Cardiff City folk law
Fri Oct 11, 2013 10:13 am
The 16th of April 2013 will go down in Cardiff City folk law, a chilly Tuesday spring evening, as the night that Cardiff City ended 50 odd years of hurt
When Cardiff were relegated from the old First Division in 1962, the world hadn’t (outside of Liverpool and the seedy red light area of Hamburg) even heard of the Beatles and Ipswich Town had just been crowned champions.
Along with The Bluebirds, Chelsea went down into division two, while Liverpool and Leyton Orient took their place. Ironically, for a team that now boasts five former Coventry City players and two Coventrians in their first team, that it was Coventry born Frank Ifield who was number one with I Remember You.
Unfortunately, after 51 years, few people remembered Cardiff City had ever been a top flight team, even Bluebird supporters themselves, two generations of us bloodied into the fold against the tide of friends supporting glamorous big named English clubs, we knew because we had been told by our Dad’s on grim walks home after suffering heartbreaking defeats or lacklustre draws, we as they had before us become accustomed to disappointed, of being the perpetual bridesmaids, used to relegation and playing in the lower leagues, of being on the verge of administration, of being saved at the 11th hour by shady deals by shady little men.
However all that was to be ended by a scoreless draw against Charlton provided our moment had finally come, and it came 53 years to the day since a home victory at Ninian Park against Aston Villa secured Cardiff’s previous promotion from the second tier to the top league.
Promotion was something Cardiff City fans had demanded, having been made to sacrifice too much, put up with so much abuse, due to the rebranding by investors, the traditional blue strip that had been worn since the first ever game played by Cardiff City FC replaced by Red shorts and black shorts, the club crest which had been chosen by supporters was replaced by a badge which had consisted of just a large red dragon until an outcry in the media saw a tiny Bluebird restored, all, but tramped under the feet of a huge dragon, it’s to this backdrop Cardiff City fans faced being accused of selling their souls ( no matter what and where their personal feelings and allegiances lay regarding the rebrand) of a season of constant taunts from opponents fans.
Cardiff City in the end achieved promotion with three games to spare, finally burying the painful ghosts of three successive play-off failures.
Malky Mackay deservedly was handed the majority of the plaudits for the promotion, for building a team capable of winning the Championship.
And there is no doubt it was a team moulded by Mackay. Of the Eleven that started against Charlton, only two players – goalkeeper David Marshall and right-back Kevin McNaughton , remained from the team that played in the 3-2 play-off final defeat against Blackpool at Wembley in 2010, the only other survivors of the Dave Jones era who remain at Cardiff City are Mark Hudson (side lined by injury), Peter Whittingham (relegated to a place on the bench) that day, and Craig Bellamy who had spent part of the 2010/11 season on loan from Liverpool under Jones.
The game had been a nervy affair with passes going astray, it was clear it meant so much to both sides.
Highlights of the match itself were few and far between a David Marshall save, and a disallowed goal from the head of Craig Noone.
After having shown few signs of nerves in the majority of the game, understandably anxiety crept into Cardiff’s play in the closing 10 minutes, anyone with a connection to Cardiff City football club were willing the sound of the final whistle, knowing that if the score remained as it was it would signal their entrance to the Premier League.
The supporters became increasingly edgy, but tentatively as the seconds ticked by we had started to celebrate, the chants becoming frenetic and deafening “The Blues Are Going Up” (although rather bizarrely) the commentator on Astro supersports channel in Malaysia – A company owned by Vincent Tan, who were streaming the game live, repeatedly stated the Cardiff City fans were chanting “The Reds are going up”
As the news filtered through to the supporters that Watford were losing away at Millwall, meaning even a loss would suffice for Bluebirds - to realise our promotional dreams at long last!
The game seemed to slow ‘ but then, when the referee finally blew his whistle it brought about total jubilation. Cardiff City were promoted to the Premier League.
