Playing staff cull as Cardiff tighten the purse strings

THE high cost of Heineken Cup failure was brought into sharp focus in Wales last night as Cardiff Blues cut loose two of its biggest stars and prepared to make others available for transfer.

Reduced to also-rans in the Heineken Cup pool stages for the second season in a row, the Welsh region’s estimated £5m stg wage bill has been cut by £750,000 for 2011-12 and Wales Grand Slam heroes and Lions stars Martyn Williams and Tom Shanklin were yesterday told they would have to leave the Blues after their contracts expire at the end of the current campaign.

That could also mean Welsh heroes of a younger vintage such as Jamie Roberts and Leigh Halfpenny being offered to clubs around Europe.

No new deals are on the table for Williams and Shanklin, leaving the pair to face the prospect of being without a club when they return from the World Cup in October.

Shanklin, 31, was already having a bad week having been ruled out of the Six Nations due to knee surgery scheduled for today, while three-time Lions tourist and back-row Williams, 35, with 79 Heineken Cup appearances to his name, had planned to retire whilst a Blues player at the end of next season.

Blues coach David Young refused to comment on the players’ futures after the story broke in the Welsh media. Yet he told the Western Mail: “We decided to have one last crack at things with the players we have this season, but it hasn’t happened for us and next season we have to be sensible.

“And being sensible involves making cuts to get the cost of the squad down to a sustainable level.”

Cardiff are not the only Welsh region pondering budget cuts in the wake of Heineken Cup disappointment with Ospreys head coach Sean Holley this week calling for a reassessment of the playing squad.

Ospreys, who like Munster missed out on qualification from Pool Three, have reached the last eight for the past three seasons but much more was expected of its expensively assembled squad and feelings were similar about the Blues, semi-finalists in 2008-09 and Amlin Challenge Winners last season. Young said: “This season we’ve had the most expensive squad in history at the Blues and we knew that there would come a time when it would be a stretch financially to keep it together.

“The board have handed me a new two-year player budget which I have to stick to and it equates roughly to the salary cap in the Aviva Premiership (around £4m).

“We have to reduce costs and try to build the squad with younger players.”