Dave Jones

I realise that some, like Annis, don't rate Dave Jones and following a loss you get a lot of posts that get on his back etc.
My take on it is this. If you step back and look at Cardiff from a neutral view point then I'm not sure if we deserve to be as high as we are.

There's this belief by some people that Cardiff have the God given right to be in the top two. But in reality who do we think we are? We might think we are the biggest and greatest club in the world but in reality we are nothing special. You might not like that but it's the truth.

Look around the division and there are plenty of clubs that "deserve" to be higher than us. Ipswich and Norwich are massive clubs compared to us. Middlesbro, Leicester, Reading all "deserve" to be higher than Cardiff. Hull have para payments don't they? And what about Preston?
If I was a fan of any of those club's then I'd be asking questions about our league position and I'd be fair in using Cardiff as an example. I'd be asking how come we are in the bottom half yet Cardiff are in the top 3?

Cardiff have some good players but they don't have that many. People talk about "no plan b" but to be fair how can you have a Plan B when you just don't have the options off the field? I laughed out load earlier when I read "we need someone as good as Jay for cover". Come on please, I don't think we realise how lucky we are to have one Jay let alone two. Every club in the division would love to have him, yet we are not happy with one we want two. Tell you what, why not eat some more fairy dust and magic up Lionel Messi for the bench.

Some will say that it's Dave Jones' fault that we have a small squad and yes it is his fault. Some managers choose large mediocre squads whilst others like Dave Jones go with the smaller high quality squad. No doubt he'd love to have a large high quality squad, of course he would, but you have to work within some restrictions. Believe it or not we are not Man U, we can't have a big high quality squad. His predecessors Lennie and Alan Cork went for massive squads. Yes they had a few decent players but the majority were just bench warmers. They had the most expensive bunch of bench warmers in the history of the club, there were loads of them. Surely they would have been better off getting rid of all those and spending their wages on one or two quality players that might have got us automatic promotion rather than going up through the play-off's?

Yes? No?

The downside of having a small squad is picking up injuries etc. The downside of having a large mediocre squad is mediocre football every week. Fact is you can argue the rights and wrongs of squad type as much as you like but going back to what I said earlier. Why are we higher in the table than clubs like Reading etc? I think the answer is Dave Jones and if I were to ask fans of those other clubs I think they would agree with me.

I just think we need to be a bit more realistic about where we are in the scheme of things. I'd say we should be about mid-table. Anything above that then we are punching above our weight.

good post, we have come a long way in recent years and our fans need to appreciate that and stop moaning.

a very good post,
i think Dave Jones is a top manager,however, with the players he has brought in, and the size of our wage bill he has to make sure we get promoted this year.

and as for our fans-always have and always will moan-its in our 'make up', but i think thats the same with every football club.

I think all the clubs you have mentioned their we have the potential to be bigger than them. If we would have gone up in 71 we would be bigger than them. However we did not go up but the other way and we have suffered for it. Now we are getting back to where we should be and I feel we are picking up from where we were in 71.

I recall Karen Brady mentioning our club when her boss Sullivan was looking at investing. Her words were "we looked at a club that we felt we could quite easily improve". Basically they saw the potential of us to get to the top but went for Birmingham instead. Why they did not go for us is another argument but this showed to me our potential.

So have we got the right to be where we are now or higher? I think so. Are we a sleeping giant? Yes we are and I'm struggling to think of another club more sleeping than us. I have been called deluded for thinking this but I honestly believe we should be in the premier and I believe we will stay there under the right management.

I think all the clubs you have mentioned their we have the potential to be bigger than them. If we would have gone up in 71 we would be bigger than them. However we did not go up but the other way and we have suffered for it. Now we are getting back to where we should be and I feel we are picking up from where we were in 71.

I recall Karen Brady mentioning our club when her boss Sullivan was looking at investing. Her words were "we looked at a club that we felt we could quite easily improve". Basically they saw the potential of us to get to the top but went for Birmingham instead. Why they did not go for us is another argument but this showed to me our potential.

So have we got the right to be where we are now or higher? I think so. Are we a sleeping giant? Yes we are and I'm struggling to think of another club more sleeping than us. I have been called deluded for thinking this but I honestly believe we should be in the premier and I believe we will stay there under the right management.

