" An open letter to Vincent Tan "

WalesOnline / Glen Williams:



Dear Vincent Tan,

A couple of days have now passed since Cardiff City were confirmed as a relegated team from the Championship and the bitter fallout and furious public discourse has been clear and unanimous.

That anger has shown itself in many forms and while tomorrow morning's edition of the South Wales Echo is unlikely to land in Kuala Lumpur, it's likely the messages and fan sentiment have reached Malaysia.

Saturday was a sad day, but one which, if we are all honest about the trajectory of this football club, has been coming for some time. A succession of failures, bad decisions and millions in misspent money have led us to this moment. So what happens now?

Firstly, and probably most importantly, accountability. Show these Cardiff City fans the respect they deserve. Meet with them, listen to them, engage with them, build back their trust. While what you might see is the ire, abuse on social media or the naysayers, the vast, vast majority of this fan base have the club's best interests at heart and they deserve to be heard.

Just look at the two promoted League One teams, Birmingham City and Wrexham, see how their owners engage with the supporters and the community and the subsequent goodwill and momentum it builds, organically and from within. The little victories carry great weight in this game and you need all the wins you can get.

There is a call for both transparency and scrutiny on the decision-makers at this club and rightly so. Two matchday appearances in six years, since falling out of the Premier League, one external interview and not one fan spoken to. Even the Supporters' Trust were outraged earlier this year by the absence and silence from the ownership while everyone could see this campaign was hurtling towards a relegation battle.

Clearly, this club is fractured. Even Aaron Ramsey, the interim manager, called for it to be united at the awards evening on Saturday night. The perception is that this is not an ownership which is actively engaging in the club and its community. This has been an exercise in blame-shifting and head-burying for too long.

It would be unfair and unbalanced not to offer up the other side of the coin here, of course. Writing off £15m a year to keep the club going — at one point as high as £30m — is an eyewatering personal cost and no one is suggesting that this relegation is somehow easy on those at the top.

It is also not to be ignored that the loans pumped into the club accrue no interest and there is a commitment in place, according to chairman Mehmet Dalman, that all of the loans will either be written off or converted into equity. There is a heavy reliance on the principal at Cardiff and the financial commitment has not gone unnoticed by most, even amid the post-relegation rage.

Owning a football club has so few, fleeting moments of joy and is so often a thankless task. There are examples all over the country of just what a very bad owner actually looks like and there is proof that the grass is not always greener.

While the perks of being in the Premier League are to be enjoyed, of course, being paraded on the pitch or dining in the hospitality boxes of Arsenal, Chelsea and the like, this current situation is when your club's fans needs their leaders most. This is when they need their owner to be up against the coal face. This is when they need leadership and strategy and this is when they need you to point the direction forward, publicly and in detail. This is when they need to feel heard and valued.

Because what you never see is the little girl, who is there every week, on her dad's shoulders as they walk down Sloper Road at 1pm on matchday. Or the octogenarian whose fingers are so cold and shivering in the bleak midwinter, amid another winless run, that he can't button his duffle coat back up while boos ring out at the full-time whistle.


Or the fans who travel from London, north Wales, Yorkshire, even abroad, week in, week out, because, try as they might, they cannot break the shackles of the love they have for this club, rooted in decades of joy and despair. For so many of these people, the people who are the foundations of this institution, loving this club is not a choice, it's simply a part of them.

That's why so many who are angry now will be there on the first day of the League One season come August. That's why, despite everything telling them not to be optimistic, after years of mismanagement, decline, shoddy decisions and rotten football, their hearts will tell them they can win the league.

Former Wales rugby captain Gwyn Jones recently said of the diabolical state of his own sport in this country: "Never waste a crisis." It's a poignant phrase and one which struck me. At the very least, it's an opportunity for learning and ensuring mistakes are not made again.

The players must take a portion of the blame, too. While this was nowhere near a promotion-winning squad, it should not have been a relegated squad of players, either. Erol Bulut and his staff, plus Omer Riza and his staff are not blameless, either; it was an omnishambles, really.

But there have been three long-term decision-makers — non-executive chairman Dalman, CEO Ken Choo and you, the owner — throughout this gradual demise. That is where the anger will be aimed if there is no change.

That starts with the structure and it always has done. Ramsey himself said so in his press conference minutes after relegation was confirmed. Perhaps this was the most telling sentence and one which should be given some serious consideration: "Things are a little different to what I've experienced at other clubs," Ramsey, a former Arsenal and Juventus midfielder, said. "Normally you do have a head of football or a sporting director, things like that, who are overseeing everything, day-to-day operations and they are aligned with the club."

At one stage last year, for some months, the most experienced man in footballing terms, outside of the playing staff, was Darren Purse. A fine centre back in his day, both in the Premier League and in the second tier, but for a team which was supposedly shooting for promotion, surely more football acumen is needed? In whichever capacity is seen fit. A structural overhaul is required, it cannot always be managers falling on their sword.

Ideally, at least one person is brought in to oversee the footballing operation on a full-time basis. If that is the plan, and is done swiftly, then a manager can be appointed thereafter, to ensure a smooth and productive working relationship.

