

First game:

Barnsley 0-0 - Cardiff City - we dominated, 2 disallowed goals but not too bad, looking to take 4 off them this season!

Next up:

Swindon Town - League Cup - should win, will give Mcgugan, Vuckic, Mason,Conway their debuts!

McGugan, waste of money on this new patch. Won't really perform.

Lawrence was signed after the data lock and is only an emergency loan. SI don't include those. Much like Elokobi isn't with Forest.

League Cup 1st round:

Swindon Town 0-7 Cardiff City

Mark Hudson(2)

Kenny Miller(2)

Haris Vuckic

Lewis McGugan

Craig Conway

I fear for those Swindon players after Di Canio's full time team talk. Brighton next!

McGugan, waste of money on this new patch. Won't really perform.

Lawrence was signed after the data lock and is only an emergency loan. SI don't include those. Much like Elokobi isn't with Forest.

Lawrence wasn't an emergency loan, we signed him firmly in the loan market, could have used him effectively too :@

Shame about McGugan, he did well against Swindon, not much I know but on the whole he's a backup to Whittingham, hopefully he'll add something to the team.

Was he signed in the January transfer window?

Don't think so but he defo wasn't an emergency loan.

SI should include these :/

They don't and never have included short-term loans.

Barnsley 0-0 Cardiff City

Swindon 0-7 Cardiff City

Cardiff City 4-1 Brighton - Turner, Modise, Gunnarsson, Miller!

Solid win, Southampton next!!

Want go give Delfouneso a go, don't see a chance at all for Earnie or Parkin sadly.

2 more great games!

Southampton 1-3 Cardiff City:

Miller with a goal 1 minute in, Conway with a brilliant assist. Teko Modise bagged the second with a beautifully placed shot. Tadanari Lee got one back but wonderful build up by Miller squared to Conway, 1 touch bang, brilliant win, was hoping for a draw, every game as it comes!

Cardiff 4-0 Millwall

Cracking performance. Wonderful defensive work by Gunnarsson earned us a free kick. Hudson at the back post poked in somehow, 1-0. Soon, outside the box, roughly 25-30 yards Conway with a first time volley which flew into the net. The lad's on form. Miller picked up the ball on an angle outside the box, smashed a bullet which sadly hit the bar. Lewis McGugan came on, the million pound man and immediately made an impact, smashing home a bullet from a Paddy McCourt lay off free-kick. McGugan then intercepted, ran forward, played Miller in bang 3 in 3.

Excited.

Wycombe in the Carling Cup 2nd round, a repeat of this year perhaps

Some transfer movement recently, although I'm slightly over-budget I had to get some kind of defensive midfielder in.

I was hoping to get Cristian Zanetti in for experience and backup but he failed his medical. Instead I brought in Ferrie Snoyle.

I also sent Stevie McPhail out on loan to Reading who paid a fee of 60k and supplied his whole wages which we needed to cut down. We also had capable backup in McGugan and Kiss.

Cardiff 3-0 Wycombe

A very young side proved themselved, Kadeem Harriss bagged the first from a rebound. The second came from recent Wembley goalscorer Joe Mason with a lovely left footed finish. Haris Vuckic wrapped up the win with a stunning left footed powerful effort from 25 yards.

Leicester 1-3 Cardiff

Leicester, the multi-million spending club were first, if we'd win, very unlikely but we'd go first. Wow. Kenny Miller produced an abseloute masterclass producing a 37 minute hat-trick, wonderful strikes. Wellens pulled one back with a wonder goal but our squad is on form.

Blackburn will be our next opposition in the League Cup 3rd round at Ewood Park.

Mental:

Cardiff City 6

Birmingham City 1

Taylor sent off after 9 minutes.

King Kenny bangs his first

Craigy Conway, 5ft7 scores a cracking header.

Paddy McCourt drives home.

King Kenny takes on his man down the right, wonderful finish, powerful shot into the bottom left.

Craigy Conway gets his second with a wonderful inch perfect free-kick(still unsure as to why Whittingham didn't take it)

Conway wins a penalty, Miller bags his hat-trick yet again.

2 hat-tricks in 2, 7 in 11 mental mental mental. Birmingham were 20th by the way!

giving my posh save a rest , been wanting to start a game with cardiff city , and now my journey begins ..updates to follow

Good!

I am now 24 games in, just over halfway and top of the table on 56 points. West Ham are always winning and on 54 after I beat them narrowly home 1-0!

Carling Cup, was beating blackburn away 2-0 then Marshall got sent off with nobody on the bench, cue 3-2 loss.

My start of season mental form e.e 6-2 Birmingham has slowed down, I'm still beating teams, but not as convincingly. Miller still banging them in, 4 hat-tricks this season, bagging 4 home to Palace in a 4-1 win. Hoping to make the Prem, haven't even looked at the gap between us and third, would imagine it's big but taking every game as it comes! Stoke will visit the beauitiful capital of Wales for the FA Cup third round.

Exciting, Saints next, think theyre third too!

