Joe Ledley’s imminent signing on a Bosman deal from Cardiff is being interpreted as a boy blow for the cash strapped Welsh side.
If Ledley had joined Stoke Cardiff could have expected a fee in the region of £3m for the midfielder that they brought through the ranks to become an internationalist.
Ledley’s cross border move to the Potteries would have entitled Cardiff to a compensation fee but moving to another Football Association denies the Welsh side the right to any compensation.
Cardiff’s joint nationality as a Welsh club playing in England gives them the access to the Premiership that Celtic would love to have but in the case of Ledley it has worked against them.
Their battles with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is nothing to do with Celtic and hardly a surprise for a club with former Leeds chief Peter Ridsdale as chairman.
Playing the Bosman market for their own good has been a major feature of Cardiff’s transfer strategy in recent seasons with Ross McCormack joining the club two years ago on a Bosman deal from Motherwell.
Last summer Hull were reported to have had a £4m bid for McCormack turned down- another Ridsdale masterstroke.
McCormack joined alongside fellow Bosman signings Robbie Fowler and Jimmy Floyd- Hasselbaink two years ago as money flowed straight out the club to players in an attempt to win promotion to the Premiership.
Last season as they turned down Hull’s bid for McCormack they re-signed Michael Choppra from Sunderland for £4m and ended the season losing out on a Premiership place to unfancied Bladckpool in the play-off final at Wembley.
The arrival of Ledley looks like being one of Celtic’s most astute ever transfer deals.
Acquiring a 23-year old internationalist with over 200 club appearances behind him on a four year £25,000-a-week deal seems like great business sense- hopefully it will make as much sense on the park.
Ledley will join Celtic on next week’s four match trip to North America and make his competitive debut in the third round Champions League qualifier later in the month.
His signing should give out a good sign of ambition to other transfer targets thinking over moving to Celtic.
With Stephen McManus looking like moving to Middlesbrough for £1.8m and Glenn Loovens possibly returning to Cardiff the arrival of an experienced defender will be one of Lennon’s priorities.
Darren O’Dea, Josh Thompson, Thomas Rogne and Jos Hooiveld give Lennon plenty of options at the back but none of them have played a full season of first team football.
Maybe there’s an experienced out-of contract defender at Cardiff ready to join Ledley at Celtic?
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Delighted we got Ledley…great piece of business by the Club.It’s not the first time we’ve been shafted …so it’s tough on Cardiff…but heigh ho!!
With regards to an out of contract defender…..
I keep “touting” Concalves ……….
Does anyone know if Celtic are interested in him. ??
I’d take him in a minute…
Maybe there’s more to the Sol Campbell story than we already know. I think he’ll come and I hope Lennon brings in Lee Wallace. Then, for the first time in ages, we can call our defence what it is. a defence. Concalves would be a good aquisition though.
ManU showed no sign of any guilt when luring Liam Miller to Old Trafford and sticking him in the reserves for a season or so, and then loaning him out to all and sundry.
English clubs, and I include Cardiff as they play in the English leagues, have a long history of stealing talent from Scottish clubs for next to nothing on the pretext that they haven’t as yet ‘proved themselves,’ players who would cost five or ten times as much if they played for an English club, so how anyone could consider Cardiff hard done, or that Celtic should feel guilty makes me scratch my head.
All’s fair in love and football transfers!
Guess that’s a NO then Joe…….
So do YOU know anything about Concalves ??
I’m just worried that the Dark Side pick him up for nowt.They have a recent good history, I’m sorry to say, with this kind of signing….
I know I heard they can’t match his wage demands….but that’s just speculation…or is it ??