There is a seemingly insatiable desire to see a rookie manager succeed, but it just will not work at this club, at least not in its current guise. There is not enough of a footballing support network in place to give these inexperienced coaches the tools to thrive. So, either one of two things must happen as a result. Either, a better footballing structure is implemented and a younger manager can feel supported, or a more experienced manager is selected to take on the job next season.

Encouragingly, there is a strong core of young, exciting players at the club who, if kept, could really benefit from a season succeeding in League One. Isaak Davies, Rubin and Joel Colwill, Joel Bagan, Cian Ashford, Ronan Kpakio, Ollie Tanner, Alex Robertson, Will Fish, Yousef Salech. Keeping hold of them all is another thing, of course. The right blend of experience and league know-how and it should be the crux of a good League One squad.

The excellent work and resource which has been ploughed into the academy and the change in direction in relation to the transfer strategy — notwithstanding there have been as many misses as there have been hits — has at least offered some hope. Let's hope both of those things play a role in Cardiff's rise back to where they feel they belong.

Cardiff will be a huge club in League One, with a brilliant stadium, a great fan base, a wide catchment area in a sports-mad city dying to engage with its football club.

Let next season be the year this football club radically changes and gets the feelgood factor back. It was getting stale and insidious fighting at the wrong end of the Championship — it's no fun circling the drain year after year — so now learn from your mistakes and others' successes, and make the necessary changes to set the course for long-term prosperity.

Dropping down a division presents the opportunity for a reset.

What Cardiff City Football Club looks like one, three, five years down the line will be a direct result of what has been learned from the past and what decisions are made in the coming days, weeks and months to ensure the future looks far more successful than the recent past.

Too little too late. Just jumping on the bandwagon now and playing to the gallery. Where were WOL four years ago?

Too little too late. Just jumping on the bandwagon now and playing to the gallery. Where were WOL four years ago?

I totally agree - spot on.

Do you really think he will read all that,
some bodd will read and give him the jist of it he will look at either as a "begging" letter or a "ticking off" neither will be to his liking
We shall see 20,000 protest would get more attention but hey ho

Not sure why dropping down a division was needed for a reset.

End of the season preparing for the following season was a chance for a reset.

Sacking managers and replacing was a chance for a reset.

Not sure why dropping down a division was needed for a reset.

End of the season preparing for the following season was a chance for a reset.

Sacking managers and replacing was a chance for a reset.

I thought that we were set to be in top 6 this season according to tan and bulut

Let's hope we get a reply from TAN BUT DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH, SILENCE IS DEAFENING???

His focus is the Sala case, he wins he's happy. The club means nothing yo him. Don't be surprised if he puts us into administration.

His focus is the Sala case, he wins he's happy. The club means nothing yo him. Don't be surprised if he puts us into administration.

So he can lose £100m?, and dalman loses £25m+ ok. Sounds sensible...

Too little too late. Just jumping on the bandwagon now and playing to the gallery. Where were WOL four years ago?

I totally agree - spot on.

Yep, I agree, too!

The time for WOL to act in the interests of the club rather than its owner is well past and whilst very well written, this ‘open letter’ is adding insult to the supporters who have been subjected to their (WOL) fragrant capitulation onto the wants of those at the club who have effectively bullied those writing about the goings on in and off the pitch

Too little too late. Just jumping on the bandwagon now and playing to the gallery. Where were WOL four years ago?

Absolutely Spot on Paul

Too little too late. Just jumping on the bandwagon now and playing to the gallery. Where were WOL four years ago?

Absolutely Spot on Paul

They've never rallied behind us Annis, even during the rebrand and other low points.

And nothing from the FAB either. You'd think they would have been ripping up trees with the board to avoid this mess, even if it was to have the trigger pulled on Riza ages ago to give us a fighting chance. Same goes for the Trust too. All too late.

While I agree with a lot of the comments above I think the letter is very much to the point and in some places pretty hard hitting and to the point. The thing is if he sent a letter like this to Tan last season, beginning of this season Tan would have said how do know things are not right, well now he can't make any excuses or predictions because the things we have all been saying could happen bloody well have happened, and Tan can't deny they will happen, so let's hope he sees sense or maybe his mother makes him see sense and changes his running of the club or convince him to sell the club.

His focus is the Sala case, he wins he's happy. The club means nothing yo him. Don't be surprised if he puts us into administration.

So he can lose £100m?, and dalman loses £25m+ ok. Sounds sensible...

Because your an expert aren't you

His focus is the Sala case, he wins he's happy. The club means nothing yo him. Don't be surprised if he puts us into administration.

So he can lose £100m?, and dalman loses £25m+ ok. Sounds sensible...

Because your an expert aren't you

To be fair, you made a statement you cannot possibly back up rather than an opinion

I did note it earlier but was putting it down to miscommunication. But seeing as you’re calling Allan a (quote) ‘expert’, I guess you were being serious re the administration!

Open Letter from Tan Sri Vincent Tan to Glen Williams/South Wales Echo

Dear Glen,

I couldn't give a massive shite.

Tan Sri Vincent Tan.