Why Cardiff fans should support Russell Slade

Why Cardiff fans should support Russell Slade

By Daniel Bevan 23 June 2015


Like him or not, there’s no denying the good that Cardiff City manager has done for the club. Since replacing former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in October last year, Slade has had to deal with his fair share of stick from the Cardiff City faithful and what’s wrong with that? Fans pay good money to watch football, why can't they voice their opinion?

The problem with people who have this attitude is that it is having a notable negative effect when the team step on the pitch. Attendances at the Cardiff City Stadium have been extremely poor.

Our home form has been abysmal this season and that has resulted in just 6,500 season ticket being renewed for the 15/16 season, a little over a third of the 15,000 season tickets that were sold in the summer of 2014. Many agree that Cardiff’s away form is what saved them from the relegation dogfight in the back end of the season.

Every fan expected the Bluebirds to return the top flight at the first time of asking. This only escalated when Cardiff were tipped to be champions by the bookies, however this season time around they are destined for mid-table mediocrity, so how can Slade be seen as a success?

Slade’s first job as Cardiff manager was to cut the wages bill, which peaked at £30million, by £12million. This was as a result of Solskjaer’s erratic spending which left us with 42 first team players. Slade achieved this goal in late January, releasing some high earners like Juan Cala, Kim Bo Kyung and Guido Burgstaller but also managed to bring in a few players that he felt would improve the performance of the squad.

Fans argue that the signings didn't have high enough profiles, many of them coming from Premier League academies, low level Championship teams and League One sides. This prompted to Russell Slade to comment “We aren't shopping at Harrods anymore”. Even the strongest supporters of the ‘Slade Out’ movement have to agree that the additions have had a very good influence on the squad.

Slade has let the likes of Kenwyne Jones, Matthew Connolly among others leave the leave the club on loan at various points of the season, claiming that many of them were business decisions. He was ridiculed by fans for this but football is a business and Cardiff City’s infamous debt was probably a huge factor in these decisions.

At the start of this summer the Cardiff City board were faced with an ultimatum, to back or sack Russell Slade, and as the latter seems very unlikely at this present moment then Cardiff fans should suck it up and support the team. Cardiff fans are famous for being some of the best fans in the world and now, when the team needs us the most, we are turning our back on them. I’m not prepared to let this be the demise of our club, are you?

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

100% agree m8

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

Name another manager who will join us on a very low wage, clear an enormous mess left by the previous manager, cut 12 million pounds off our wage bill, plus improve us?

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

100% agree m8

Lads, I respect your opinions but don't share them. Sealed has come in to a club in crisis and steadied the ship massively. He has made a few cute signings and has replaced the deadwood in our team, which he will continue to do this summer. At one point we looked like we were going down but no one can deny that we finished the season comfortably.

Our away form at the back end of the season was quite brilliant and hopefully we can take that into next season. I'm not a Slade suck up and I can see his faults, but for a manager that was thrown straight into the lime light with an under performing team, I think he has done well.

We have had too mediocrity in recent years, we should be careful what we wish for.

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

100% agree m8

Lads, I respect your opinions but don't share them. Sealed has come in to a club in crisis and steadied the ship massively. He has made a few cute signings and has replaced the deadwood in our team, which he will continue to do this summer. At one point we looked like we were going down but no one can deny that we finished the season comfortably.

Our away form at the back end of the season was quite brilliant and hopefully we can take that into next season. I'm not a Slade suck up and I can see his faults, but for a manager that was thrown straight into the lime light with an under performing team, I think he has done well.

We have had too mediocrity in recent years, we should be careful what we wish for.

Will be interesting if you have the same opinion a couple of months into the season. I agree we have had too much mediocrity over the years, and I don't see anything changing this season.

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

100% agree m8

Lads, I respect your opinions but don't share them. Sealed has come in to a club in crisis and steadied the ship massively. He has made a few cute signings and has replaced the deadwood in our team, which he will continue to do this summer. At one point we looked like we were going down but no one can deny that we finished the season comfortably.

Our away form at the back end of the season was quite brilliant and hopefully we can take that into next season. I'm not a Slade suck up and I can see his faults, but for a manager that was thrown straight into the lime light with an under performing team, I think he has done well.

We have had too mediocrity in recent years, we should be careful what we wish for.

I agree with all these quotes!

