' Seven questions Cardiff City fans need answered '

' Seven questions Cardiff City fans need answered '

1: What happened behind the scenes between September and December that saw the club go from spending vast sums of money in the summer transfer window to cost cutting so drastically?

2: Did the club decide to cut costs because they had given up on any hope of making the play-offs?

3: Why did the club sanction the purchase of two very expensive centre backs towards the end of the summer transfer window when they already had four established players in that position to choose from?

4: Why were players released ahead of and during the transfer window, when money could still have been recouped by selling them instead?

5: How can the club justify signing Adam Le Fondre for a sizeable sum in the summer, playing him every week and then shipping him out to a rival on loan?

6: In recent years, Cardiff managers appear to have been given far too much control and it has caused no end of problems and resulted in a massive turnover of players. Are there any plans to bring in a director of football and establish a broader club ethos?

7: Finally and most importantly, are there plans to continue cost cutting in the summer and part with the rest of the club’s sellable assets?



By Scott Johnson

Thurs 5th March 2015

Our Cardiff City columnist claims many fans have stopped caring about their club and it has not selling point, a combination that should get alarm bells sounding at board level.

Cardiff City have a problem. They may have thought that a return to blue would be a quick fix of their problems, but it is becoming evident that will not be the case.

Two and a half years of an unnecessary rebrand not only caused rifts between the club and supporters, but also apathy amongst some.

Happy fans are the goal, while angry fans are not good, but at least they still care. If your fan base doesn’t care, that is the time to start panicking.

The disparity between official attendances and actual bums on seats is there for everybody to see. There are large numbers of people that have paid to attend games at some stage, but have then decided against it.

They would essentially rather waste their money than show up and support their team. In these frugal times, that is quite a statement and some of these people may decide to not renew their season tickets for next season unless something drastically changes.

No one has automatic right to watch attractive football and these things can change very quickly, but when you group this with everything else that has happened in recent years, you can completely understand the discontent.

There hasn’t been much of a lull in the last decade at Cardiff City, who have been competitive every year, until this time.

But with time to reflect though, some are questioning whether they want to continue down this road or opt out and do something else with their Saturday afternoons, as there are a lot of activities competing for their time and money.

If the spell has broken, it is only natural that the people that once turned up without a second thought are suddenly taking stock and instead weighing up the pro’s and the con’s.

Cardiff’s primary problem is that they lack a selling point, no more boasting the qualities that gets bums on seats.

There is no talismanic figure like Craig Bellamy or Jason Koumas, a teen sensation like Aaron Ramsey or Mats Moller Daehli, nor characters like Michael Chopra or Jay Bothroyd.

The team is workmanlike, the manager is uninspiring, performances are perfunctory and results are subsequently underwhelming.

Will cost cutting continue? Will future signings be just as low key? What are the aspirations of the club?

People don’t want to invest in uncertainty, the very least they expect is ambition.

Financial Fair Play is going to have a dramatic effect on the Championship and clubs will have to box clever to succeed in future.

That has not always necessarily been Cardiff’s forte, but they will have to learn fast if they want to avoid losing ground on their rivals and also avoid losing any more supporters.

It’s time for the powers that be at Cardiff City to decide what they want the club to be and how they intend to achieve that goal.

It seems like everyone has had the opportunity to ask an array of questions to the powers that be at Cardiff City recently. As part of a much needed charm offensive, Russell Slade, Mehmet Dalman and Ken Choo have each fielded pertinent questions from fans and journalists alike.

Credit to them for doing that.

But in my opinion several key questions have yet to be asked directly and therefore are still unanswered.

These are questions that may never be answered directly, but hopefully they will in some way encourage debate and further questions amongst supporters.

Whatever the motivation may be, the club should be commended for actively engaging with supporters and may it continue.

But Cardiff City needs lots more open dialogue if the club is to bounce back to better days again.

Some fair points. But I still cannot get my head around this obsession with Daehli. I saw him play a quite a few times and he achieved virtually nothing.

Myself I'm just sitting back and seeing where this is going to take us. I've given up trying to work it out.

We won't get an answer to any of those questions. Well not a direct honest one.

I like most I will say can't believe how different it is to say just over a year ago. From one extreme to another comes to mind.

When all this settles down and we come to our starting line where Tan wants us to be I just feel it will feel like we have gone back 10 years. We have had a couple of wins lately against teams that will be deep in the relegation fight this season. So for now we are say mid table but if the cuts continue we could be one of the favourities to go down.

I think most of us will agree that. Perhaps why so many old hands are saying enough is enough.

Fans leaving in their droves is little to do with Cardiff City and more to do with modern football.

The move for NP to the modern but sterile CCS sounded the alarm bells that we had significantly moved as a club. We had Cardiff city fanatics however bad we were and hooligans. We all fit into those catergories, some went purely to support the local pro team others for the action, most of us flit between the two.

The second has gone, we are not a hooligan club any more, so the buzz has gone. There will always be two groups of lads up for it, but that has almost disappeared. The desire to move the Canton says it all.

Loads hung on for the premier league, it was their right, they were there during the bad time and we gained premier league fans.

Big lesson for vinnie, doe she twisy or stick. We are shit but are safe mid table, how much more firepower would we need for a crack at next season ?

Big lesson for vinnie, doe she twisy or stick. We are shit but are safe mid table, how much more firepower would we need for a crack at next season ?

It is looking more like no firepower available for us going on the rumour mill which seems to becoming true.

Question is if he sticks are we going to be good enough to survive next season?

Would it not be nice if we end up challenging going on what we have now. Stranger things have happened.

The club don't have to answer anything tbh. Most of the questions most people have the answer already.