Window of Opportunity > Part 2

With 25 goals in 33 games so far this season, new striker Eoin Doyle (above) knows where the onion bag is and Cardiff fans will be hoping this ruthless predatory play which has brought him to peoples' attention in League One also translates to Championship level like strikers who've done this in the past such as Jordan Rhodes and Rickie Lambert.

With Adam Le Fondre flopping (3 goals in 21) and (instead of being dropped) being loaned to a Championship rival in Bolton, a striker was high on the agenda for Russell Slade this transfer deadline day regardless of whether he was shopping in Harrods, Ebay or PoundLand. 

Le Fondre arrived from Reading for big cheddar in the summer with a cheeky grin and a rep of being a ‘goal machine’ but it appears Cardiff’s tactics and politics have zapped the boys’ mojo to smithereens. Add to that Maynard being released for being fat, Guerra being loaned out and Macheda generally being rubbish at everything and City’s options have been thin like a Peurto Rican moustache.  

Cardiff City has become a graveyard for strikers in recent seasons but fans hope a new confident striker in Doyle (and the return of Joe Mason from loan) could spark some much needed life up front for the Bluebirds in what is a critical month ahead.   

Along with Doyle was the signing of the two Everton kids, Kennedy a Scottish winger on a permanent deal and McAleny a borrowed forward. Both young puppies and both gambles but coming from Everton they won’t be short on tekkers or gumption. Whether they get near the team though remains to be seen.

This deadline day could’ve been worse for City fans of course with Norwich having a right sniff around Craig Noone and big Kenwynne Jones attracting the odd email enquiry. Not to mention Captain David Marshall whose injury thankfully looks like preventing him being sold. 

Overall, it’s turned out better than most had predicted. All the Bluebirds need to do now is get some points and look to finish top half or face a relegation knuckle up :)  

Cardiff City 1 Reading 2 - Sigh

From top to bottom, the problems are deeper than the ocean floor at Cardiff City FC, as we all know. Instead of serving you up a mundane meaty analysis of why the Bluebirds can’t string two passes together, why the Manager needs a contract termination email asap, and the insane transfer activity… I’ll go easy on the word count this week.

I’m instead using iPhone snaps to mask the latest grim afternoon of football at the Cardiff City Stadium, complete with 1970s tactics, straight lines and hoof balls.

This time next week the transfer window will be ‘slammed shut’ (Sky Sports News TM) and the lay of the land may be clearer with regards to what’s been left of the squad and whether we’re being pulled into a relegation ruck.

There will be words on this next week. Stay tuned. 

Below: Here is a half empty melancholic stadium...

Below: As Reading celebrate a late winner, City players look at each other reminiscing about times gone by when they were given tactical instructions. 

They look to Scott Young on the sidelines for advice, he shrugs. 

Below: A young disillusioned fan is starring at the Grandstand Grill menu.    

Below: 'Play it on the floor please boys', said none of our current coaching staff to anyone.

Below: Grandparent gets excited and buys the boy a cute little City shirt. At home he mumbles 'thanks' to the floor wishing it was a Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL) top. Shirt placed at back of wardrobe.  

Below: Bye Alfie 

Stay tuned for next weeks (potentially harrowing) round up of City's weird cost cutting activity on deadline day. Will we still have eleven players? Which League One donkey will Russell Slade target next? Facepalm. 

#SladeOut

Get Rid Now

It was a colossal job for anyone to inherit but when you hire an unproven bloke from the lower reaches of League One this is what happens.

Forget about the bloated squad he inherited and other off-field club ‘issues’, most importantly Russell Slade is out of his depth on the pitch and things are getting worse in this department.

With Slade’s stubborn prehistoric 4-4-2 long ball system, lack of flair and lack of possession, things haven’t gone to plan.

The transfer window is offering little hope for fans neither with the work carried out so far seeing flair players leave with only cost cutting reduced section additions joining, in-keeping with the ‘rationalising of club finances’ noises made from within Cardiff City Stadium.

