' Russell Slade urges fans to give him time '

Cardiff City boss Russell Slade has urged patience from supporters as he guides the club through a ‘transitional period’.

Tuesday 20th Jan 2015

The Bluebirds are on the brink of seeing their hopes of bouncing back to the Premier League vanish completely, if they haven’t already, as they lie 13th in the table, ten points off the top six places.

Things for Slade and his men are not about to get any easier either with their defeat at Norwich on the weekend followed by a trip to fourth-placed Middlesbrough tonight with Derby, currently third in the table, the visitors to the Welsh capital next following a break for FA Cup action.

Slade has been in place officially since October 6 and, despite a promising start at home at least, the performances of his side coupled with their failure to pick up points has led to a chorus of criticism from some sections of supporters.

But Slade now insists he needs time to impose his philosophy and way of working on the side.

He inherited a big squad from predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer which Slade has already described as ‘thrown together’ and, after years of big spending under owner Vincent Tan, Slade said his biggest job at the club right now was to rationalise finances and bring the size of his Cardiff squad under some sort of control.

“People are entitled to their opinions about the job I’m doing at the club,” said Slade.

“But when I came we were 17th and clearly there were problems here. Whether they were to do with the squad’s fitness levels or, more importantly, perhaps off the pitch matters.

“We can’t sustain the budget we were on long term, there was is no way for that to continue. Things now have to be done sensibly and things run properly. We’ve had two players brought in so far and there will be more coming, but we’ve had seven or eight going out and that had to be done.

“There were good players here for sure, but we had to address the size of that squad and try to instil a philosophy that would improve things going forward.

“We are doing that right now. Look, it does not matter who is in charge here, the club is in a transitional period, structurally it is in a transitional period and we will emerge better for it.”
Slade’s comments will raise questions about Tan’s on-going financial commitment to the club following the billionaire businessman’s recent decision to reverse his re-branding of home shirts from red to a return to the traditional blue, but both Tan himself and Slade insist things on that front remain unchanged.

On the pitch Slade was left bewildered by the performance of his defence at Norwich, but also pleased by the spirit shown in the second-half as the Bluebirds fought back with two goals.

One came from new signing Alex Revell, on his first start, and a first league goal for youngster Kadeem Harris who is pushing for a start at Boro after his manager threatened changes to personnel following events at Carrow Road

Cardiff also missed a penalty against the Canaries and, despite the ultimate defeat, Slade insisted there had been positives for him to take from the encounter.

“Defensively, things were not where we wanted them to be at Norwich in the first-half,” said Slade.

“But what I was pleased with were our physical statistics. Once again they were excellent.

“We covered more ground than in any other match so far. It shows how hard we are working.

“For two of the Norwich goals for example we had nine and then ten men behind the ball.

“People were there, we were not short of numbers.

“There’s four Norwich players there and we have to look at why people were not marking, we have to look at dealing with the second and third phases of the ball.

“But I’m pleased with the work-rate of the players at least.

“Things are moving in the right direction.”

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/foot ... de-8477016

i think we do need to give slade a chance after all the tinkering with the squad from ole....i think hes gonna do us ok hes aready brought in ravel who looks sharp imo...

I think the days of Tan ploughing serious money into the transfer budgets are gone for the time being, there has been horrendous signing by both Ole and Mackay and it no wonder that Tan has reigned in the expenditure. i think its back to reality time for Cardiff fans, we have got to do what other teams in our division have to do, ride out the bad times and hope something clicks with the playing squad without huge money begin invested in it.
Im really glad that Slade has got rid of a number of the fringe player, such as Velikonja, Guerra and Berget, its important we get these players who for whatever reason never got their chance off the wage bill, our huge squad was in desperate need of trimming down and I think that Slade has done a reasonable job so far in doing that. I was expecting a more of a fire sale.
What we have seen on the pitch has been iffy at best, but in fairness to Slade he is right, its a transitional period for the club and I think it will take a season or two to reset and redevelop the squad, players like Kenwyne Jones who earn a fortune and dont perform consistantly are the left overs of the old regime and until such players are off the books and gone, I think we will have to knuckle down and deal with these difficult times on the pitch.

ten points off the top six places. Tan get this tool out before its to late. Its a cheap option and he is clueless.

The muppet has had plenty of time to install his principles and they do not work. He has been here since October and the football is probably worse now than when he started. Slade stated that we are moving in the right direction, well if being relegated is his brief then YES we are moving in the right direction. He discarded lots of players without seeing them play in a competitive match and perhaps Javi Guerra was not the best on the training ground I bet he would have scored more than Le Fondre given the same amount of game time. GET OUT NOW SLADE OR YOU WILL BECOME THE WORST MANAGER CARDIFF CITY HAS EVER HAD!!!!

Here are signs we are heading for the dark old days! Shite manager and no spending...yikes!!!

Slade has been in charge for 15 games and we have seen the worst football at the stadium for nearly a decade. The football has been abysmal over recent months.

Quality is being shipped out and cheap replacements brought in. We are slipping down the table and their is no leadership at the helm as the manger picks his same old 4-4-2 and leaves talent on the bench.

Can anyone honestly say that the football has improved under Slade. I personally think that he is taking us backwards and is building for a fight in Division 1. I hope he proves me wrong but I cannot see it.