What's harris like on the new patch, and does mason get his CA/PA upgraded in the patch ? I've started a new save recently but forgot to update my game first

Since the new patch, I've decided to give Cardiff City ago again. Found no problems in getting them promoted on the original data but wanted to start again.

As per normal, I was happy to say that I would be going to a "mid-table finish" and got myself a nice transfer kitty. This was boosted by selling Gerrard, Parkin, Naylor, Alex Evans and releasing all the U18's again to free up wages.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/bakircioglu/FM12%20Cardiff%20City/Transfersin.jpg

Spent a total of £1.5m as above and was happy to get Malbranque after his agent offered him around. Got him for £7k a week for 1 season. He's fading but he's been different class behind the front too. Felix Klaus has been a consistent player. His physical stats may be quite poor but he's a great investment. He's a cheap loan and at the end of season one, he's always available for £1.6m.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/bakircioglu/FM12%20Cardiff%20City/Klaus.jpg

As per normal, I've gone for a 4-2-3-1 formation. Playing a Deep Laying Playmaker (Whittingham/McPhail) with a Ball Winning Midfielder (Gunnarson/Kiss). In front, I've found playing Andros Townsend as a Winger, Malbranque as a Trequarista and Klaus as an Inside Forward to be quite potent. Velikonja is a must buy for £550k in the Championship and he's sitting as an advanced forward.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/bakircioglu/FM12%20Cardiff%20City/StartingXI.jpg

So far, this has turned into a pretty good side! Sitting top with only 2 defeats and into the Carling Cup Quarter Finals to play Chelsea! 2 points ahead of Second in the table with a game in hand too.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/bakircioglu/FM12%20Cardiff%20City/Fixturessofar.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v256/bakircioglu/FM12%20Cardiff%20City/Table.jpg

Kadeem Harris looks ok, mid table Championship at most I'd suspect though. Mason has got upgraded quite a bit, yes. And Whittingham is finally a natural CM, perfect for his stats.

So, after 38/46 games I've guaranteed promotion and won the Npower Championship title. Kenny Miller is my top scorer with 37 so far in all competitions(I play 1 up front), many key wins mainly away from home and wins such as 5-0 vs Forest and 6-1 vs Brum got me promotion. Paddy McCourt got dropped towards the second half of the season, a rotation between Conway(quality), Townsend and 400k Jan signing Garath McLeary was very succesful. Teko Modise and Haris Vuckic rotating were brilliant at CAM.

My board decided to offload Turner and Hudson in January without my consent, I was struggling, making offers for everybody but brought in Ross Perry, he'd form a key partnership with Dek Keinan and sometimes Blake. I also bought McLeary from Forest for 400k. McGugan was solid backup for Whitts too. The day I sealed promotion, my range of realistic targets changed dramatically, Kaka and Kagawa(albeit transfer listed) were interested, obviously I can't afford these, and in the end I still had 1.3m. Lukas Fabianski was transfer listed so I brought him in for 1.3m, my goalie for next season sorted already, Marshall will be backup.

Very enjoyable, glad it's over, far prefer 38 games to 46!

First season(Npower Championship):

In

Lewis McGugan - 1m

Nathan Delfouneso - loan

Andros Townsend - loan

Haris Vuckic - loan

Paddy McCourt - 275k

Teko Modise - 350k

Ferne Snoyle - Free

Ritchie De Laet(loan - 55k) - stupidest thing ever, hed already played for 2 clubs so I had to send him back immediately

Ross Perry - 140k - Jan

Garath McLeary - 400k - Jan

Out

Paul Quinn - 375k

Anthony Gerrard - 525k

Stephen McPhail - loan - 65k

Don Cowie - loan - 35k

Mark Hudson - 1.3m - Jan - board

Ben Turner- 2.4m - Jan - board

Second Season - prem promotion

In

Rene Adler - free transfer

Sulley Muntari - free transfer

Daniel Pranjic - free transfer

Mcdonald Mariga - free transfer

Royston Drenthe - free transfer

Tom De Mul - free transfer

Fabiano Santacroce - free transfer

Steven Caulkner - loan

Lukas Fabianski - 1.3m

Beram Kayal - 4m

Ruben Rochina - 3.5m

Dries Mertens - 5.5m

Christophe Berra - 3.5m

Ronald Zubar - 1.4m

Ritchie De Laet - free transfer

Out:

David Marshall - 1.6m - couldn't register him with Fabianski and Adler at the club

Ross Perry - 240k - Same as above, had youngsters Caulkner, De Laet, Berra etc

Dekel Keinan - 250k

Lewis McGugan - 1.4m - couldn't with Whits, Pranjic, Muntari and Kayal rotating slots of DM and CM

Tom Heaton - 725k - Liverpool - offered him a new contract but then got a good offer

Lee Naylor - free - end of contact not good enough which reminds me I need a backup left back for Taylor

Paddy McCourt - 10k - most I could get

Joe Mason - 475k

Stevie McPhail - 100k

Ferne Snoyle - 500k

Overall very happy, am a bit over the wage budget and would have liked to add free transfers Olic, Saha and Chivu in an ideal world but ah well. Loads of gelling to be done and am aiming for mid-table!

