12 months from today

Cardiff City find themselves in a relegation fight in the Championship with manager Craig Bellamy insisting his policy to use the younger players will benefit the club in the long term.

Bellamy had a private meeting with Steve Tucker of Wales Online at the exclusive Penarth restaurant The Fig Tree where he shared his plans and dream for Cardiff City.

"You see not many around realise the young players we have are experienced footballers now. They are the finished products and all we need to do now is get them working like a well oiled machine. We have been lucky to sign Tony Watts and extremely fortunate to still have Dave Marshall here. These two alone will oversee the oiling of the machine, we will avoid relegation and push on. Give us a few more seasons and we will be an established premier league team".

Tucker was not convinced. " You replaced Russel Slade just before the end of last season when our status in the championship was secured. Talk of a play off spot stopped after the January window closed where we only brought in one player Tony Watt, well actually secured a permanent move for him. In the meantime we sold of a bit of the home jewellery. That is those players on high wages. Slade had to bring back the loanees and basically start again. Results were bad at first, play off talk stopped but somehow out of the crazyness he pulled off some results that made sure we stayed in the Championship.

Looking back Slade did a fantastic job but with the talk of dropping season ticket sales something had to be done. It was always going to be Slade who took the hit. You were brought in because well basically you were a popular choice. You know the score ex player local boy. It did the trick as season ticket sales match the 2014/15 season. The fear had been conquered for now.

So here we are 9 months into your first management post. There was a lot of talk about bringing in some quality players through the summer. No new person came through the doors. A number of the academy players came into the squad. The season started and the results have been disappointing. Crowds are down to 8,000. No one believes what the club says these days. In fact some are questioning if the club should have sacked Slade. Your honeymoon period is over and now its down to the real business. Do you think you will keep the faith of the supporters on your side?"

Slade is getting a hammering at the moment but if the above prophecy becomes the truth will it be justified?

Bellamy out!

Makes no sense to have 8000 crowds if season ticket sales are up.

Great read Ian, and not an impossible future.

Personally I think you have to take risks. We took a risk on Malky - yes he did a great job at Watford with no money at all but was still relatively unproven - and it payed off. We took a risk with Solskjaer and it was a disaster.

Slade was a relatively safe option as nobody really expected him to do anything special and he hasn't.

But to be successful you have to take risks, that's a fact. It's a completely different scale, but Sir Alex was a massive risk for Man Utd.

There's no doubt Craig Bellamy would be a risk. But I think it's one worth taking.

Would Bellamy work under Tan though?

This could very be our future and if we miss out on a playoff place then its time to dismantle this overhyped squad and rebuild again, use the money we recoup to buy our training ground and start paying off our debt properly. I know I might get hated for saying it but we have got to find a way to kick wales out of our stadium our pitch has become awful as a result and Cardiff comes first. I also think Steve Tucker was right today that fans need to play their part too instead of moaning of a thousand reasons why they don't bother going anymore. If we don't make the Playoffs than the job at Cardiff is going to be massive and we may flirt with relegation in the championship for a few seasons as a result, is bellamy ready for a job like that or would our fans be more comfortable with Russell Slade overseeing this massive rebuild knowing from top to bottom with craig bellamy playing a influential role in the background and at least we know that at the very least slade wont get us relegated. then when the club is in better shape the timing could be right for bellamy to take over slade and kick us on.

Makes no sense to have 8000 crowds if season ticket sales are up.

Season before last we had ST sales of 17,000 but attendances were down to 12,000. This season we have 12,000 STs but most reckon attendances are down to 10,000.

The appointment of Bellamy would most likely hold the sales around the 12,000 mark but attendances could quite easily drop to 8000 if things deteriorate further on the pitch. That is what the article is saying.

This time next year we will be struggling near the bottom of the Premier League following our promoting via the playoffs. Russell Slade will be Director of Football, helping advise Craig Bellamy who is first team coach.

The only way that Slade won't be manager next season is if we get promoted. Get used to that idea people.