City chief Mehmet Dalman's radio interview demand set Cardiff's stall out early, letting Neil Harris know what the brief was and that anything less would be frowned upon in the extreme. But the Bluebirds have not been able to live up to that expectation and have toiled, taking one step forward then two steps back on a number of occasions since the season began.
Neil Harris accepts there will be no money in January.
By Glen Williams
Wednesday 30th December 2020
They now sit behind teams such as Barnsley and Luton and are miles off sides like Norwich City, Swansea City and Bournemouth. They are seven points off the top six but judging by Tuesday night's performance they are further away than ever from the play-off race.
So, to January. We are just days away from the commencement of the transfer window, a crucial time of the season for any club which needs major surgery to bolster their squad for the back end of the season.
But, given the destabilising nature of the position Cardiff City find themselves in at the minute, it is anyone's guess what the month of January holds.
The Bluebirds have a defence which cannot help but gift goals to their opposition and an attack which looks so bereft of ideas that opposition defences look far too comfortable playing against them.
Perhaps most concerning is that Neil Harris' plans are being thwarted left, right and centre.
Plan A at the start of the season was to tweak the style of football, employ a better passing game, have more possession of the ball and look to evolve from a brand of football which appears more stale with each passing year.
It didn't work. City started the season dreadfully and it was back to the drawing board for Harris and his staff.
Plan B was to revert to type, to use the big man Kieffer Moore and set-piece extraordinaire Sean Morrison to beat teams into the ground.
But while a run of four wins began to bring some encouragement, they were soon find out. Swansea, Norwich and Brentford played them off the park, while Birmingham City ran them close. Against Wycombe, though, there was seemingly no strategy, no bark nor bite. Dreadful.
So, is there a Plan C? What is next? Because it cannot continue like this as we approach the mid-point of the season. Bluebirds fans and, importantly, the Bluebirds board will not accept it.
Chairman Mehmet Dalman said he would be very disappointed if the Bluebirds were not battling in that top six come the turn of the year. Dalman said he expected City to be in the play off position by January and was quite strong on what he expected from Harris, But here we are and Cardiff look nowhere near a play-offs side.
Already so much ground has been lost and things need to change quickly. Whether that's via another major squad overhaul in the January window or the board seeing fit to implement a more nuclear option.
If Cardiff are going to turn this season around it is going to be in the coming weeks. They cannot afford to slip further down the ladder and they need a few major additions in the transfer window.
And take your pick at what they need next month, especially after Tuesday night's performance, because there is a case that they need a new centre-back, a new right-back, an athletic and creative midfield player, a winger and another striker.
Harris admitted the club will not be spending money in January, so if there are to be wholesale changes there will have to be some big player departures. Those who have not been pulling their weight, and there are many of them, beware.
It all comes down to whether the board backs the manager in the window now.
It is notable that Harris said he has been speaking with owner Vincent Tan every day for the last week or two. Whether that is commonplace before the opening of the transfer window is unknown to me, but it certainly makes you want to be a fly on the wall during those conversations.
Not for the first time this season, the manager was asked about his future in charge of the club and simply responded by saying that decision is "out of his control".
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There is a major decision to be made, though, as we head into January, because the rest of the season, and City's long-term future with regards to Premier League promotion, potentially hinges on the next month.
Will Harris be given the backing to turn it around, to come up with a Plan C? As key players Lee Tomlin, Jordi Osei-Tutu and Moore are gratefully welcomed back into the team, will he be allowed to reshape and strengthen his squad for a third time?
That is a massive question which needs answering imminently, especially with the pressing matter of a must-win game against Rotherham on the horizon this Saturday, because disquiet among supporters has ramped up considerably once again.
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