Slade is on a hiding to nothing.
No budget, must sell before buying and his first months in charge the football was dire.
Although I understand that Slade has an extremely difficult role, he doesn't appear to help himself endear to us fans
At the moment.
He needs to step up and become a leader and galvanise us as one.

Up to now, he doesn't portray that way.

For me, Malky football was boring and I couldn't stand the spectacle - but he had a galvanising impact on us fans.

We must get behind our manager and the boys.
He only has certain tools at his disposal and not the millions splashed on ole and Malky.


As a wise businessman said to me once;
We can only f**k with the prick we,re given

#ccfctogetherstronger

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

100% agree m8

Lads, I respect your opinions but don't share them. Sealed has come in to a club in crisis and steadied the ship massively. He has made a few cute signings and has replaced the deadwood in our team, which he will continue to do this summer. At one point we looked like we were going down but no one can deny that we finished the season comfortably.

Our away form at the back end of the season was quite brilliant and hopefully we can take that into next season. I'm not a Slade suck up and I can see his faults, but for a manager that was thrown straight into the lime light with an under performing team, I think he has done well.

We have had too mediocrity in recent years, we should be careful what we wish for.

You're right, we shall see. On what have you based your opinion that we will have more mediocrity under Slade?

Will be interesting if you have the same opinion a couple of months into the season. I agree we have had too much mediocrity over the years, and I don't see anything changing this season.

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

100% agree m8

Lads, I respect your opinions but don't share them. Sealed has come in to a club in crisis and steadied the ship massively. He has made a few cute signings and has replaced the deadwood in our team, which he will continue to do this summer. At one point we looked like we were going down but no one can deny that we finished the season comfortably.

Our away form at the back end of the season was quite brilliant and hopefully we can take that into next season. I'm not a Slade suck up and I can see his faults, but for a manager that was thrown straight into the lime light with an under performing team, I think he has done well.

We have had too mediocrity in recent years, we should be careful what we wish for.

You're right, we shall see. On what have you based your opinion that we will have more mediocrity under Slade?

Will be interesting if you have the same opinion a couple of months into the season. I agree we have had too much mediocrity over the years, and I don't see anything changing this season.

Based on what I saw last season, and the players we presently have. I take the results at the very end of the season with a pinch of salt when teams are playing one another with little at stake. Likewise, I know you can get a few strange results in the first few games of a season, and will not be calling for his head if we suffer a few early defeats. I will also not be naïve enough to think we will reach the play offs should we win a few of the early games. We need to see where we stand after a dozen or so games to get an idea of which direction we are heading in. I will stick by my prediction of mid table.

700 Games as a manager
Number of promotions 0
Play offs 1
Silverware 0
Boring percentage 100 %

Willing to give him a fair crack of the whip this season from scratch, But i'm not overly optimistic...

:sladeout:
700 Games as a manager
Number of promotions 0
Play offs 1
Silverware 0
Boring percentage 100 %

Agreed

A leopard doesn't change his spots.
He has seriously slashed the wage bill and for that he should be commended.
The football was at best pretty drab. He constantly took our better players off, refused to give some players a sniff when others were seriously under performing. He was never pro-active and sometimes not even reactive.
I understand the excitement that's always there pre-season, but I'm not feeling it yet.
All the players we are allegedly linked to appear to be choosing alternatives which is a concern?
I remain very cautious and fear a start similar to last season and the banners will be everywhere

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

Name another manager who will join us on a very low wage, clear an enormous mess left by the previous manager, cut 12 million pounds off our wage bill, plus improve us?

Think this is a good point apparently Slades on 2 grand a week that's f**k all in modern day football. The average wage for a league 1 manager is over 4 grand a week

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

Name another manager who will join us on a very low wage, clear an enormous mess left by the previous manager, cut 12 million pounds off our wage bill, plus improve us?

I do not accept that Slade has cleared an enormous mess left by Ole & that we are better off now. Yes there were too many signings under Ole however I consider that we are not better off under Slade. We ended the season no higher than where Ole had us and the football under Slade was absolutely abysmal and definitely worse. For many games we could not put a string of passes together and we did not bother the visiting goalie. Sometimes we would have just 1 attempt on goal in a half. It was boring, boring football.

With regards to the finances anyone could cut the wage bill by just telling players that they are going. I would also suggest that most lower league managers would jump at the chance of going to a Championship club on low wages poorly for the step up. He is still probably earning more than he was at Orient!

I must have said about 20 times last season Slade has to go but when I think about what he had to take over and what he has done I am willing to give him a chance.

