Brayford - Try Again John

This time last year John Brayford (above) had developed to become one of the standout players in the Championship for Derby County and, in turn, Malky Mackay gathered up another bag of Vincent Tan’s money to sign him. 

Seemingly Malky’s plan was to make John Brayford City’s right back for The Bluebirds forthcoming first ever season in the Premier League.

This is standard procedure for a player to be recruited for his footballing abilities unless perhaps he has other skills such as folding kit really well or making excellent sandwiches. Mostly though, footballers are signed to play football. During games. For clubs. For money.  

Cue pictures online of John holding up his new shirt at the training ground all excited at the prospect of a new challenge.

Also cue a massive standard over-hype from Cardiff City support on social media excited about their new defender and his well-groomed beard.

John trained and featured in a few pre-season games and then something mysterious happened…

Nobody saw John for three months.

Maybe his missus caught a glimpse of him at some point or perhaps his Mum knew his whereabouts but City fans didn’t. And he was certainly nowhere near a football pitch or playing football on one.

‘Is he injured?’ the media bellends asked Malky during tense press conferences.

‘No!’ came a blunt response with accompanying steely scots laser eye stare.

The season was underway and City were playing with a tree-trunk on the right side of its defence where John would have been. His replacement Matt Connolly likes headers but couldn't run. The coach was now opting for playing players out of position over picking John.

To top that Mackay even signed French defender Kevin Theophille to fill the role and Brayford wasn't even given a trackie for a stint on the bench neither. 

Dark times for him. 

Soon after, I did actually see him at a City game around November time suited, booted and very well groomed queuing for a coffee in the corporate bit of the stadium. 

A young fan pointed a tiny finger at his face and asked 'why aren't you playing?' to which John mumbled  'Don't know' with a wry hairy grin. 

The season rumbled on leaving John behind as the fans and media drew conclusions of there being a falling out between coach and player to which both Malky and Brayford ignored and denied a bit.  

So, either a blanket is being thrown on the truth or the coach spent a bag of £1.5 million pounds, changed his mind and lost the receipt. 

The stench of mystery and conspiracy was in the air.    

Had John romanced the coach’s lady with his aforementioned beard? 

Had John been told by owner Vincent Tan his date of birth isn’t lucky enough in Malaysian culture? 

Had John just gone on a really long caravan holiday and lost track of time?

Who knows…

Next, one thing led to another and the coach got fired. Ole Solskjaer replaced him in January and (as if by magic) John was spotted training again, this time regenerated with a beard upgrade.

He was then sent on loan to Sheffield United where they reached the semi-final of the FA Cup. Not bad for a league one side.

This was a step forward for John. People were now acknowledging his presence and letting him play. He seemed happy to be off the naughty step and even did some jumps and that type of thing (see below).

The season finished and Cardiff City were relegated with the full back area of the pitch one of several weakest links.

John watched on presumably chuckling smugly under his exceptionally groomed beard.  

Time has moved on and this summer has seen a fresh start for the Bluebirds with Ole encouraging players who found themselves frozen out on loan last season to return and fight for a place in his team.

This has included other unfortunate players like Slovak nutter Filip Kiss, young striker Joe Mason and Joe Ralls.  

Other new players have come in, some have jumped ship and some were pushed off the ship as Ole begins to shape the squad.  

With fellow right back Kevin McNaughton being allowed to leave recently and Brayford featuring in both pre season games so far, it looks increasingly likely that Brayford, who has a contract at Cardiff that runs for another three years, could be charged with proving just how good he is in the second-flight as City prepare for life following their relegation and the gloom of last year.

Brayford the enigma has essentially not really played for City properly yet so his pace and guts could feel like the new signing we were supposed to have last season.

Come back in from the cold John and have a cwtch. Welcome aboard.