Granted, players had to be sold but to go from brainlessly spunking mega money at the squad just last year to penny pinching in this window has made more grim reading with regards to things on the pitch. You can still make smart signings on a budget of course but Slade's targets are struggling in struggling sides. 

Now, with one league win since November and just one away win all season, City are struggling big time ten points off the play-offs and ten points off the relegation zone.

Slade seems like a nice bloke but fans want success on the pitch not good manners.

With things spiralling the way they are the club will no doubt relieve the Manager of his duties in the next few months but why not do it now, get a pedigree modern replacement in and plan for next season. 

Norwich 3 Cardiff City 2 - Sleepwalking Mid Table Blues

Given current dire Bluebirds form (one win in seven league games) and Norwich being on a run and at home for their new coach’s home debut, did anyone expect a result here? Really?

I sit in optimism corner but even I didn’t. Pre kick off, I would’ve done a Klinsmann in the frosty garden for a point.

As the ever bad BBC Radio Wales commentary began to fill the kitchen like pollution I busied myself with the dishwasher expecting the worst.

At a crucial time of year, the first-half here saw all the deficiencies and problems Russell Slade’s side contains at the moment magnified to grotesque proportions. The stuttering, ugly lack of fluency in the side is obvious and Norwich seized total control, breaching City’s increasingly anxious defence three times.

To compound a rather grim 45 minutes, Peter Whittingham missed a penalty - A face-palm moment if ever there was one.  

I muted the radio at half time and stared out the kitchen window. One of the cats pissed on a bush.

It’s in defence where Cardiff’s biggest problems lie for me, with Sean Morrison a weak link and a lack of desire across the whole line and City leaking goals - A problem which arks back to Solskjaer’s reign and the sale of former captain Mark Hudson. 

Is it the back four or the lack of protection they get the issue? Is it the lack of possession the team are getting at the moment (30% first half and 40% second). If we’re ‘defending as a team’ (as Slade often says) then we’re doing a pretty lame arse job. Is it Slade's fault, is it the players fault? Whatever it is, we look like conceding every time a team attacks us. 

To their credit, the Bluebirds fought back in the second half but there shouldn’t be anything to fight back from and it shouldn’t take a setback to spark a performance and a good 20 minute spell in a game isn't good enough.

New lump Alex Revell (above) up front did well working like a dog doing the running of five men. He even bagged a neat goal on the volley and set up sub Kadeem Harris (above) with a flick-on for his goal. Revell and Harris were the flickering lights in the bleak darkness, with both working hard to make things happen and getting Norwich wobbly towards the end. Shame about the rest of the boys. 

The limp sulky Bluebirds (see above pic) are in the bottom half of the table now and they deserve to be, ten points off the play-offs and only 11 off the bottom three!

In the press, like robots tediously, players and staff at the club talk about a surge, about City somehow going on a magical blistering run of form and forcing their way into the top six. I suppose they have to say that to keep morale up but it’s pathetic really - to go on a run a team has to have a system, be clicking and confident. The Bluebirds are nowhere near and, particularly away from home, the football is mind-numbingly bad at the moment and has been since November.

With a fortnight of the transfer window to go, has Russell Slade got any funds to bring in fresh blood and the quality badly needed? Forget paying £100k for a left back, City need to splash out two or three million to breathe life into the season. Without that I’m afraid City will coast along and finish where they are now - mid table. Probably 14^th.  

We are allowed to play in blue mind. 

Window of Opportunity > Part 1

There’s a fortnight left now till the transfer window ‘slams shut’ on Monday Feb 2^nd and this is about the time when things go from simmering to bubbling. Fax machines are grinded to an inch of their lives and agents get sweaty ears from time spent on phones. Sky Sports News supernovas and Twitter becomes worth visiting. So, where are the Bluebirds at? 

A club desperately lacking stability, City are relentless self-inflicted victims of the ‘transitional’ time whereby a Manager is axed, replacement hired, replacement sells all previous Manager’s players / friends and buys new squad of his own players / mates - Repeat forever. This is where they find themselves now… Again.

