In fact, on the face of it everything seems to be well....just normal. Now for a Cardiff City fan this is not an experience we are well acquainted with. It has been some five or six years since mid-table mediocrity was the norm for this club and even then it was always tinged with disappointment from the "We are a Champions League outfit" club who sit with their heads firmly in the sand. In fact i can't remember what it was like for us to be in this position at this stage of the season.Think how things have changed since that fateful day in May when Reading FC taught us how to play football and denied
us a shot at Swansea in Wembley. New manager, new staff, new squad and a new Chief Executive. If we had been here; that is 9th in the league with 4 wins, 5 draws and 2 losses last season, there would have been bedlam in the papers and on the stands. There seems to be a quietness around the club. The stands these days are (sadly) nowhere near as raucous as they once were, the stadium is not the intimidating fortress Ninian Park once was. The unreasonable expectations have been replaced with a feeling of resignation, that this season despite Malkys protests, will in fact be a season of reorganisation and "bedding-in" of the new players. The Playoffs seem a million miles away right now to a lot of fans and the seemingly quiet loan transfer market is not helping matters.
However, is this the right way to look at it? I'm going to stick my neck out here and say no.
In so many ways this club is better off now than it has ever been before. Here's 5 reasons why i think so:
1) The debt has been restructured into shares and the historical debt is no longer the millstone around the clubs neck it once was.
2) The board are commited, professional and above all open about the dealings and plans for the club and the Malaysians whilst not splashing the cash, definately seem to have a plausible plan for the clubs long term future.
3) The squad is now a lovely blend of experience (Hudson,Whittingham,Earnshaw) and youthful vigour (Taylor,Kiss and Gestede).
4) The manager is enthusiastic, positive and driven and has inspired a new ethos of hard work into the team.
5) The fans are finally all in the same boat. We no longer expect the unachievable and we dont suffer critics gladly. Everyone's pulling in the right direction.
Yes these may be times where we're not witnessing demolitions of teams left,right and centre. We're not expecting to score three or four goals a game anymore BUT neither are we expecting to let three or four IN to our goal anymore. We are now in the era of good old fashioned hard work and grit.Yes we may grind out results, yes we are drawing more games than we're used to and yes we've lost some games but you know what, who cares? We can now expect that we are supporting a team that is prepared to fight for every single point, to put their bodies on the line and will not give up until the fat ref blows.
Please Bluebirds, this is seriously a fantastic time to be there. The club is at the start of a great journey, one which will have it's good times and it's bad but above all we need to remember that one day we will make it and when we do we can sit back and say "You know what, i never stopped believing".
