Cardiff sign Bellamy - envious?

Former Coventry City striker Craig Bellamy is in line to make his Cardiff City debut this weekend after completing his registration with the Bluebirds in time to potentially face Doncaster Rovers.

£30m in debt, regulars in court over unpaid tax bills and with money still owed to Motherwell among others for previous signings, the signing of Bellamy by Cardiff has come under close scrutiny, not least by the Football League, whose chairman Greg Clarke went public with his concerns.

According to the Welsh club however it is simply a case of jealousy.

'We went to the League, we gave them a full explanation of how we are funding this [Bellamy's loan], the underwriting of the agreement by our Malaysian investors and we put a business case to them,' chief executive Gethin Jenkins told BBC Sport Wales.

'There's been a lot of envy out there about what we've done, the fact that we've brought the Wales captain home.

'People have been really questioning it but they forget that at the start of the season we released 10 players off the payroll, there's been other activity and other issues here that we've resolved.

'We've faced up to our challenges when there were easier alternatives at times... we've been open and honest about that and we'll continue to be so.'

Cardiff also claim that the Bellamy deal will go some way towards paying for itself through increased crowds and merchandise sales and they deserve credit for pulling it off if that is the case.

In the same week however that Crystal Palace, close to going out of business in the summer, have made an offer to Edgar Davids to move to Selhurst Park, coupled with the release by the Football League of the fees paid to agents last year (£10.1m in the Championship) and it is hard not to worry that the ever increasing prize on offer for promotion is pushing some clubs too far.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.