Trying To Rescue the Dream
That Became A Nightmare
by @haydngleed
I’ve been a Cardiff City fan
since I can remember. I remember being at Ninian Park when there was only 4-5
thousand people on a cold Tuesday night. I’ve been to Welsh FA Cup match when
there was only 50 of us….and 5 of them was me and my mates. If you had told me
10 years ago that we would someday get to an FA Cup final, Playoff final, a
league cup final and the Premiership within those ten years, you would have
been carted off to the hotel with the bouncy walls.
16th April 2013,
Cardiff City V Charlton, a boring 0-0 but it was the most memorable game of my
life. When that final whistle went, we were a Premiership team. As we all ran
onto the pitch to celebrate with our heroes who had taken us to the promised
land, the emotions were too much for me and my mates who had spent god knows
how much money, had spent more time in a car together than is healthy
travelling the motorways of the UK, and we all had a tear in our eyes. We were
going to live the dream.
Fast forward 8 months and 10
days later, and Malky McKay, the man, the warrior who had led us into this
promised land, was sacked, fans were torn apart on their opinions and we had a
painter and decorator as our head of scouting. How had our dream become such a
nightmare?
According to rumours, it all
started when Vincent Tan decided he didn’t want to pay the players their promotion
bonuses and Malky and Ian Moody wouldn’t let Tan talk to the players in the
changing room after a game against Newcastle. At the same time as this, there
was some bad feeling from Tan towards McKay and Moody because they had over
spent on the transfer budget that was agreed.
Now, Simon Lim and Vincent Tan
are the ones that write and sign the cheques. By all accounts, Malky and Moody
would scout a player, agree they were the player they would need and then went
to the board and said get me these players. It was Simon Lim who agreed the
fees, it was Simon Lim who signed the cheques, so how in the blue hell could
Malky and Moody be blamed for over spending when they didn’t agree the fee or
sign the cheques?
At the same time as all this
was happening, there was mad stories coming out that showed Vincent Tan knew as
much about football as my girlfriend does. Firstly, he assumed by spending £35
million on players, that would automatically mean we were going to be in
contention for the Premiership or “at the very least” pushing top 4. Not taking
into consideration the teams pushing for the top 4 are paying that kind of
money on one player. He also questioned why David Marshall, our goalkeeper, had
made 40+ league appearances and hadn’t scored one goal.
He was also not happy with
what he was seeing on the pitch, and unfortunately, a lot of the new fans
(known as “plastics” by the real Cardiff City fans) who had never shown any
interest in City until we were in the Premiership, were complaining about how
negative the football was on the pitch. Rumour has it that he was passing notes
down to Malky telling him to try a more attacking formation. Judging by his
grasp on goalkeepers, Im guessing those notes would have been hilarious (1-1-8
formation perhaps?).
What people needed to realise,
Vincent Tan and plastic alike, was that the first year in the Premiership 75%
of our squad is Championship level. It’s harsh to say as I admire each and
every one of them but a lot of the players just aren’t Premiership players. In
order to get the very best out of them, the tactics had to be defensive and
disciplined in order to pick up the points for survival. With survival comes in
another 25% of Premiership level players and you go from there. It’s all about
patience. Tan is obviously a man with as much patience as Glaswegian at the bar
(I lived in Glasgow for 6 years so I’m allowed to make fun of them).
Tan sent an email just before
Christmas to Malky telling him to quit or get fired. The man who most of the
City fans adored was being pushed out, and we couldn’t understand why. Us fans
were not happy about this, and let Vincent Tan know how we felt after the
Liverpool game, where we stayed for 40 minutes in the stands at Anfield singing
the same song. This was one of the most amazing experiences as a football fan.
Despite our protests, after a
thumping 3-0 defeat at home on boxing day against Southampton, where Malky or
the players hearts were obviously not in it, the axe fell and he had gone.
It’s taken me a while to get
used to the idea, but now it’s time to get behind the new man, the baby faced assassin,
Ole Gunnar Solskjær. I’m not sure he’s the right man, I’ll be honest, I don’t
think expansive exciting football with the set of players we have, is going to
work, but I’m willing to give it time. In his first game, he took off a
defender and put on an striker when we were 1-0 down and we ended up losing 2-0
due to lack of defenders, so it’s a scary start.
What he does have in his
favour, is that he is obviously Tan’s man, so he will get some time, and there
will be a period of stability at least until the end of the season. Despite my
hope Tan’s involvement will quietly move into the background, more bizarre news
keeps coming out of the club, like Tan saying he wants to only sign players
with 8 in their date of birth, because the number 8 is lucky is Asia. The
signing Magnus Wolff Eikrem hasn’t quashed these rumours considering his
birthday is the 8th August.
So can the dream be rescued?
Yes I think it can. Come the second weekend of May, if we are 17th
and only above 18th by one goal, I won’t care as long as we get that
second season in the Premiership. I still believe we can do it. The players we
have are fighters, and they won’t give up. I still can’t believe in the next 2
weeks I’ll be going to Man City and Man Utd in league matches, it still all
seems strange and a long way from Bloomfield Road on a snowy December night, in
the away stand with no roof. This season so far hasn’t been what I had hoped
and believed it was going to be, thanks to Vincent Tan, but the dream will
continue, and at this point, I still don’t want to wake up.
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