Screams of YES! GET IN! Chants of “The Blues Are Up!” rang out among the mass hugging and dancing, the pitch invasion began, the Charlton players fled the field. A few of the Cardiff City players were in less of a hurry two in particular, The Silver Fox and Bluebird favourite Kevin McNaughton who is The Blues longest-serving player and the only player in the current squad that had played in the 2008 FA Cup final.
Super Kev had been with City through all those nearly years, it meant as much to him as it did to the supporters , that was plain to see! The other player was a lifelong supporter who had his Dad and Son cheering from the stands, Craig Bellamy who had twice taken a cut in wages to play for ‘his’ team.
I wriggled free from a hug and set off down the terrace sending this prepared tweet as I went @RealSarahJPrice: YAYAY!!! BLUEBIRDS ARE PROMOTED!! Excuse me off to invade the pitch BLUEBIRDS!!
I went onto the pitch to celebrate for (in my mind) all the supporters who were not there to see this historical moment, from my friend who had missed the game due to a recent foot operation, to all the friends, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, Grampy’s and Nan’s who hadn’t lived to see the day, I even found myself at one point looking at the night sky staring at the moon, which was now clouded by the blue and yellow smoke from canisters let off by supporters and tearfully said “Stuart we made it!” directed to the late former Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable who had been a much-loved figure on the terraces even at the height of his fame Stuart made every game humanly possible.
Crying tears of joy tinged with a deep sadness for two supporters in particular, Dads that should have been there, but weren’t tearing up – I saw Kevin McNaughton lifted high upon the shoulder of one Bluebird supporter after another arms in the air, face scrunched up, punching the air in exaltation, screaming and swearing his head off, the gist of which was Yes at last.
With these scenes on the pitch and chants of The Blues are going up clearly audible, and ringing in his ears Vincent Tan in the tunnel being interviewed live on Sky Sports News grabbed the red Cardiff City shirt he was wearing over his shirt and tie and tucked into high-waisted trousers and said “lucky red, lucky red, all down to lucky red, lucky red”
The promotion to the Premier League and what it meant to the blue part of south Wales was better described by Craig Bellamy who had his father and teenage son, Ellis, who is on Cardiff’s books, watching from the stands, Bellamy tearfully said “Football wise, this is certainly the best moment.
To have people I truly love around me, to share this with me, to see my dad afterwards and all the heartache he has been through watching Cardiff over the years. I have lost count how many games I used to go to with him on a Tuesday night against some team, and him pulling me to the side, leaving 10 minutes before the end, and saying we would never go back.”
The dark days were behind the club at least we Bluebird faithful thought, even if an increasing number of the fans via the Sian Branson led ‘Bluebirds Unite’ had to continue to fight for the restoration of tradition; the crest and club colour of hundred plus years, the club and its oiled team of staff was soundly in place, and so was Malky MacKay (after he had rejected approaches by Everton and several other clubs during the summer) much to the relief of all the supporters and players who alike credited him with the promotion, Bluebird fans hold MacKay in the same extremely high regard only Eddie May before him had attained, on par with Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United – As the Bluebirds supporters new anthem written by lifelong Cardiff City fan the singer songwriter James Fox ’Back Where We Belong’ attests: “And Now We’ve Reached The Promised land, And Everyone’s A City Fan, Malky’s Going To Take Us Higher, Making Cardiff City Breathe Fire”
However just six months later, that all seems to be in tatters; Kevin McNaughton is out on loan at Bolton, Craig Bellamy is in and out of the starting line-up and Iain Moody, the head of recruitment and chief scout at Cardiff City, A man who has been at the side of manager Malky Mackay for seven years, and whom he has credited with most of the clubs signings, has been at first suspended, then placed on season long ‘Gardening leave’ by Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan, over the Bluebirds’ summer transfer spending and the £35m transfer budget.
Tan’s position now being he expected that sum to include all transfer fees, wages, bonuses and signing-on fees – rather than just the transfer fees paid to other clubs to bring stars such as Gary Medel to Cardiff City.
