Chopra Showed Respect On Cardiff City Return

Former Cardiff City striker Michael Chopra returned to the CCS with new club Ipswich Town over the weekend, and managed to get himself on the scoresheet to continue his decent start to life at his new club. The ex-Newcastle United and Sunderland man has 5 goals in his 11 appearances for the Tractor Boys, including two braces against Bristol City and Brighton & Hove Albion.

It was somewhat of a surprise that Chopra departed the Bluebirds over the summer, though much of the surprise centred around the miserly transfer fee paid to us. A £1m transfer fee always seemed too small for a player of his calibre and track record, his previous fee was £5m when Roy Keane took him to the Black Cats a few years ago.

here are few opportunities to sign a proven goalscorer in the Championship for only £1m.

Crucial to the transfer was that Chopra had stagnated somewhat in South Wales, suffering with off field troubles and lacking the bounce and cutting edge that made him such a handful. Also key were the massive wages Chopra was collecting, so much that the decision to sanction his transfer was taken by Gethin Jenkins and the board - despite the new managerial replacement yet to be decided a highly unusual situation for a football club.

There was plenty of controversy towards the latter stages of Chopra`s stint with the Bluebirds, he was one of the players implicated in late night excursions shortly before the disastrous 30 defeat to Middlesbrough. Some fans were pleased to see him go, while others rightly thought it was time for a new challenge but that Ipswich had got a steal.

Fair play to Chopra, he was given a decent reception on his return and responded in kind. He acceded to chants requesting him to 'do the ayatollah` and opted against celebrating his nodded goal to give his new club the lead though that may had had something to do with the bizarre circumstances surrounding the goal!

The vast majority of City fans will wish Chopra all the best for his future, after 3 good spells with the Bluebirds. While our loss will certainly be Ipswich`s gain, hopefully he won`t be able to fire his new club above us and our replacement strikeforce of Miller, Gestede and Earnshaw can fill the void left by Chopra, Bellamy and Bothroyd.

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