The League Paper lets Thompson have his say!

I've exited Glasgow Rangers for Cardiff City determined to prove people's opinions wrong about the Scottish Premier League. Many people feel that only the Old Firm clubs could live in the English Premiership, but I think critics are incorrect to underestimate many of the top teams in Scotland.

I'm convinced that not only Rangers and Celtic would make a big impression in the Premier League. I could see outfits like Hearts and Hibernian doing well in England and I don't feel clubs with the long tradition of Aberdeen would struggle either.

I'm confident of doing well for Cardiff in the Championship.

I had the chance to join other clubs - Sunderland among them - but a couple of hours with City's manager Dave Jones convinced me that coming to south Wales was the right move.

I got two goals on my debut in a 3-0 home win over Burnley, a matter of days after joining City in early January. I just hope the Bluebirds fans don't expect that type of thing from me every match!

I've an open mind on how things will go, but I'm sure that doing consistently well at Ninian Park can help me add to my Scotland caps.

Cardiff are a club who have risen dramatically in recent years. They are an established Championship club in England's second string of football and have very real hopes of making the Premiership next season.

We are definite play-off contenders, but we need to start putting together a sequence of victories to state our promotion ambition.

I've left Rangers because it was exactly the right time to do so. There was a story that Cardiff were after me last summer and were quoted £1million, but I never heard anything on that at the time. In the end I left Scotland for a fraction of that price - £200,000 - but my contract was up in Glasgow at the end of this campaign anyway. I know I've departed with everyone's best wishes - that was so important to me.

I don't go along with the thought that leaving Ibrox after three years will jeopardise my Scotland career. I know I'm up against the likes of James McFadden, Kenny Miller, Shaun Maloney and Derek Riordan, but playing regularly at Cardiff can only help strengthen my case for more international caps.

AT GLASGOW RANGERS, I played under 50 first team matches after I joined the club from Dundee United. However, I'm proud of the 23 goals I got for the Gers and never once regretted going to Ibrox at 24 years of age - you tell me what kid in his early 20s wouldn't have wanted the chance to play in the Champions League with Rangers?

Breaking through was always going to be tough. Initially, I was competing against Ronald de Boer, Michael Mols, Shota Arveladze and Capucho for a starting spot.

Lately, I was up against Dado Prso, Nacho Novo and Peter Lovenkrands.

But I can look back at decent personal achievements with Rangers. There were the two SPL winner's medals plus the other silverware I won in the Scottish Cup and League Cup. But this isn't a time for looking back, it's the future that's all- important now. My wife is 35 weeks pregnant - this move to Cardiff was a huge decision for everyone in the Thompson household. Everything was painstak-ingly discussed. As a couple we are expecting our first child and the baby will be born in Wales - that's a massive thing for me.

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