Moody’s replacement is 23-year-old Kazakhstani Alisher Apsalyamov – A friend of owner Vincent Tan’s son U-Jiun – who was previously employed by the club as a painter and decorator and as by his own admission no previous experience in football other than spending the summer helping to redecorate Cardiff City Stadium!
There have been rows between the players and Tan over bonus’ that had not been paid, fans have been told if they are seen standing during matches at CCS they will be ejected and banned for five games, and Mackay as reportedly had to ban Vincent Tan from the dressing room after Tan stormed in at half time during the recent game against Newcastle United to berate the players during his team talk.
England footballing legend, and Match Of the Day presenter Gary Lineker commented on the whole mess via his twitter account - “What is going on at Cardiff? I’ve an awful feeling Malky Mackay’s great work may be unravelled. (they) Could end with faces as red as the kit!”
The result of this is strained to breaking point relations between Tan and MacKay – Thursday evening saw Malky Mackay locked in three-hour talks with key board members of Cardiff City Football Club attempting to clarify his future as Bluebirds manager. However those senior officials – did not include Vincent Tan or chief executive Simon Lim.
Fans remonstrating loudly fearful of losing a manager, whom they revere a man who has taken Cardiff City football Club to 13th in the Premier League having beaten Manchester City in what was a thrilling, skilful classic of a game on route, something as joint favourites’ with pundits to be relegated straight back into the Championship before the start of the season, we hadn’t dared to even dream about.
But thanks to the latest in a long line of crazy unfathomable behaviour by the Blues Malaysian owner everything looks to be teetering on the edge of disaster, with heartache waiting around the corner yet again
CCFC
BTID 
When Cardiff were relegated from the old First Division in 1962, the world hadn’t (outside of Liverpool and the seedy red light area of Hamburg) even heard of the Beatles and Ipswich Town had just been crowned champions.
Along with The Bluebirds, Chelsea went down into division two, while Liverpool and Leyton Orient took their place. Ironically, for a team that now boasts five former Coventry City players and two Coventrians in their first team, that it was Coventry born Frank Ifield who was number one with I Remember You.
Unfortunately, after 51 years, few people remembered Cardiff City had ever been a top flight team, even Bluebird supporters themselves, two generations of us bloodied into the fold against the tide of friends supporting glamorous big named English clubs, we knew because we had been told by our Dad’s on grim walks home after suffering heartbreaking defeats or lacklustre draws, we as they had before us become accustomed to disappointed, of being the perpetual bridesmaids, used to relegation and playing in the lower leagues, of being on the verge of administration, of being saved at the 11th hour by shady deals by shady little men.
However all that was to be ended by a scoreless draw against Charlton provided our moment had finally come, and it came 53 years to the day since a home victory at Ninian Park against Aston Villa secured Cardiff’s previous promotion from the second tier to the top league.
Promotion was something Cardiff City fans had demanded, having been made to sacrifice too much, put up with so much abuse, due to the rebranding by investors, the traditional blue strip that had been worn since the first ever game played by Cardiff City FC replaced by Red shorts and black shorts, the club crest which had been chosen by supporters was replaced by a badge which had consisted of just a large red dragon until an outcry in the media saw a tiny Bluebird restored, all, but tramped under the feet of a huge dragon, it’s to this backdrop Cardiff City fans faced being accused of selling their souls ( no matter what and where their personal feelings and allegiances lay regarding the rebrand) of a season of constant taunts from opponents fans.
Cardiff City in the end achieved promotion with three games to spare, finally burying the painful ghosts of three successive play-off failures.
Malky Mackay deservedly was handed the majority of the plaudits for the promotion, for building a team capable of winning the Championship.
