"Cardiff City Football Club suffer yet more misery in the month of November" was an all too familiar title under the management of Dave Jones. Now I'm not, and never have been one to criticise unnecessarily, and you won't find me starting now; but in this case the facts speak for themselves.
Under the guise of Dave Jones, Cardiff City won less than a quarter of their games in November which some may say ultimately cost them dearly, given that one season resulted in missing out on the Playoffs on goal difference; and last seasons failure to gain automatic promotion went down to the last but one game. "If only...."the fans would say, and in some ways this would be justified given that if the club had won just a few of those November games, then Premiership football may well be a reality right now.
This is all conjecture of course, and in many ways utterly pointless, given that Cardiff didn't gain promotion and are still playing Championship football. So now, one year on from another fruitless November, how has the club that couldn't buy a win this time last year, gone on a ten match unbeaten run resulting in the Manager of the Month award going to Malky Mackay? Just what's changed to bring about such a turnaround in fortunes allowing every Cardiff City fan the chance to smile in November for the first time in 7 years?
I believe it comes down to a simple theory. Mackay seems to have birthed a new culture at Cardiff City Football Club. A culture that runs from the media team to the tea ladies, and this culture is based on a foundation of pride. No longer will Cardiff City have players on the pitch that don't believe in the cause, no longer will there be players that are just collecting their appearance fees, no longer will the fans be left literally pulling their hair out with frustration at a slow, lethargic start and most importantly no longer will Cardiff fans be left wondering just what the manager is thinking when he is standing statue-like on the touchline seemingly immune to the emotion of the occasion.
Mackay's new culture has brought about not just a breath of fresh air, it's more like a lungful. The whole club, from top to bottom seems to be running on a new wavelength and it's absolutely delightful to see. The football isn't always pretty but let's be honest, who cares? Not one fan that I know of would be prepared to sacrifice a ten game unbeaten streak to watch "tidy football". This is an era of pride in the club, pride in the shirt and pride in the cause.
The club has a squad of players that are all pulling in the same direction, all fighting tooth and nail until the final whistle, all fighting tooth and nail to keep their place. It's so hard to get into the starting line-up at the moment that even Robert Earnshaw the hometown favourite, can't get a game. It's been a pleasurable surprise to see just how hard the players are working for the shirt now.
So long live King Malkay, the curse is dead and one thing's for sure, i don't miss it.
Cardiff City Stadium
Home of the Bluebirds
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Monday, 17 October 2011
Its not just the rugby team thats trying....
Unusually for me, this blog was extremely difficult to begin. Difficult because we are at a point in the season where the initial excitement of a new manager and new players (most of them) have faded, the league is shaping up with us upper mid-table and their is no new "Bellamy-gate" transfer sagas to interest even the most cynical of transfer rumour readers.
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".
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".
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