Oh and by the way as you may notice I got promoted quite easily by the end.

Our not so good friends Blackpool beat Slumsea in the FA Cup Final(thought it was Charlton for some reason) and they also got relegated

Dream season!

What tactics are you using for Miller ? I couldn't get him scoring much, just like real life i guess! I've dropped him now for Cannizzaro who was a free transfer. I'm top after 16 games and still in the league cup after beating Stoke 1-0 away in the third round and Arsenal 2-1 away in the fourth. They weren't their full strength teams but still had a few good players like Gervinho and Ramsey.

How come you loaned Cowie out in the first season ? Hoping the jacks will be relegated in mine to! They're a point clear at the moment though but only after 11 games.

I like Cowie as a player on the game, all round he's awesome, should get a stamina upgrade in my view.

Reason is, I was approx 6k over budget, and he was on round that I think. He wasn't playing much first team football because I play:

Standard back 4

1 cdm

1cm

2 wide attacking

1 Cam

1 st

Cowie's accomplished at Right attacking mid, and I already have players like Garath Mcleary, Paddy McCourt, Conway who were capable of playing there.

In regards to Miller, he gets loads of goals mainly because he's the main guy up top, he just bagged 4 away to Brentford in the League Cup 2nd round

I play him central striker on his own. I play the old tactics system so not sure if I can go into more detail If I can Ill try and find out more now

Yeh if you'd like info using the old tactics(sliders etc) I can give you that

At present I'm doing well in the Prem, I'm only 3 games in and sitting nicely at 7th in the glorious Europa League Spot.

Cardiff 3-2 Man City - brilliant game, Kompany put them in the lead, Rochina and De Mul got 2 back, then Modise curled a wonderful shot into the net!

Everton 0-0 Cardiff - happy with this, fairly even

Cardiff 1-1 Tottenham - defoe put them ahead, before Drenthe caught Gomes out of position and smashed home!

35 still to go, West Ham next, must win really. 1 new signing to add to the above list is Fernando Gago, too good of an opportunity to miss, this messed up my squad registration and I did a straight swap for Craigy Conway Quite sad how not many of last year's players are good enough to make the squad, especially Whitts and Miller.

In the League Cup I beat Brentford away 4-0 in trh 2nd round, I will now play Man City away, dosen't get any easier than that, there I was hoping for a cup run!

West Ham 1-3 Cardiff City

Cardiff City 3-2 QPR

Stoke City 2-1 Cardiff City - wonderful winner by Dean Whitehead ffs.

Cardiff City 3-0 Aston Villa

2 hat-tricks for Ruben Rochina at the CCS! Kayal, McLeary and Rochina at Upton Park.

Was hoping for a draw but a 83rd minute Whitehad pearler won them the game.

League Cup 3rd round:

Man City 1-4 Cardiff City

My reserves were playing, so werre theirs(Wayne Bridge, Pantimillion) some awful players, their main players being Mario B and Tevez, will play Everton home, Wembley here we come!!

Chelsea and Man U next, happy days!

I use Cowie as a box to box midfielder in cm and he's doing well for me. Conway's doing amazing as an inside forward in LAM and Whittingham is running things as usual. Don't worry about Miller now, Rangers offered 400k and apparently he has a foreign club release clause of that so he's gone now. Decided to get rid of Earnie to as his wages were high, he wasn't playing and i couldn't leave a City legend in the reserves. Brought in Conor Clifford from Chelsea and he's good backup for Gunnarsson.

Managed to get into the League cup final like real life, beat Chelsea 3-1 away and 2-1 at home. It wasn't their first team but still had some good players in with Mata, Cech and Torres playing. Really happy about this but I've got Man City in the final and can't see them playing a weakened team.

Chelsea 2-0 Cardiff City

Manchester United 4-2 Cardiff City

Cardiff City 5-0 Wolves(League Cup 4th round)

Decent. Sunderland home in BPL next, I sit 5th with 9 games played, Sunderland away in the League Cup Quarters too!

Hello just finished my first season with Cardiff and picked up the title on the final day on goal difference!

All season i was in or around the top 5 with Southampton running away with the league, but a catastrophic downfall from them at the end let me catch up and take the title with saints finishing second and Blackpool taking the playoffs

I only signed one player all season getting Henry Thomas from wigan on loan

Sold Parkin, Quinn and Mcphail and let Harris and Ralls go out on loan

So far for the 2nd season i picked up Kiss for 200k and got Seamus Coleman for 1.8 mill but struggling to get anyone in cheap enough and wages are proving a problem!

Hi just started a file with Cardiff after hearing loads of good comments about them on football manager and wanted to get them up in the first year but i need a good solid centre half for quite cheap and good wages as hudson is injured for 4 months ben turner injured for 3 months and darcy blake for 2 months do you guys have any suggestions??? thanks ...

gioda

tor marius gromstad

bostwick

craig dawson

kara

birger maertens

asatiani

jon maidana

This thread has shown to be really unpopular this year, would have thought more people would be playing as the mighty Cardiff

Anyway, i will begin to post my updates in here. Hopefully keep this thread going... loneranger.