And there is no doubt it was a team moulded by Mackay. Of the Eleven that started against Charlton, only two players – goalkeeper David Marshall and right-back Kevin McNaughton , remained from the team that played in the 3-2 play-off final defeat against Blackpool at Wembley in 2010, the only other survivors of the Dave Jones era who remain at Cardiff City are Mark Hudson (side lined by injury), Peter Whittingham (relegated to a place on the bench) that day, and Craig Bellamy who had spent part of the 2010/11 season on loan from Liverpool under Jones.
The game had been a nervy affair with passes going astray, it was clear it meant so much to both sides.
Highlights of the match itself were few and far between a David Marshall save, and a disallowed goal from the head of Craig Noone.
After having shown few signs of nerves in the majority of the game, understandably anxiety crept into Cardiff’s play in the closing 10 minutes, anyone with a connection to Cardiff City football club were willing the sound of the final whistle, knowing that if the score remained as it was it would signal their entrance to the Premier League.
The supporters became increasingly edgy, but tentatively as the seconds ticked by we had started to celebrate, the chants becoming frenetic and deafening “The Blues Are Going Up” (although rather bizarrely) the commentator on Astro supersports channel in Malaysia – A company owned by Vincent Tan, who were streaming the game live, repeatedly stated the Cardiff City fans were chanting “The Reds are going up”
As the news filtered through to the supporters that Watford were losing away at Millwall, meaning even a loss would suffice for Bluebirds - to realise our promotional dreams at long last!
The game seemed to slow ‘ but then, when the referee finally blew his whistle it brought about total jubilation. Cardiff City were promoted to the Premier League.
Screams of YES! GET IN! Chants of “The Blues Are Up!” rang out among the mass hugging and dancing, the pitch invasion began, the Charlton players fled the field. A few of the Cardiff City players were in less of a hurry two in particular, The Silver Fox and Bluebird favourite Kevin McNaughton who is The Blues longest-serving player and the only player in the current squad that had played in the 2008 FA Cup final.
Super Kev had been with City through all those nearly years, it meant as much to him as it did to the supporters , that was plain to see! The other player was a lifelong supporter who had his Dad and Son cheering from the stands, Craig Bellamy who had twice taken a cut in wages to play for ‘his’ team.
I wriggled free from a hug and set off down the terrace sending this prepared tweet as I went @RealSarahJPrice: YAYAY!!! BLUEBIRDS ARE PROMOTED!! Excuse me off to invade the pitch BLUEBIRDS!!
I went onto the pitch to celebrate for (in my mind) all the supporters who were not there to see this historical moment, from my friend who had missed the game due to a recent foot operation, to all the friends, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, Grampy’s and Nan’s who hadn’t lived to see the day, I even found myself at one point looking at the night sky staring at the moon, which was now clouded by the blue and yellow smoke from canisters let off by supporters and tearfully said “Stuart we made it!” directed to the late former Stereophonics drummer Stuart Cable who had been a much-loved figure on the terraces even at the height of his fame Stuart made every game humanly possible.
Crying tears of joy tinged with a deep sadness for two supporters in particular, Dads that should have been there, but weren’t tearing up – I saw Kevin McNaughton lifted high upon the shoulder of one Bluebird supporter after another arms in the air, face scrunched up, punching the air in exaltation, screaming and swearing his head off, the gist of which was Yes at last.
With these scenes on the pitch and chants of The Blues are going up clearly audible, and ringing in his ears Vincent Tan in the tunnel being interviewed live on Sky Sports News grabbed the red Cardiff City shirt he was wearing over his shirt and tie and tucked into high-waisted trousers and said “lucky red, lucky red, all down to lucky red, lucky red”
The promotion to the Premier League and what it meant to the blue part of south Wales was better described by Craig Bellamy who had his father and teenage son, Ellis, who is on Cardiff’s books, watching from the stands, Bellamy tearfully said “Football wise, this is certainly the best moment.
To have people I truly love around me, to share this with me, to see my dad afterwards and all the heartache he has been through watching Cardiff over the years. I have lost count how many games I used to go to with him on a Tuesday night against some team, and him pulling me to the side, leaving 10 minutes before the end, and saying we would never go back.”
