CARDIFF CITY CAUGHT IN 'SIGN EVERYONE' ROMP!!!

It begins. Whilst things have been a little quiet on the Premiership transfer front, the Championship has been in overdrive. Here’s a brief roundup…

Birmingham City- Having hilariously made £12.2m for Jermaine Pennant and Heskey (£5.5m for Heskey- I mean really…) the Blues have made some decent signings. Sebastian Larsson, Nicklas Bendtner and Fabrice Muamba have come in on loan from Arsenal and will be keen to show they’re more Patrick Vieira than Stephan Malz. Rahdi Jaidi (right) is a beast, and pretty good at football too (I’m surprised Bolton let him go), Stephen Kelly is a young Ireland international and suffered from Spurs’ policy of maintaining a steady squad level of 254, and Cameron Jerome is a proven Championship goalscorer.

Cardiff City- have made a remarkable 12 signings so far, including Kerrea Gilbert on loan from Arsenal (first person to say ‘young English talent forced out of Arsenal by foreign imports’ wins a prize). Willo Flood and Michael Chopra almost mad it in the Prem but didn’t, Stephen McPhail was good on Championship Manager 01-02, and highly rated Malvin Kamara has been drafted in from MK Dons.

Coventry City- Have made, I believe, the two shrewdest signings of the lot. Elliot Ward seems expensive at £1m but was as good if not better that Anton Ferdinand in the season West Ham got promoted, and only lost his place to the unexpectedly impressive Danny Gabbidon. Chris Birchall (left) was the white guy who played for Trinidad and Tobago in the World Cup- good, combative midfielder.

Southampton- Rudi Skacel is the reason Hearts are anywhere near the Champions League, Gregorz Rasiak was a top drawer Championship striker until he joined Spurs’ small army, and Bradley Wright-Phillips is from good stock (and scored a cracker on his debut yersterday).

Elsewhere, Carl Fletcher is an excellent signing for Peter Taylor at Crystal Palace (was in fact my favourite player at West Ham), decent 20-year old Sylvan Ebanks-Blake has move from Man Utd to Plymouth, Sheffield Wednesday have got Bradley Jones on load from Boro, Dean Marney (the bloke who scored two screamers for Spurs against Everton last year then barely played again) has gone to Hull, and Michael Rickets will be an excellent signing for Southend (only joking).

Full Championship ins/outs here.