I agree with you. Potentially Cardiff can be as big as anyone. You can go back further than 71 and argue that if the club had lingered around the top like Arsenal have done then we'd be bigger than them now. Remember that when we beat Arsenal in that FA cup final we didn't go there as underdogs, we went there are favourites. At the time Cardiff were bigger than Arsenal.

What I'm talking about is the here and the now. As it stands now we don't deserve anything. When we, or any other club for that matter, run out on to a pitch, potential goes out the window, it means nothing.

Nobody is going to say "it's Cardiff today, we'd better let them win because they are a sleeping giant and they deserve to be in the Premier league and it would be spiteful to take three points off them".

Ah right.

Well going on that no I dont think we have the right to be were we are with what we have. I think we should be where QPR are becuase we have a better squad, an expensive manager and better fans, like 10,000 more fans.

Ah right.

Well going on that no I dont think we have the right to be were we are with what we have. I think we should be where QPR are becuase we have a better squad, an expensive manager and better fans, like 10,000 more fans.

Yes and we should have gone up last year because we are bigger than Blackpool. We should have gone up when Wigan went up because we are bigger then them. And when Hull went up, Burnley and Preston. And so should every other club in the division should have gone up those years because they are all bigger then them as well.
Every single club in the division could say they belong in the Premier league because they are bigger than Blackpool. But those are the breaks. Also Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffiled United should be above Cardiff if the table was done on number of fans.

Yep. just proves what happens when yo uget crap people running your club.

I think we are panicing, there is nothing wrong with our league position at the moment and we are only 7 games in. We could be higher agreed but we have alot of injuries at the moment. If we had full healthy squad then i would be complaining aswell about our last 2 performances. However there is nothing wrong with our expectations but give it time its a marathon not a sprint.

Alot of people are saying we have too many injuries. Point taken but are we going to be fully fit for the whole of the season? We know the answer to that is no. So the sign of a good squad is when the fringe players can come in and can put up a scrap and come away with some points. We have not got those fringe players capable of doing that have we and that is the concern.

biggest worry is the defence,centre backs are not good enough,riggot how fit is he,macnaughton is injury prone,Matthews not ready,Quinn not good enough,Blake is up and down,naylor will hopefully improve with games,and we are stuck with these till January,big mistake by Jones.

no i agree we are going to have injuries right through the season but will we be in as bad a position as we are now i would never have thought we would have so many top players out at the same time, i agree we need a massive performance against Millwall and if we have a near full squad to choose from on saturday then there are no excuses, we have 6 days to rest up, train and prepare for Saturday and if we win convincingly i think all this will be forgotten. Just my opinion i welcome your comments

Berwyn, I am not going to go through it ALL again, but I have for at least 4 years not been a DJ fan and have backed it up with at least a Dozen Reasons, which are all backed up with facts. But I Respect everyones different Opinions, Mine wont change, even when we go on a Brilliant run BUT I BACK OUR TEAM 1,000%

Berwyn, I am not going to go through it ALL again, but I have for at least 4 years not been a DJ fan and have backed it up with at least a Dozen Reasons, which are all backed up with facts. But I Respect everyones different Opinions, Mine wont change, even when we go on a Brilliant run BUT I BACK OUR TEAM 1,000%

Like they say Annis, football is all about opinions. It's nice though to be able to have a mb where we can all write and share our opinions.

Berwyn, I am not going to go through it ALL again, but I have for at least 4 years not been a DJ fan and have backed it up with at least a Dozen Reasons, which are all backed up with facts. But I Respect everyones different Opinions, Mine wont change, even when we go on a Brilliant run BUT I BACK OUR TEAM 1,000%

Annis, I admire you for sticking to your guns....you certainly are consistent on this subject.

Berwyn makes some valid points mind; and we are indeed lucky to have a manager who can keep us there or thereabouts. As any Yorkshireman (except PR, of course) will tell you, change is not always good.

And only 1,000% ????

"On the 7th day Bartley created Cardiff City"

Good post. However I wouldn't say that with all the players fit we are punching above our weight if we are above mid table. I think we should be up there with this first 11.