Lets be honest he's not exactly going to say "I'm out of my depth the club needs a change of manager " is he , of course he's going to say "give him time" ffs . Slade is a nice guy but he is out of his depth I except we are not going up but there is no signs of any improvement on the pitch the football is terrible ineffective we are to predictable. I think for the good of the club we need to change manager and let the new manager rebuild for next season with some new ideas

More utter bullshit and pathetic excuses coming out of slades mouth. Jog on your f*cking shit and out of your depth.

He can have to the end of the season and then jog on.

He's taken this club even further backwards than the norwegian troll.

He's taken boring, dull, slow and pedestrian football to a new level.

All I want is to see is City with some flair, pace and goal action not watching oppositions drive through our gaping midfield and shoot at will.

Going back to blue is one thing that may entice floaters to renew but others wanting to be entertained may not want to waste their Saturday's watching this dross.

How about 5 years in Parkhurst? Is that long enough?

why are we in a "transitional period" ?

After 7 or 8 years of knocking on the door to the Premier League, to Wembley cup finals, to very recent promotion...why are we being transitional ?
It was not broke (just damaged by Ole).

Going back to blue is one thing that may entice floaters to renew but others wanting to be entertained may not want to waste their Saturday's watching this dross.[/quote]



I was never drastically bothered about our change of shirt colour although changing back to blue is good to see, watching shite football week in week out does drastically bother me though, Slade must be able to see what I see on the pitch every game yet we persist in playing the same system and get consistently overrun and end up getting not just beat but more often than not well and truly stuffed!
Our club's been on an upward curve for a good few years now and we've achieved quite a lot but the tide has turned and the wheel has turned, we're on that slippery slope and slipping ever faster.
Blue in two is on the horizon

why are we in a "transitional period" ?

After 7 or 8 years of knocking on the door to the Premier League, to Wembley cup finals, to very recent promotion...why are we being transitional ?
It was not broke (just damaged by Ole).

No, our squad was completely ruined by Ole and as soon as Slade came in, I said he will need at least 3 transfer windows to repair the damage Ole has done to our squad. We won't find out whether Slade will be the right man for us or not until he has those 3 transfer windows.

why are we in a "transitional period" ?

After 7 or 8 years of knocking on the door to the Premier League, to Wembley cup finals, to very recent promotion...why are we being transitional ?
It was not broke (just damaged by Ole).

No, our squad was completely ruined by Ole and as soon as Slade came in, I said he will need at least 3 transfer windows to repair the damage Ole has done to our squad. We won't find out whether Slade will be the right man for us or not until he has those 3 transfer windows.

Nonsense. Slade aint up to the job. A good experienced manager like pulis or lennon would have got the best out of this squad.

why are we in a "transitional period" ?

After 7 or 8 years of knocking on the door to the Premier League, to Wembley cup finals, to very recent promotion...why are we being transitional ?
It was not broke (just damaged by Ole).

No, our squad was completely ruined by Ole and as soon as Slade came in, I said he will need at least 3 transfer windows to repair the damage Ole has done to our squad. We won't find out whether Slade will be the right man for us or not until he has those 3 transfer windows.

Wouldn't want to give him 3 windows.. His managerial ability is in serious question, He has decent players he just doesn't know how to utilise them into his one dimensional set up.

why are we in a "transitional period" ?

After 7 or 8 years of knocking on the door to the Premier League, to Wembley cup finals, to very recent promotion...why are we being transitional ?
It was not broke (just damaged by Ole).

No, our squad was completely ruined by Ole and as soon as Slade came in, I said he will need at least 3 transfer windows to repair the damage Ole has done to our squad. We won't find out whether Slade will be the right man for us or not until he has those 3 transfer windows.

Nonsense. Slade aint up to the job. A good experienced manager like pulis or lennon would have got the best out of this squad.

Our squad is severely overrated. The sooner yourself and everyone else realises it, the better. We need to clear the deadwood and bring in at least 5 new players. Losing Hudson, Taylor, Cowie, Conway and Rudy have proved massive blows and we haven't replaced any of these players with anyone better.

why are we in a "transitional period" ?

After 7 or 8 years of knocking on the door to the Premier League, to Wembley cup finals, to very recent promotion...why are we being transitional ?
It was not broke (just damaged by Ole).

No, our squad was completely ruined by Ole and as soon as Slade came in, I said he will need at least 3 transfer windows to repair the damage Ole has done to our squad. We won't find out whether Slade will be the right man for us or not until he has those 3 transfer windows.

Nonsense. Slade aint up to the job. A good experienced manager like pulis or lennon would have got the best out of this squad.

Our squad is severely overrated. The sooner yourself and everyone else realises it, the better. We need to clear the deadwood and bring in at least 5 new players. Losing Hudson, Taylor, Cowie, Conway and Rudy have proved massive blows and we haven't replaced any of these players with anyone better.

We had some quality players mate. Just needed a good manager and coach to use them to their full potential. Rather than mike Bassett and his benson and hedges selection.

Guerra has gone to a team chasing champ league football, ravel Morrison likely destination serie a. Daehli etc..,

Some Players also don't represent their countries if they don't have ability. Kim played at the World Cup. He was class in the middle for us with mutch when malky dropped whitts and gunnarson. Huge run of successful games.
Adeyemi was brums player of season last yr. Mancheda scored double figures. It wasn't long ago that Liverpool almost signed Kenwyn,. And we have all seen le fondre score goals for reading at both levels. Fabio has played for man utd and has had more man of matches than the rest of the current back 4 put together. Our players are low on confidence and slade is not the man to rally them up. The training drills are basic and below standard and I personally don't think the players have any respect for the journeyman.

I think time is the key here for Cardiff, but not with Slade as manager.