By David Williams
Neil Harris has admitted empty stadia – and the disappearance of the vocal Cardiff City fan base – is hampering his bid to attract new players to the club.
The Bluebirds manager insists he will be working hard until the October 16 domestic transfer deadline, but feels one major attraction has been denied to his salesman’s pitch.
Harris – whose team drew 0-0 at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday after Lee Tomlin was sent off – reckons the first pandemic transfer window is proving a massive challenge for managers and clubs.
“I don’t want to paint too negative a picture, but it has been really tough.” said Harris.
“A big selling point of Cardiff City for me is the fan base, the atmosphere and the noise of the Welsh people at the games.
“I think back to my first Welsh derby against Swansea City and it was a real event, even if it wasn’t much of a game. So, that selling point is not there at the moment.
“There is also definitely nervousness within the market. The football market is like the housing market – it can fluctuate. One minute you can be buying a house and the next minute you’re not because it falls through.
“That has been the case more than ever in this window. Things are changing all the time. One minute someone is available because a club needs to get them off the wage bill. The next, they’re not available because somebody else has moved to another club, so cash flow is okay for another month.
“This isn’t just testing for the manager. It’s testing for the players, too. With Callum Paterson, it was a case of, ‘is he going? Is he not going?’ And there are a lot of transfers like that at the moment.
“Owners’ businesses can be really up and down as well in the financial markets. And I’m not just talking and Vincent (Tan) and Mehmet (Dalman) here, but owners across the board are finding that where they were going to buy a League One player for 400,000 they now can’t do it because the owner’s business has gone into recession.
“It really is a strange time and on the back of last season – and the quick turnaround – I’d say it has been a very different transfer window.”
The Championship manager also thinks player wage demands are plummeting as clubs brace themselves for a bleak winter.
The former Millwall boss believes only a handful of megastars in the Premier League can make outrageous cash demands.
“We know that the Premier League is governed by TV revenue, with overseas rights and the sponsorship deals, and so they can still spend,” said Harris.
“But I think agents are coming around to the idea that clubs are going to be dictating now. The clubs are not going to be paying the ludicrous wages they were paying six or 12 months ago.
“Football in the Premier League is living a bubble. But the Championship is not immune to the harshness of reality at the moment – what is happening in the outside world.”
Cardiff remain unbeaten on their travels in the league this season after a tight game of few clear openings.
Albert Adomah Is On My Radar . . . Cardiff City’s Neil Harris To Wheel And Deal https://t.co/xue51ZxQcu
— Dai Sport (@Dai_Sport_) October 2, 2020
The Bluebirds had set themselves a solid platform on which to potentially snatch three points but were undone in the 69th minute when Tomlin was sent off after receiving his second booking in the space of 11 minutes.
But Harris’s men regrouped and deprived in-form Blackburn of any space in which to create chances.
Harris had no complaints about Tomlin’s second yellow card but described referee Darren Bond’s performance at Ewood Park as “abysmal”.
“I need to see the second one from a different angle, but I didn’t have any complaints about it at the time. But if he’s caught the player, I understand.
“The first one was never a yellow card. I thought the refereeing was abysmal at best today, for both teams, not just us.
“I think we were a little disappointed with the [first] card. What I will say is Lee is an experienced player, played a lot of games for us, and he knows he can’t put himself in those situations on the second one.
“It happens in football and it’s a test for the players.”