Some thoughts on today and the current state of the club

This was my second game back since my two and a half year boycott and I must confess that I still feel like a bit of an outsider. An outsider in the sense that I'm still struggling to find much of a connection with the club at present, although I did feel marginally more emotionally involved today than I did at the Fulham game.

First off, on both occasions I've been really surprised at just how quiet the fans are. I thought it was all a bit muted during the Fulham match, especially given the return to blue, but today I genuinely don't think I've ever heard City fans more subdued in a home match in which the game was still in the balance. It's clear that the disconnect that many supporters are feeling isn't just restricted to the long term stay aways.

On the pitch there seems little pattern to Cardiff City's play. The lack of belief amongst the players is almost tangible. They look an outfit in free fall. Is it all Slade's fault? Well, that's difficult to judge. He's been brought in to deliver a major cost cutting exercise and inevitably there is going to be a painful period of transition. That said, on the evidence of the two games that I've personally seen, it's difficult to pinpoint any discernible sign of a game plan under Russell Slade. In the few interviews I've seen with him he appears lost and uninspiring. The problem is, if he goes, does anyone have any faith in Tan's potential choice of a replacement? Whoever comes in will, I believe, have to operate on a tiny budget (I've no problem with that - I believe financial prudence is very much needed) and with an ominous back seat driver looking over their shoulder. It's clearly not a healthy environment for any manager or team to prosper and as long as Vincent Tan remains at the club it's hard to imagine anything other than a pretty swift decline.

I'm sure that Tan would ideally like to sell the club as quickly as possible but that looks very unlikely at the moment, so, I think a more probable scenario is that he'll sit tight, offset some of his losses with however much of the parachute money that he can get his hands on and hope that his shoestring squad can at least remain in the championship. On the admittedly brief evidence of what I've seen so far that looks an improbable prospect longer term. Cardiff City look a club on the brink of a steep downward curve.

Totally agree mate I too returned for Fulham and also went to the game yesterday and I think the best thing that could happen now would be another U turn by Tan to get Malky back before this Club slips into the abyss. At least then we night actually have a team that plays with some spirit. Just my opinion though.

Totally agree mate I too returned for Fulham and also went to the game yesterday and I think the best thing that could happen now would be another U turn by Tan to get Malky back before this Club slips into the abyss. At least then we night actually have a team that plays with some spirit. Just my opinion though.

Malky who's doing such a fantastic job at Wigan

This was my second game back since my two and a half year boycott and I must confess that I still feel like a bit of an outsider. An outsider in the sense that I'm still struggling to find much of a connection with the club at present, although I did feel marginally more emotionally involved today than I did at the Fulham game.

First off, on both occasions I've been really surprised at just how quiet the fans are. I thought it was all a bit muted during the Fulham match, especially given the return to blue, but today I genuinely don't think I've ever heard City fans more subdued in a home match in which the game was still in the balance. It's clear that the disconnect that many supporters are feeling isn't just restricted to the long term stay aways.

On the pitch there seems little pattern to Cardiff City's play. The lack of belief amongst the players is almost tangible. They look an outfit in free fall. Is it all Slade's fault? Well, that's difficult to judge. He's been brought in to deliver a major cost cutting exercise and inevitably there is going to be a painful period of transition. That said, on the evidence of the two games that I've personally seen, it's difficult to pinpoint any discernible sign of a game plan under Russell Slade. In the few interviews I've seen with him he appears lost and uninspiring. The problem is, if he goes, does anyone have any faith in Tan's potential choice of a replacement? Whoever comes in will, I believe, have to operate on a tiny budget (I've no problem with that - I believe financial prudence is very much needed) and with an ominous back seat driver looking over their shoulder. It's clearly not a healthy environment for any manager or team to prosper and as long as Vincent Tan remains at the club it's hard to imagine anything other than a pretty swift decline.

I'm sure that Tan would ideally like to sell the club as quickly as possible but that looks very unlikely at the moment, so, I think a more probable scenario is that he'll sit tight, offset some of his losses with however much of the parachute money that he can get his hands on and hope that his shoestring squad can at least remain in the championship. On the admittedly brief evidence of what I've seen so far that looks an improbable prospect longer term. Cardiff City look a club on the brink of a steep downward curve.

