"DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS? IS IT THAT BAD AT CCFC? "

Cardiff City have gone backwards and need to tell fans what club's aims are

9 March 2015

By Nathan Blake

Blake says the Bluebirds lack a sense of direction with supporters confused about where the club is going


There have been plenty of bad times at Cardiff City down the years, but I’m struggling to remember a time when the relationship between the club and its supporters was so cold and so distant.

I watched the disappointing loss to Charlton on the weekend amongst fans and what I heard from those around me really set me thinking.

Supporters seem to feel the club is totally out of touch with them right now.

There seems to be little idea of what the club’s plans are moving forwards or what their long-term ambitions are.

Supporters don’t seem to know whether Russell Slade has a long-term future as manager, is the idea to give him time to build something at the club or are results still vital in the short term?




Reconnect with supporters
I would like to see Cardiff issue some kind of statement right now about these matters and try to reconnect with the supporters. It does not have to be too detailed or give away any trade secrets, but just something that will clarify where the hierarchy see the club going over the next few years.

It does not have to be the dreaded vote of confidence in Slade either, but simply state what the expectations are from the manager at the moment and moving forward to next season.

There is a lot of confusion out there amongst supporters and a lot of cynicism too and I just think the club itself could head that off by opening up the lines of communication.


There appears to be a lack of cohesion at the club, people don’t understand what direction the club are taking. It’s aimlessness, and there has to be clarity or the club might never pick itself up.

Supporters hate being kept in the dark more than anything. The club cannot give into all supporters’ demands, of course, but releasing some information I believe would be beneficial at this time and definitely send out the right message moving forward. If it’s a three-year plan to get back to the Premier League now, for example, that’s not a problem, but spell it out, so people are clear.

No-one seems to know what owner Vincent Tan wants from the club any more.

Now money is no longer being thrown at it, just what are the ambitions in the Welsh capital right now?

At the Charlton game I did hear a lot of negative opinions about Slade’s performance as manager. It was inevitable I suppose when you see the Bluebirds squander another lead and lose out in front of their own supporters again.



Lack of clarity
I believe a lot of that comes though from the lack of clarity over Slade’s future at the club again. Has he been brought in to simply trim the squad? A short-term fix? Or is he here for the long-term and to be given a few seasons at the club to start to build something.

It’s not for me to talk about managers being sacked or otherwise, that is a luxury given to supporters who pay their hard-earned money to go and watch Slade’s side perform.

When he was appointed I said I expected to see the green shoots of progress from Slade’s side early in the new year. That, I’m afraid, has not happened.

Slade, when he arrived, talked about building partnerships within his side, strong partnerships to see the side move forward, but this has still not happened either.



The problem has been for the manager that his team have been playing so badly that he has been unable to stick with the same personnel throughout. He has been constantly looking for an immediate upturn in performances, hence the constant chopping and changing.

Against Charlton there was a lot of talk around that the Bluebirds actually played a lot better despite the defeat than they had previously.

Personally I can’t see it. For me, there has been a slight improvement in the last three or four games, but nothing dramatic at all and certainly nothing to suggest to me that a corner had been turned or that a corner is anywhere near being turned at all.




'Waste of a season'
If Cardiff are better than they were before it is only because previously they were so downright poor that they could only get better. There was nowhere else to go really.

There are 10 games to go of this season now and what a waste of a season it has been. There has been no progress at all, the club has gone backwards and no wonder supporters are feeling weary and alienated.

Slade now at least should try to finish the campaign on a high and try and get a string of positive results together. More than that, there needs to be a bit of quality now from the Bluebirds when it comes to performances on the pitch.

It has been a dreadful campaign in so many ways, is it too much to ask for things to at least end on a bit of a high?

Annis, I rarely agree with Nathan Blake but he's spot on here.

There's a different atmosphere around the club and the fans.

We don't know what Tan wants from the club, or what direction we're going in.

Tan said last week that he wants us back in the Premier League soon. But is that likely? Not with no money for transfers or with a League One manager at best.

If people think this season has been tough, it could be a whole lot worse next season. Especially with the likes of Marshall, Manga, Noone, Jones etc to leave. They won't bring in a similar replacement for those players either, it will be all lower Championship and League One players.

I'll be renewing for next season but I know what to expect, I hope others do as well.

Tan expects us to get back into the PL, but not to buy players capable of getting us there, go figure

Tan expects us to get back into the PL, but not to buy players capable of getting us there, go figure

In twelve months we have gone from looking like a championship team playing in the premiership to a league one team playing in the championship

Blakey is spot on IMO, wise words

I totally agree with NB,,,and there lies Vincent Tans biggest mistake since day one, lack of management control of the football club, by entrusting people who were/are totally out of their depth, and not qualified or experienced to do the job.
Perhaps VT should have kept Peter Ridsdale on in the begining?

