The Joe Ledley Thread

From the Daily Mirror.

The green, green grass of home: Cardiff want Celtic's Joe Ledley back.. if they go up.

Cardiff want to bring Joe Ledley ‘home’ from Celtic - if they clinch promotion to the Premier League.

Boss Malky Mackay is hot on the trail of the versatile Welsh international who quit the club for the Glasgow giants three seasons ago.
And Ledley could be persuaded to come back to his first love, where he was part of the side that went agonisingly close to reaching the rop flight in his time under then-boss Dave Jones.
Ledley is still under contract at Celtic but a fee of around £3million may tempt Neil Lennon’s club to sell - and Cardiff’s owners will have funds to make that happen and match his wages.

Cardiff have pushed the boat out for big-name signings, such as Craig Bellamy, in the past and would try hard for former hero and Wales international Ledley.
The Bluebirds are seven points clear at the top of the Championship - nine points clear of the team in third - and also have a game in hand over all the division's promotion candidates.
Mackay will be given a healthy fighting fund to make an impact in the top flight, assuming Cardiff get there, and work has already been done to check out potential signings.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/ ... ck-1772416

£3m? . Would live to know where they get these figures from. Although this article is quite clearly bullshit, I can't help but feel we have to get him signed up ASAP, before the interest in him becomes more serious.

 

Future Celtic Captain for me Loves the club from what I can tell and realises what it means to play for Celtic! Love him. Ledley's biggest fan!

Hail Hail

 

£3millon.... your having a laugh. 10m+ as every player.

 

Met him in the Corinthian on Saturday night. Great guy willing to pose for photographs, great guy love um and his girl wow
anyway he wont be going nowhere

 

Stick another £10m on that, and they are welcome to Joe.

On a side note - I would seriously hold no grudges against him if he were to ask to leave to go back to Cardiff.

 

I had a quick look on one of their forums to see what they were saying about it. Most of then said they wouldn't want him back, they think they have better and that joe has decline as a player since leaving them :smiley-laughing002:. Apparently he was playing alongside a higher standard of player at Cardiff than he is now at celtic, which anyone with half a brain would know isn't true.

In some ways fans of championship clubs are worse than premier league fans, far more arrogant about the standard of football in their league compared to up here, despite most of the championship clubs filling their team of players from the spl.

 

I hope MCA from the Beastie Boyz doesnt leave. Hes my favourite player.

 

David Marshall, Kevin McNaughton, Simon Lappin, Don Cowie and Craig Conway.

Pure Quality timmy.

 

The only thing that worries me, players who aren't fans of the club, and are from English/foreign background, may see playing in the premiership against higher standard of opposition week in week out more of an achievement than winning things up here and having the chance to take part in the champions league. (Due to the league coefficient we are in no way guaranteed a place in the champions league). I'm not saying Ledley is one of those players, but there is definately a few in the squad

 

£3m

 

Hope Joe and Adam Matthews have absolute shockers on Friday ! Failing that, one of them gives Gareth Bale something to actually go down for in training. Hate that horrible creature.

 

We better get him signed to a new deal ASAP.

 

Cardiff City can * off . We should be getting him signed to a new * deal should have been done by now.

 

Cardiff can do one. Their failings in signing up our Welsh stars should be a lesson to our board. I'd be gutted to see either of them leave in the summer.

 

I'd hope we can keep him for a long time. I'm sure the club want to keep him and plan on having talks about a new deal.

However, he is already on a reported £25,000 a week and he might even be looking for more.

I wouldn't be surprised if a club from England were to make a move this Summer.

 

I don't think Ledley is one of those players who seen playing in the EPL as the pinnacle of football. After all, he did turn down clubs like Stoke to come here. I get the impression that Ledley has really taken to Celtic and he loves being here. It also seems that his girlfriend is happy in Scotland which will surely play a huge part in his decision making as well. I don't think he'll leave, and I don't think he'll want to. I certainly hope he doesn't anyway.

 

Cardiff fans are bitter *

As a youngster, Joe was being talked of in the same bracket as Bale and Ramsey. While he would never have hit the heights of the Gareth Bale's, Joe's career was developing really well with us. He was constantly improving until he needed his hip operation that our club paid for. Instead of continuing to develop with us, Joe unfortunately then chose to * all over us and leave for the first big pay cheque that was offered to him.

Joe became yet another mercenary, he was a regular Wales international while playing for us, playing in a better standard league with better players. But Joe's move to Celtic, playing in an inferior league with inferior players has unfortunately made his career decline. Joe is no longer a regular Wales international and Joe will now no longer be able to hit the heights he once could have as a footballer.

Joe could have been a decent Premiership player, but I now believe he is currently a worse player than he was before he left us. If you play with lesser players at a lesser standard, it drags you down. Joe knew this and any good Championship player moving to Celtic as an easy way to win a few medals, earn a bit more money and have a few games in Europe is a big lack of ambition. Any player who really wanted to test himself and play at the highest standard possible in Joe's position would have either stayed with us to continue improving and developing, or move to a better standard league with higher standard players.

I hope Joe thinks it was worth it, being able to win the SPL title at the likes of Inverness, Ross County and Dundee. Unfortunately, that is as good as it'll ever get for Joe now, he could have done a lot better than that and achieved so much more, it's a sad shame.

 

I think we will recieve bids for him in the summer, O'Neill will want him at Sunderland, hes an O'Neill type player and better than Cattermole, Vaughan, Larsson, Gardner and N'Diaye and Moyes if he stays might want him at Everton, he's an improvement on Gibson and Neville and is a Moyes type player.

Teams like West Ham and Wigan could do with him too.

 

Ask Joe Ledley whether he considers playing against the likes of Barcelona, Benfica or Juventus is a step down.

He left Cardiff because the consistently bottled promotion, despite being in strong positions a number of times. He left Cardiff City because it was holding back his development as a player.