These are most certainly transitionary times, all the more difficult to judge as Tan is quite unpredictable in his vision for the club, it seems to change monthly!
In terms of atmosphere, well if we go back to the days before the re-brand, we were all moaning on a weekly basis about how poor the atmosphere was. The disconnection started when everyone got split up when we moved to the new ground. The one thing that may help things would be to switch the ends around, but the club are probably not concerned enough to make that decision.
The quality of the football and this manager isn't helping of course, but to be honest, I really don't think that the supporters in South Wales really value football or their own club that much. We have our identity back, the club have reduced season ticket prices or near enough frozen them and half the current season ticket holders according to the poll are not renewing, because they don't like the manager or they find the football shit I'm sorry, but that attitude is not Tans fault or any foreign owners, it's just the complete ambivalence of South Wales football supporters

This was my second game back since my two and a half year boycott and I must confess that I still feel like a bit of an outsider. An outsider in the sense that I'm still struggling to find much of a connection with the club at present, although I did feel marginally more emotionally involved today than I did at the Fulham game.

First off, on both occasions I've been really surprised at just how quiet the fans are. I thought it was all a bit muted during the Fulham match, especially given the return to blue, but today I genuinely don't think I've ever heard City fans more subdued in a home match in which the game was still in the balance. It's clear that the disconnect that many supporters are feeling isn't just restricted to the long term stay aways.

On the pitch there seems little pattern to Cardiff City's play. The lack of belief amongst the players is almost tangible. They look an outfit in free fall. Is it all Slade's fault? Well, that's difficult to judge. He's been brought in to deliver a major cost cutting exercise and inevitably there is going to be a painful period of transition. That said, on the evidence of the two games that I've personally seen, it's difficult to pinpoint any discernible sign of a game plan under Russell Slade. In the few interviews I've seen with him he appears lost and uninspiring. The problem is, if he goes, does anyone have any faith in Tan's potential choice of a replacement? Whoever comes in will, I believe, have to operate on a tiny budget (I've no problem with that - I believe financial prudence is very much needed) and with an ominous back seat driver looking over their shoulder. It's clearly not a healthy environment for any manager or team to prosper and as long as Vincent Tan remains at the club it's hard to imagine anything other than a pretty swift decline.

I'm sure that Tan would ideally like to sell the club as quickly as possible but that looks very unlikely at the moment, so, I think a more probable scenario is that he'll sit tight, offset some of his losses with however much of the parachute money that he can get his hands on and hope that his shoestring squad can at least remain in the championship. On the admittedly brief evidence of what I've seen so far that looks an improbable prospect longer term. Cardiff City look a club on the brink of a steep downward curve.

These are most certainly transitionary times, all the more difficult to judge as Tan is quite unpredictable in his vision for the club, it seems to change monthly!
In terms of atmosphere, well if we go back to the days before the re-brand, we were all moaning on a weekly basis about how poor the atmosphere was. The disconnection started when everyone got split up when we moved to the new ground. The one thing that may help things would be to switch the ends around, but the club are probably not concerned enough to make that decision.
The quality of the football and this manager isn't helping of course, but to be honest, I really don't think that the supporters in South Wales really value football or their own club that much. We have our identity back, the club have reduced season ticket prices or near enough frozen them and half the current season ticket holders according to the poll are not renewing, because they don't like the manager or they find the football shit I'm sorry, but that attitude is not Tans fault or any foreign owners, it's just the complete ambivalence of South Wales football supporters

Agree entirely about supporters in South Wales not really valuing football or their own club very much. That was made abundantly clear when there was such widescale apathy to the stripping of City's identity two and a half years ago.

Aside from a small hardcore - probably no more than 5-7,000 fans, S Wales is just not a football hotbed. There are certainly many who are 'big event' fans in Cardiff be it for test cricket, PL football or international rugby, but the city and it's surrounds does not have the long term habitual support for football that many other similar size city's have.

I would always have considered myself to be part of that small hardcore of supporters who would turn up rain or shine and in whatever division, but I'm afraid that the bond has been broken. I'll still take in some games when it suits me but I don't think I'll feel the same loyalty to the club that I used to - certainly not in the short term anyway.

