' Cardiff City & Arsenal ' The Daily Mail

Vincent Tan is stupid, not sophisticated, for saying Russell Slade could emulate Arsene Wenger... he's already sacked two bosses in a year and is talking about selling Cardiff.


By MARTIN SAMUEL - DAILY MAIL SPORT
Monday 6 October 2014


Arsene Wenger. That’s the name all the hopeless cases drop. If your club has a dud for a chairman, chances are he will have at some stage compared his latest fancy to the manager of Arsenal.
‘The 45-year-old former player was a clean-living, quietly spoken executive fashioning himself on the model management of Arsene Wenger.’ Do you know who that was?

Glenn Roeder, as described in Tom Bower’s book Broken Dreams. No doubt Terence Brown, then the chairman of West Ham United, had more than a little to do with that florid description. It’s fair to say Roeder did not live up to the billing.


Arsene Wenger arrived in England in 1996 and is the longest serving manager in English football
Name-checking Wenger makes an owner sound switched-on, sophisticated, a student of the game. He’s French, his teams play lovely football, he balances the books, he develops youth. What is not to like?
Modern chairmen understand what sounds good in an interview as much as any starlet on Graham Norton with a film to promote. Nobody is going to advance Sam Allardyce or the desire to bludgeon a path out of the Championship these days.

So when Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan, about to make a bloke from Leyton Orient his third manager in a year and fresh from the self-inflicted turmoil of relegation, wanted to appear astute and knowledgeable, he knew just who to invoke.

‘Russell Slade was the fourth longest-serving manager in British football,’ he said. ‘Arsene Wenger is the longest and I hope Russell one day beats his record.’

Cardiff owner Vincent Tan says he hopes Russell Slade can emulate Arsene Wenger's longevity

Russell Slade resigned as manager of Leyton Orient but has still not taken over at Cardiff

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked by Vincent Tan last month after a poor start to the season

Malky Mackay got Cardiff promoted to the Premier League but was sacked in December 2013

OSLO CALLS TIME ON IOC'S PARTY
The most wonderful thing happened last week: Oslo refused to pick up the IOC’s tab.

Even better than that, faced with the prospect of explaining why their city would not be hosting the 2022 Winter Games, Oslo’s politicians released the 7,000-page dossier setting out the IOC’s demands.
These included the usual chauffeur-driven lanes with traffic lights reprogrammed to smooth the path of Olympic officials, separate exit and entrance gates at airports, luxury accommodation and a reception with Norway’s King Harald V at which the drinks, and all other expenses, would be on him.

Having initially appeared enthusiastic, Norway’s ruling coalition balked at so much freeloading.
It means the 2022 Winter Games will either go to Beijing in China or Almaty in Kazakhstan, dictatorships now being pretty much the only forms of government that will tolerate the ultimatums of IOC parasites. Oh, and us, of course.

In the same interview Tan spoke of buying another club. ‘I love football now,’ he added. ‘I’m looking to buy a club in Europe, I may invest in a club in the United States and if I sell Cardiff I would buy another club in the United Kingdom.’
Oh yes, it’s all about the long-term with chairman Tan.
He already has a club in Sarajevo and is expected to invest in a part-share of a new franchise in Los Angeles. This is the modern way. Yet to be talking of buying another club in Britain gives the impression he may just be passing through at Cardiff.


How can he then speak of Slade emulating Wenger while making his own status sound transient?

Owners love Wenger because he treats the money as if it is his own. He’s urbane and intellectual but most of all his philosophy is cheap. This economic caution is sometimes seen as a form of weakness with Arsenal because he must compete with clubs that have significant funds and managers who are ready to spend it.
Yet further down the league, Wenger is an inspiration. There are plenty of clubs that would settle for one FA Cup every nine years, good football and the books balanced. God knows, Cardiff would. On Friday night they became the first team to lose to Blackpool in any competition this season and currently lie 15th in the Championship.


If Cardiff could win a trophy each decade the manager would be hailed as a genius. Only at a club of Arsenal’s size is Wenger’s recent record seen as underwhelming.


