Ned Thomas : My honest opinion on Cardiff City

By Ned Thomas

http://www.cardiffcityforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=149067

There’s quite a few days supporting Cardiff City that I will never forget. One in particular in the last few years.

Promotion to the Premier League? Watching City in an FA Cup and League Cup final? Relegation? No, none of those. The moment I am talking about is the evening of May 7 2012. I had been at work all day, and unable to go to Upton Park to watch us in the play-off semi-final second leg.

I saw the result, and thought “well, we’ve had a good season, there’s always next year”. But little did I know. Later, I logged on to this forum. I saw a thread from a new poster, claiming that the club was to be rebranded. That Cardiff City would now play in red. That raised a smile to my face.

I thought, credit to whoever this poster is – they’ve made a terrible effort at trying to wind people up! But then I found out it wasn’t a wind-up, it was the truth. We all know the rest.

I didn’t turn my back on the club, I couldn’t. Now this part I don’t like to admit. A family member bought me the red shirt, thinking that I’d want it. I wasn’t happy. But I couldn’t be rude, I had to wear it. I wore it once or twice, but never to a match. I could not get used to wearing it. And I am ashamed about that. You will never ever see me in anything like that again.

Let me be clear, though, I never supported or embraced the red. How could I? How could anyone? I, like many others, simply tolerated it. But I was never happy with it. You could say that day was just the beginning of Cardiff City’s problems.

But this isn’t just about the rebrand anymore. It goes a lot further than that. Let me be clear that this thread is just my opinion, I’m not saying everybody should agree – and I’m sure some won’t.

Our football club is on its knees. It is clear to me that Vincent Tan wants out. But he won’t get a good price for a second-tier team. He needs to get us back up to the Premier League. That has resulted in him getting desperate. He has lost a lot of respect in Malaysia over everything that has gone on in South Wales.

The one question on my lips though is, why has he not converted debt to equity? We have to remember that we owe him millions at this point. If he’s going to sell the club, why would he convert those debts to equity? That’s why I can’t see it happening.

But, on to the football side of things this season, where are we? Well, we were the bookmakers’ favourites for promotion. We spent a lot of money, while keeping a large amount of last season’s squad. But Ole Gunnar Solskjaer didn’t get the results. He showed he is incapable of managing at this level and I will find it very hard to get back into English football.

We have a squad that should be at least challenging for the top six. Yet we sit in the bottom half. The squad of our quality should not be losing to the likes of Blackpool and Bournemouth.

So Ole got sacked, rightly so. Let’s look at the quality of some managers out there. There’s Chris Hughton and Tony Pulis for a start. Who does Tan employ? Russell Slade. A man who came within a whisker of getting sacked by a League One club. Is he really the man to take Cardiff City to the Premier League?

I’ll be fair to Slade though. He has done a good job at, no disrespect, and average League One club. Leyton Orient should not be pushing for promotion to the Championship. But he nearly got them there. He deserves respect for that. I feel we should show him respect. He has, after all, been in football management a long time. A lot longer than Solskjaer and Malky Mackay.

He has my full support, and I hope the owner gives him the time he needs to make an impact on the club. He could prove us all right, many are expecting him to crash and burn. But, he could be the man to take us back to the Premier League. A place we need to be for all sorts of reasons.

But, I’ve stated my opinion. I believe the problems at the club stem a lot further than both the new manager and our performances on the pitch. I’m sorry I can’t be more positive, but I have been 100% honest here.

Thanks for taking the time to read.