Firstly we need a figurehead at the club, someone who behaves like a Chairman, I guess that would be Dalman, but it seems that he is part time theses days, I don't think that Choo could be that man as he has no charisma, so it needs to be one man who is vocal and communicates everything, like Ridsdale did.
Two seasons have been wasted, it's as if Cardiff have been an experiment not a club with 100 years of history, all that has gone wrong has been self inflicted, nothing down to bad luck just very poor decisions made by people without any idea of how to run a football club.
If the club are going to say that mid term ie next season we are going for a Premiership push and stick with Slade, then we know it's still a load of bull, I maintain that Slade will never get us promoted, he never has managed a team to promotion so why start now! I hope though that his appointment was just short term, to trim the squad and do it without too much fuss, which he's done.

Agree 100% but to me he's stating the obvious. Yes there have been relegation seasons and many times of financial insecurity but now it seems like we've wasted a opportunity rather than back in the day a hopeful dream of competing amongst the better teams.
For some reason we seem to attract people who want to run our club with no football sense or the likes of Ridsdale who was like a kid in a sweet shop. Hopefully one day we'll get a compromise of someone with a good business understanding and an empathy for running a football club.

Firstly we need a figurehead at the club, someone who behaves like a Chairman, I guess that would be Dalman, but it seems that he is part time theses days, I don't think that Choo could be that man as he has no charisma, so it needs to be one man who is vocal and communicates everything, like Ridsdale did.
Two seasons have been wasted, it's as if Cardiff have been an experiment not a club with 100 years of history, all that has gone wrong has been self inflicted, nothing down to bad luck just very poor decisions made by people without any idea of how to run a football club.
If the club are going to say that mid term ie next season we are going for a Premiership push and stick with Slade, then we know it's still a load of bull, I maintain that Slade will never get us promoted, he never has managed a team to promotion so why start now! I hope though that his appointment was just short term, to trim the squad and do it without too much fuss, which he's done.

Good post mate but seems strange if Tan's plan was to bring in a manager to get rid of players, bring in virtually a team of his own & then bring another manager in to take over?

Blake is spot on . The club talks about wanting to be in the premiership again but wants to sell best players in doing so I'm all for cost cutting and if it needs to be done , it needs to be done but then they can't expect supporters to be happy when they still say they want a promotion push. As Blake says if they say it's a 3 year plan 4 year plan etc. I think at least the fans will have some idea of what the plans for the club are

Blake is spot on . The club talks about wanting to be in the premiership again but wants to sell best players in doing so I'm all for cost cutting and if it needs to be done , it needs to be done but then they can't expect supporters to be happy when they still say they want a promotion push. As Blake says if they say it's a 3 year plan 4 year plan etc. I think at least the fans will have some idea of what the plans for the club are

Darran, some good points from you there!

Our club's problem is that some (rather vocal) fans will never be happy and need to learn they cannot have it all ways. Tan has made major errors and appears to be putting those right, but what he didn't get wrong was getting our club to the Premier League and backing the manager (initially) in the transfer market. Had we stayed there, a lot of the current issues would not have arisen or would be 'in the background' rather than front page news on every occasion one of these people can think up a new thing to have a pop with!

Tan, taking all personal issues aside, is still the only realistic chance our club has of getting back to where we were a couple of seasons ago and we need to have a little more respect for that fact, if we are to get him back on board in order to progress again

It appears to me that he has started to rectify some of his early decisions (blue shirts, badges, etc.) and now would be a good time for us paying supporters to start meeting him halfway and see what happens IMHO

Firstly we need a figurehead at the club, someone who behaves like a Chairman, I guess that would be Dalman, but it seems that he is part time theses days, I don't think that Choo could be that man as he has no charisma, so it needs to be one man who is vocal and communicates everything, like Ridsdale did.
Two seasons have been wasted, it's as if Cardiff have been an experiment not a club with 100 years of history, all that has gone wrong has been self inflicted, nothing down to bad luck just very poor decisions made by people without any idea of how to run a football club.
If the club are going to say that mid term ie next season we are going for a Premiership push and stick with Slade, then we know it's still a load of bull, I maintain that Slade will never get us promoted, he never has managed a team to promotion so why start now! I hope though that his appointment was just short term, to trim the squad and do it without too much fuss, which he's done.

Good post mate but seems strange if Tan's plan was to bring in a manager to get rid of players, bring in virtually a team of his own & then bring another manager in to take over?

The thing is, Slade or any manager had to bring in some of his own players into the team, if only to stabilise things to at least keep us up after what was looking like a disaster and more and more like a relegation outfit under OGS. All the players that have been brought under Slade have cost nothing and they wont be on big wages, so even come the summer and they are shipped out, it wont be a huge loss to the club. Slade also came cheap, so again won't cost much to terminate his contract.