Cardiff now reside nearer to League One than the Premier League as negotiations over Slade drag.
He has resigned from his post at Orient but there are compensation and contractual issues unresolved. Slade is currently serving Cardiff in a consultancy capacity. One imagines his advice might include ‘Get a manager in, and quick’ — particularly if he’s the next Wenger.

Yet all Tan’s blather overlooks one vital aspect of Wenger’s success. The role his directors played in it. The Arsenal board got things done. Not just the £50million donation that Danny Fiszman provided before Wenger’s arrival, that funded his first raft of signings and secured the future of key players such as Tony Adams and David Seaman; Wenger also enjoyed the support and complete faith of his employers as he rebuilt their club.
Tan spoke of making suggestions about team selection. Can you imagine David Dein or Peter Hill-Wood doing that? Dein was brilliant, a facilitator. What Wenger wanted he got for him. Hill-Wood remained in the background, the establishment face of Arsenal.
Throughout the years when Wenger was shaping the modern club, his board left well alone. That was their masterstroke, recognising they were dealing with a visionary and allowing him to pursue that vision.



Can anyone foresee Tan behaving in such an egoless manner when Slade is finally Cardiff’s boss?

Hell, he wouldn’t even let the club keep its traditional blue kit, let alone create the circumstances for Slade to somehow metamorphose into Wenger.
Tan just knows what sounds good. He makes a noise, checks a name and thinks that makes him a wise one, too.

Spot on.

I refer to my ridiculed post 'Tan compared himself to Arsene Wenger' I know this is a much more articulate piece of writing, and I agree VT name dropped AW for a good sound bite.

However, my point of view is that the longevity of Slade is directly linked to how well VT does in player transfer markets & his preferred starting 11 being the right mix of players. VT would not take direct responsibility if he cocks it up, and will sack Slade.

AW got it right all those years ago, putting Viera & Henry into the team where the back four picked itself before he took over.

Over to you VT!

What a great article! It is rare to have such well-informed info on anything outside the top 6 PL clubs. You can argue that it shows the club in a bad light, but I feel it is spot on in questioning the actions of the owner, his motives and the ridiculousness of his uninformed name-dropping.

Thanks for highlighting it.

Daily Mail.............says it all.

Daily Mail.............says it all.

I'd rather read something from The Daily Mail than The Echo!!

vincent tan is a f***ing idiot, the sooner his helicopter crashes the better, hes killed my club, I have never despised anyone as much as him, I would rather play in blue in league 2 !!!
just look at Portsmouth coming back and debt free, it can be done

Daily Mail.............says it all.

I'd rather read something from The Daily Mail than The Echo!!

I suggest you read neither, just wrap your chips in them.

Anyone know how chelsea got on yesterday.

Anyone know how chelsea got on yesterday.

They lost 1-0 in the touchline battle!

Anyone know how chelsea got on yesterday.

They lost 1-0 in the touchline battle!

they're still top of the league then bobby.

I've never seen the club so divided, the mans a selfish delusional clown, sooner he goes the better

vincent tan is a f***ing idiot, the sooner his helicopter crashes the better, hes killed my club, I have never despised anyone as much as him, I would rather play in blue in league 2 !!!
just look at Portsmouth coming back and debt free, it can be done

Tut tut.You must not mention Tan's demise in an accident on any Cardiff City message board.The mods will chastise you badly. Tan out.Nicely'of course.

Thank God you can communicate freely on this board. I can think of another happy clappy one where you get castigated for any trifling criricism of Tan or the team's players and performances. You may know the board .....its somewhere in cloud cuckoo land!!!

Daily Mail.............says it all.

I agree quality red top

Shown himself up yet again, why does he give interviews on a subject like football, that he has no clue what it's all about ( Marshall should score more goals, and we should shoot more)

this journo actually took what tan said as gospel?? ffs thought this board was bad enough for doing same, but he should no better! and as for the reaction mmmmm heared it all before

The last 4 lines sum tan up.