The dark days were behind the club at least we Bluebird faithful thought, even if an increasing number of the fans via the Sian Branson led ‘Bluebirds Unite’ had to continue to fight for the restoration of tradition; the crest and club colour of hundred plus years, the club and its oiled team of staff was soundly in place, and so was Malky MacKay (after he had rejected approaches by Everton and several other clubs during the summer) much to the relief of all the supporters and players who alike credited him with the promotion, Bluebird fans hold MacKay in the same extremely high regard only Eddie May before him had attained, on par with Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United – As the Bluebirds supporters new anthem written by lifelong Cardiff City fan the singer songwriter James Fox ’Back Where We Belong’ attests: “And Now We’ve Reached The Promised land, And Everyone’s A City Fan, Malky’s Going To Take Us Higher, Making Cardiff City Breathe Fire”
However just six months later, that all seems to be in tatters; Kevin McNaughton is out on loan at Bolton, Craig Bellamy is in and out of the starting line-up and Iain Moody, the head of recruitment and chief scout at Cardiff City, A man who has been at the side of manager Malky Mackay for seven years, and whom he has credited with most of the clubs signings, has been at first suspended, then placed on season long ‘Gardening leave’ by Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan, over the Bluebirds’ summer transfer spending and the £35m transfer budget.
Tan’s position now being he expected that sum to include all transfer fees, wages, bonuses and signing-on fees – rather than just the transfer fees paid to other clubs to bring stars such as Gary Medel to Cardiff City.
Moody’s replacement is 23-year-old Kazakhstani Alisher Apsalyamov – A friend of owner Vincent Tan’s son U-Jiun – who was previously employed by the club as a painter and decorator and as by his own admission no previous experience in football other than spending the summer helping to redecorate Cardiff City Stadium!
There have been rows between the players and Tan over bonus’ that had not been paid, fans have been told if they are seen standing during matches at CCS they will be ejected and banned for five games, and Mackay as reportedly had to ban Vincent Tan from the dressing room after Tan stormed in at half time during the recent game against Newcastle United to berate the players during his team talk.
England footballing legend, and Match Of the Day presenter Gary Lineker commented on the whole mess via his twitter account - “What is going on at Cardiff? I’ve an awful feeling Malky Mackay’s great work may be unravelled. (they) Could end with faces as red as the kit!”
The result of this is strained to breaking point relations between Tan and MacKay – Thursday evening saw Malky Mackay locked in three-hour talks with key board members of Cardiff City Football Club attempting to clarify his future as Bluebirds manager. However those senior officials – did not include Vincent Tan or chief executive Simon Lim.
Fans remonstrating loudly fearful of losing a manager, whom they revere a man who has taken Cardiff City football Club to 13th in the Premier League having beaten Manchester City in what was a thrilling, skilful classic of a game on route, something as joint favourites’ with pundits to be relegated straight back into the Championship before the start of the season, we hadn’t dared to even dream about.
But thanks to the latest in a long line of crazy unfathomable behaviour by the Blues Malaysian owner everything looks to be teetering on the edge of disaster, with heartache waiting around the corner yet again
CCFC
BTID
Re: Cardiff City folk law
Fri Oct 11, 2013 4:39 pm
FROM THE NET -- IT' seems like the mist has cleared from bullshit mountain and everyone is now able to see what Bluebirds Unite have been able to see for some time, that Tan has no respect for the fans or club and has thrown away a golden opportunity be one of the most loved club owners in the PL due to ego...those plastic reds should be hanging their heads in shame right now. Come on back to the blue side you're still welcome. WEAR BLUE. CCFC
Re: Cardiff City folk law
Fri Oct 11, 2013 5:26 pm
Folklore.
Re: Cardiff City folk law
Fri Oct 11, 2013 6:17 pm
COPY AND PASTE.....
Re: Cardiff City folk law
Sat Oct 12, 2013 1:49 pm
I have read that somewhere else today .