What a bizarre but revealing couple of years this has been.

This was my second game back since my two and a half year boycott and I must confess that I still feel like a bit of an outsider. An outsider in the sense that I'm still struggling to find much of a connection with the club at present, although I did feel marginally more emotionally involved today than I did at the Fulham game.

First off, on both occasions I've been really surprised at just how quiet the fans are. I thought it was all a bit muted during the Fulham match, especially given the return to blue, but today I genuinely don't think I've ever heard City fans more subdued in a home match in which the game was still in the balance. It's clear that the disconnect that many supporters are feeling isn't just restricted to the long term stay aways.

On the pitch there seems little pattern to Cardiff City's play. The lack of belief amongst the players is almost tangible. They look an outfit in free fall. Is it all Slade's fault? Well, that's difficult to judge. He's been brought in to deliver a major cost cutting exercise and inevitably there is going to be a painful period of transition. That said, on the evidence of the two games that I've personally seen, it's difficult to pinpoint any discernible sign of a game plan under Russell Slade. In the few interviews I've seen with him he appears lost and uninspiring. The problem is, if he goes, does anyone have any faith in Tan's potential choice of a replacement? Whoever comes in will, I believe, have to operate on a tiny budget (I've no problem with that - I believe financial prudence is very much needed) and with an ominous back seat driver looking over their shoulder. It's clearly not a healthy environment for any manager or team to prosper and as long as Vincent Tan remains at the club it's hard to imagine anything other than a pretty swift decline.

I'm sure that Tan would ideally like to sell the club as quickly as possible but that looks very unlikely at the moment, so, I think a more probable scenario is that he'll sit tight, offset some of his losses with however much of the parachute money that he can get his hands on and hope that his shoestring squad can at least remain in the championship. On the admittedly brief evidence of what I've seen so far that looks an improbable prospect longer term. Cardiff City look a club on the brink of a steep downward curve.

These are most certainly transitionary times, all the more difficult to judge as Tan is quite unpredictable in his vision for the club, it seems to change monthly!
In terms of atmosphere, well if we go back to the days before the re-brand, we were all moaning on a weekly basis about how poor the atmosphere was. The disconnection started when everyone got split up when we moved to the new ground. The one thing that may help things would be to switch the ends around, but the club are probably not concerned enough to make that decision.
The quality of the football and this manager isn't helping of course, but to be honest, I really don't think that the supporters in South Wales really value football or their own club that much. We have our identity back, the club have reduced season ticket prices or near enough frozen them and half the current season ticket holders according to the poll are not renewing, because they don't like the manager or they find the football shit I'm sorry, but that attitude is not Tans fault or any foreign owners, it's just the complete ambivalence of South Wales football supporters

Agree entirely about supporters in South Wales not really valuing football or their own club very much. That was made abundantly clear when there was such widescale apathy to the stripping of City's identity two and a half years ago.

Aside from a small hardcore - probably no more than 5-7,000 fans, S Wales is just not a football hotbed. There are certainly many who are 'big event' fans in Cardiff be it for test cricket, PL football or international rugby, but the city and it's surrounds does not have the long term habitual support for football that many other similar size city's have.

I would always have considered myself to be part of that small hardcore of supporters who would turn up rain or shine and in whatever division, but I'm afraid that the bond has been broken. I'll still take in some games when it suits me but I don't think I'll feel the same loyalty to the club that I used to - certainly not in the short term anyway.

What a bizarre but revealing couple of years this has been.

When you stop doing something it is really hard to get back into it.

Work took me away from Cardiff. 30 years later I finally got myself into a position where I could attend a lot more and justified getting a ST again. When I bought the ST I felt part of it all again. I'm not saying that is how it should be for everyone but that is how it is for me.

I left the country late 80s when we hit the dungeon league. Through the years pre-Sam days I use to get to about 6 games a season and it was a novalty for me to come back home while I lived in a different country. I missed the Sam era but returned to Europe where I could justify a ST and it was easy for me to get back into it because we were pushing for promotion and had just got to a cup final. Things were on the up so yes it was easy to return.

Now it is not so easy as things are on the way down. If when I returned it was like this then yes it would have not been easy.