Previous Manager and hobbit-like man Ole Gunnar Solksjaer (who apparently also used to play for Man United? – He may have mentioned that) appeared to collect players like paintings at this time of year without any real plan of what room they’d work in.

Needless to say, his successor (and butcher look-alike) Russell Slade has had a heavy workload cleaning up the inherited mess in a short period of time. Most of the ‘paintings’ haven’t fit Slade’s style of player who run lots and ‘put a shift in’ so have thus been cast aside with most getting their contacts terminated, some loaned out and others sold for buttons. A thankless task as Slade bemoans Ole’s style-over-substance signings.  

Here’s Russell’s rejects thus far: 

Also on the brink of an awkward conversation and locker clearance are Fabio, Kim Bo Kyung, Nicky Maynard and Guido Burgstaller. The Manager’s ruthless work is at a half way point as he continues to clear out the crap.  

With lots of taxi’s ordered then, are any replacements coming in? 

So far Russ has gone for a cheap smart left back in Scott Malone who does dirty things Fabio couldn’t like think, win headers and do some tackles and that kind of thing. It was reported Borussia Dortmund tried sign Malone from under City’s noses. Mostly though it was only reported by the Manager in a bold attempt to big up his signing maybe. 

He’s also added a target man to the ranks, a striker nobody wanted from the reduced section (Rotherham United) who looks like a man who loves running around and headering punts. Alex Revell might be an unspectacular signing but a decent squad player at a decent price. 

So, as the revolving door at the Bluebirds Vale training ground gets a WD40 spray, who’s next through it?  

Russell’s done ok so far but is now about to enter the intense later stages of the window where the moves of bigger clubs filter down and opportunities emerge from the undergrowth.

With Khaleem Hyland on trial, a midfield enforcer from Belgian club Genk, it looks like another new face is imminent, but Russ will know he needs a couple more.

After the brutal and (completely necessary) trimming down of the squad, I’d take a winger please, a proper one with pace and an end product. Go and get a striker too, one who complements the ones who love running around by scoring actual goals, a Linekar-esque goal hanger predator who doesn't care about running, just goals. Cheers Russ.

To be continued… 

Bluebirds 1 Fulham 0 > The Day Nobody Saw Coming

You’ve probably heard that In the latest episode of the CCFC dramatic soap opera boxset epic, the owner has now decided he was wrong all along about all his red dragon s**t and 'lucky red'. He's even preaching about ‘unity’ - Who saw this one coming?

Vincent Tan’s statement on Friday quoted JFK and revealed his dear sweet momma to be behind his uncharacteristic u-turn (I spat my tea across my desk at work in a mix of shock and amusement whilst reading it)

So, in the blink of an eye and a Skype call from the owner in Malaysia, the issue dividing the fanbase, effecting the players and making the club a global laughing stock for almost three years has gone.

Saturday was a celebration of the return to the club’s traditions but should we applaud the owner for returning what should never have been taken away in the first place? I appreciate the gesture from Tan, but I see no reason to thank anybody or sing their name.

It’s a new start for Tan and City supporters but let’s hope he behaves or we’ll have to tell his mum. 

  

The crowd volume was naturally cranked up for the game, and even though the game itself was tight and scrappy, the support was relentless. City fans have been so plagued with rage this season they've been like a 12^th man FOR THE OPPOSITION but now they've been rebooted and could prove a big factor in the late push for the play-offs.   

The wave of euphoria sweeping the club could also prove vital in rebooting the players who have a bitch of fixture list ahead. 

Hopefully, this club reboot also gives the manager a breather at the right time with two or three weeks of the transfer window to run. He has work to do and has started well with both new boys Scott Malone and Alex Revell impressing on the debuts at the weekend.

Malone looks steady at left back and even likes tackling while Revell up top was working like a dog for the team and winning every header on offer.

A few more ins and outs could see the squad ready for the run in and putting up a fight. 

So, the ground was loud, the football was poor and the shirts were blue. It's the City everyone loves back from the dead! 

Historical Conversations

Conversation with the boy - Part 1: May 2012 

Conversation with the boy - Part 2: January 2015