Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Discuss this article http://www.cardiffcityforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=144679

By JamesC

If we take last season, we can definitely point at the fact that we were hard to beat at home, got some fantastic wins against the jacks, man city and credible draws against Everton and Man Utd under Malky.
For the most part, we were happy with how things were going, it wasn’t pretty, but we were fulfilling our objective – survival.

Moving onto January, Malky is sacked and we get a European football legend. The super sub Ole excited me when he was first announced. Great ties with man utd, won the norwegian league twice with Molde, highly thought of, linked to many other PL jobs before us. If we’re honest – there was a lot to be optimistic about. New players in the window, a new style of football ect.

Fast forward to May, we’ve been relegated, and the general view was just that Ole was not up to the job of saving us from relegation. Inexperienced in this league, Norway’s top tier is like playing league 1 football, Zaha was a poor aquisition, ALL the excuses came out, and typically, we all wanted someone to blame. I hold my hands up to doing the same thing as thousands of us did, and I found myself wondering – What if we had kept Malky here – would it be different?

What I feel we need to question is – what was actually happening behind the scenes? Why did Craig Bellamy all of a sudden seem to be turning against the fans, why were we struggling on the pitch? How damaged was morale in the dressing room?
It looks to me now, that we’ve only ever heard half the story, and Ole has shouldered responsibility that maybe he shouldn’t have had too. Unifying a team facing relegation and integrating a new philosophy and bringing in new players to gel quickly wasn’t going to be easy for anyone. I know Pulis did it with Palace, we know he did an amazing job, BUT Ole did come with a slight risk of never having managed a first team in the PL.

This is where things turn positive. We have managed to put together the most attacking Cardiff City team that I personally know we’ve ever had, in terms of quality in quantity – that’s from Midfield and up front. Ole is putting his own team together. He has had pre-season and new players to really put his stamp on the team. Morale looks great, new faces seem sharp, and some great examples of attacking football coming out in this pre-season.

Anyone who did it was wrong to write off Ole, this season could be as important for him as it is for us. He looks positive, excited and professional. I truely believe we could have fantastic manager on our books here, and if his style of football works, and we become the 12th man again – we really could storm this league and be back among the big boys, and having a real go.

This short interview sparked this little essay of mine – but after watching some videos on city’s youtube channel this morning, I am feel VERY optimistic indeed.