SILLY SEASON STARTED ALREADY

Cant believe some the posts on here, anyways your entitled to your own opinion.

From my perspective this season has been a great achievement. Lets wind the clock back to June 2011, where nearly 13 players left the club and Malky was selected as our new manager who had a critical rebuilding work to undertake.

Losing big names such as Bothroyd, Burke, Chopra, Matthews etc would have been a bitter pill to swallow.

Prior to the season, like any fan I was hoping that the club can at least finish above the relegation zone or mid-table at most. Not only Malky was very intelligent in the transfer market, but his ability to structure the whole management set up was truely exceptional, bringing new concepts of sports science e.g. nutrition, training etc was something we never had prior to Malky.....under DJ many players would come back from injury to soon and were out for longer periods, or they were very unfit. This season is probably the first time I have seen Darcy Blake being fit and leading a healthy lifestyle.

Whilst the budget was said to be 20 million last season, you had to take into account other factors, e.g. wages, equipment (lamps), compensation fees, and wages for DJ and Terry Burton. I believe Malky had done a remarkable job for what he had available and brought in some excellent players, with great work ethic and attitude, which for me has been a key trade mark of city's attitude on and off the pitch.

Whilst some people argue that we should have strengthened in January and bring in any old player, I diagree, we should only bring players who fit the values of the football club, and who play for the Cardiff city shirt. I believe Malky's criteria of bringing players into the club is spot on (e.g. their attitude to football, their lifestyle, fitness and work ethic.) This is probably the first time we have never had a red card in a season for a long time, which demonstrates excellent discipline within the Cardiff camp. I believe its important we shouldnt rush in to signing players and I'm glad we have a team of scouts who identify players who have the ability to fit in to the club.

A key indicator for me this season, is the investment and the ability to utilise our youth system. I believe in developing young players rather than bringing large household names. For me this season, is seeing the likes of Ralls, Mason and Farah play this season who can make the grade with the club.

We had an excellent Carling Cup run, which meant playing extra games, with only a small squad, and reaching the final.....and could have won it in the end, but hey, luck was not on our side. But we showed the world, what a small club like Cardiff can do, and compete against a European footballing club like Liverpool and show the world it wasnt easy for them. But also in my opinion it showed clubs its not all about money.....Liverpool had a combined strike force of 50 million plus, where as our team is probably not even worth 15 million, and they couldnt even score against us. The financial spending of premier clubs compared to Cardiff puts things to perspective, and for me what Malky has done in bringing players to the club was truely exceptional.

Lets be honest with ourselves, West Ham still have the premiership squad, the financial capability of paying large wages and transfer fees due to parachute payments.....and they did totally outclass us today. However, I am so proud of what the team have acheived this season, 3 premiership teams who were relegated and us in the play-offs is a massive acheivement. Even Leicester and Borough who had large transfer budget could not achieve what we have done this season.

Remember, this was always in my opinion a rebuilding season, from my perspective on a 3 year plan, and Malky has showed the capability of what he can achieve. I expect the club to be very busy in the transfer market next season and will lose majority of the squad which Malky inherited from the DJ era and bring in his own players to challenge the next campaign.

I still believe in Malky and that hes the right man for our club.....and I'm glad the board have chosen Malky, because I dont think the other candidates could have achieved what Malky has done for us this season in terms of rebuilding the squad and taken us to the top 6 and a carling cup final.
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I know people will be absolutely gutted today for not winning, but please put things into perspective and think back to June 2011 where we barely had a squad and people were just hoping for survival. Sad thing is, expectation levels just shot up cause we had an excellent start.

I say bring on the next season.....and lets support Malky!!!!!

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Fantastic post, a bit of reality, for me anyone calling for malky's head knows f**k all about football.