As already said by a few on here no manager would want his job with what Tan wanted done but he saved wages and kept us in the division at the same time all the players couldn't have been happy knowing Tan wanted wages down and players out so Slade had to get rid of players and bring in players when everyone new what was happening.

Slade kept it all together when the team were looking at relegation the press and many supporters like me (I admit it) wanted him sacked but he got us to 11th so I believe he deserves our support at least until xmas

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

Name another manager who will join us on a very low wage, clear an enormous mess left by the previous manager, cut 12 million pounds off our wage bill, plus improve us?

This.

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

Name another manager who will join us on a very low wage, clear an enormous mess left by the previous manager, cut 12 million pounds off our wage bill, plus improve us?

This.

I think there are many managers who could clear the mess and cut our wage bill. I doubt if any of them would come as cheap as Slade, which is why he is here. He is here as part of Tan's cost cutting exercise, only time will tell if this is false economy or not.

I think we need to give him more support. I admit to being underwhelmed by his appointment, but he has done nothing yet to deserve being sacked. Also, the miserable and negative tw-ts who post on this board are not a good cross section of the support of the club, as most supporters are keen for Slade to do well and want to get behind him.

Last season when at the end of the transfer market, we had 42 players all of whom were individuals and could barely play as a team and the majority on a big wage. Slade had to develop a team from the current crop, cut the wage bill and bring in players to try and steady the ship and clear the mess that Ole left, whilst in mid season and has taken a massive hit for it. Plus don't forget how many people have said that the players were really unfit and he's now got to sort that out. I think Slade could a job in getting us around the play-offs, but don't think he has what it takes to get us up, based on his record but will massively help in sorting out the debt , stupidly massive squad etc.

This issue is, a large number of city fans have become greedy and just want success now. They want the big name signings but for peanuts and they can't get it unfortunately. We're in a mess and it has to be sorted before we can ever get anywhere, a perfect example was that PL season which was going to be one of the biggest season ever for me, but it was the first one I dreaded turning up for the games. Everyone has a right to a opinion but for the time being I'm more than willing to back Slade

I love my football club that's why we need to get rid of Slade, and replace him with a more experience Championship Manager

Name another manager who will join us on a very low wage, clear an enormous mess left by the previous manager, cut 12 million pounds off our wage bill, plus improve us?

I do not accept that Slade has cleared an enormous mess left by Ole & that we are better off now. Yes there were too many signings under Ole however I consider that we are not better off under Slade. We ended the season no higher than where Ole had us and the football under Slade was absolutely abysmal and definitely worse. For many games we could not put a string of passes together and we did not bother the visiting goalie. Sometimes we would have just 1 attempt on goal in a half. It was boring, boring football.

With regards to the finances anyone could cut the wage bill by just telling players that they are going. I would also suggest that most lower league managers would jump at the chance of going to a Championship club on low wages poorly for the step up. He is still probably earning more than he was at Orient!

Surely we must be better off if we can achieve the same league position with a squad that costs £12m less to maintain than the one under OGS?

The football was not good last season but that has been true since Jones left 2011 but no-one complains whilst it brings results. It is not the standard of football which is the problem its the results.

I accept you can employ any idiot to implement severe cost cutting (just watch tomorrows budget) and any under qualified person will grab a golden opportunity when handed to them on a plate (again I refer to the budget tomorrow) but you can hardly blame Slade for taking his.

We were never going to get a high profile manager this time and Slade has full filled his initial brief and should receive praise for that. We owe him the benefit of the doubt and should wipe the slate clean and give the man a fair chance.

Way out of his depth

Achieved nothing

Way out of his depth

Achieved nothing

Of course that is subjective to what is considered "depth" and "achievement"

Personally I think he achieved well in stabilising the club and putting a good run of results on the board towards the end of the season.

He now needs to prove his depth by pushing the club forward this season. If he is gone by October then you will be proved right, however he might just surprise us all.

I think he deserves to have the whole season, its no good sacking and replacing managers all the time. Russell has no excuses for the upcoming season he has time to get his own players in and get his philosophy through to the players

I'm not a massive fan of Slade, However I'm going to judge him fresh from the new season as we all know he came in and was given a job to do which was to cut wages and get rid of high earners, he done it well and got us into the top half so he done a decent job. This season i think people will have a fair say in whether he should stay or go.

The only way we will get out of this division is with a good relationship between fans and the club. Back the team and back Russell Slade