2012/13 revisited.

4 Responses to 2012/13 revisited.

1. Dai Woosnam says:

   August 20, 2014 at 6:56 pm

   Thanks as usual Paul.
   Interesting to see that many of our initial feelings re Fabio are maybe being proved wrong.
   But you are proving my initial feelings re Brayford right …again and again.
   I sold myself a bit short recently when I said to you that I was banging on about his being loaned out to The Blades back in Feb.
   Not that there was anything incorrect in that claim of mine: but, on checking, I now see that I was writing to you about my outrage at him disappearing into an apparent Hensol “Bermuda Triangle”, way back in the first week in November.
   Which brings me to Malky.
   And your suggestion that maybe some of his current critics were former big fans of his.
   Do you know what?*
   I can almost plead guilty to that.
   For when Malky appeared at his first CCFC press conference, he seemed such a breath of fresh air after the surly and paranoid Dave Jones. I just loved the cut of Malky’s jib.
   And for a long time I admired the work he did reaching out to the City supporters branch network …especially in the Valleys, where they had been ignored somewhat.
   Never liked his football: it grieves me to say it, but I preferred the football of the DJ era. Malky however proved mega successful by flooding the midfield at home, and parking the bus away.
   And to many supporters I know who remember – like I remember – saying in April 1962 that “we’ll be back in a year or two” (and then finding that the couple of years stretched into HALF A CENTURY), getting to the Promised Land was everything, so they forgave him his negative tactics.
   Not me. And I knew that those tactics would not cut it for much more than one moment in the Premier League.
   But I was still broadly pro Malky until that infamous MotD with Micheal Laudrup, which proved to be my true Damascene experience re Malky.
   You’ll recall that Moyes had just been appointed to Old Trafford and that Martinez had not yet been announced as getting the Everton job.
   Both MotD guests were asked outright by Gary Lineker if they would go to Goodison if Kenwright came calling. I have watched my DVD of that programme several times: each time it yields up more and more insights into Malky’s “hail fellow, well met” character, that tell me all is not what it seems.
   Whereas Michael played an immaculate forward defensive stroke to Gary’s question, Malky’s highly uneasy reaction spoke volumes. It was clear that he would be up the M6 in a nanosecond, without saying goodbye to the City fans (just like he had failed to say thanks and goodbye to the fans at Vicarage Road).
   And I like lots of other City fans started to wonder …is this man all he seems?
   Now fast forward to the end of November and one’s realisation that he had massively overpaid for most of his star buys…except John Brayford who he had seemingly, if not exactly “sent to Coventry”, but then done the next worst thing, and sent him to the obscurity of football two tiers lower! A fate that this man EMPHATICALLY did not deserve.
   But even then I was far from damning Malky.
   And then came the denouement of his time at CCS. The vital leak about the “resign or else” email told me everything. The scales fell from my eyes.
   And then he had gone.
   And Malky and his mate Moody were apparently going to sue Mr Tan for a small fortune in unpaid contract and damages. And get him to pay their legal costs.
   But then came a long silence, and it was ended by a bombshell.
   Suddenly both men made ABJECT apologies to Vincent Tan. And agreed to leave without a penny in compensation.
   If that wasn’t “telling” enough, the real punch to Malky’s solar plexus came with the STAGGERING admission that he was not just dropping his claim but paying all legal costs.
   Unprecedented.
   What does THAT tell you?
   I know what it tells me. It tells me the Terrible M Twins were very lucky boys to find such a decent, magnanimous owner like Vincent Tan: a man who refused to go in for the kill.
   But equally, they were surely naive to think that a self made billionaire like Mr Tan, could have had the wool pulled over his eyes? This man did not get to where he is today, by being anyone’s fool.
   And he’d had to put up with the most disgracefully xenophobic Press who sided with “nice wholesome Malky” against the “oriental Bond villain”.
   Well, now you tell me that Malky is off to Selhurst Park. Sad, if that happens.
   Sad for Palace fans, because he will not hack it at EPL level. Plus alas, I don’t reckon he is kosher.
   Sad also, because in Neil Lennon they could have had a manager with real intelligence and footballing nous.
   That said, I am still hopping mad at Lennon for telling Malky to “get real” and bid £12.5m for his vastly overpriced Kenyan, after he had stolen two City stars for the square root of bugger all.
   Fortunately Vincent called a halt at £9m, otherwise the two Ms would invariably continued like kids in a candy shop, and SPENT SPENT SPENT.
   Anyway, here endeth my lesson.
   Let me end by stating the obvious my opinion is not yours Paul. And I respect your views as ever.
   And I realise that Twain was so right when he said that “difference of opinion is what makes for horse races”!
   Vive la difference!
   Kindest,
   Dai.

   http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/malky-mackay-apologises-vincent-tan-7099790

   * That is the vogue phrase in football these days.
   It has taken over from “well documented”: the phrase that reigned supreme for the previous 5 years.
2. Dai Woosnam says:

   August 21, 2014 at 1:39 am

   Golly …what news, Paul !!

   OPEN LETTER TO VINCENT TAN, HAVING JUST SEEN A SENSATIONAL ARTICLE IN THE DAILY MAIL AT 00.25 on Thurs 21-08-14

   Dear Vincent,

   I take my hat off to you.
   First for being too wise a man to let the two of them pull the wool over your eyes.
   And second, for having waited your moment.

   And now you have well and truly SHAFTED the blighters!
   What DELICIOUS timing!

   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2730307/Malky-Mackay-Iain-Moody-investigated-FA-sexist-racist-homophobic-text-messages-time-Cardiff.html

   Now as a tribute to you, we need all the fans BEHIND you on the trivial shirt colour issue.
   And we need the manager to be as strong as Don Revie was, back in 1961, to push through the hotly disputed change to all white, from the Leeds traditional colours of yellow and blue.

   Like Revie, Ole arrived when the colour change had already been implemented, but was still being hotly disputed. Now Ole, you must step up to the plate on this issue.

   And dear South Wales Echo, do not act like Fifth Columnists on this matter. Your job as a newspaper is to LEAD public opinion, not follow the mob.

   And I know that many sincere fans are the quintessential antithesis of “mob” members, but I am afraid that when you lie down with xenophobic dogs, you will get up with fleas.

   All you will do is rock any promotion boat that may be sailing.

   “Xenophobic”? Let’s be straight here: strike that word, and instead insert the word RACIST.

   Many Cardiff fans do not value Vincent Tan because he is a Malaysian of Chinese extraction.
   Yet that man has done more for Cardiff City than anyone in my longish lifetime.

   And how I also love the fact that this week Vincent succeeded in winning the Spygate judgment. What timing again! Forget the trivial fine from the FA.

   I note that Cardiff are now suing Palace for their bald-faced lie. If Steve Parrish has anything about him, then he will sack Iain Moody immediately.

   Why?

   Well, for on 11 Apr 2014 – Moody denied the allegations, telling The Sun: “That is incredibly, extraordinarily untrue. That is untrue, completely untrue.”

   Iain Moody has brought shame on Crystal Palace by telling a lie not once, but THREE times in just two sentences.

   And if that was not enough in itself, his texts and emails in the Daily Mail article are staggeringly inappropriate…and would lead to instant dismissal in most jobs.

   So well done, Vincent Tan. I salute you! And out of respect for you and to make you happy, even though I initially wanted to stay blue, I will now be “Red until I die”. Like Richard Burton, a man who decided to wear one item of apparel coloured red, all his adult life.

   Kindest,
   Dai Woosnam
3. The other Bob Wilson says:

   August 21, 2014 at 9:17 am

   Speaking as someone who was advocating that we sign Brayford some six months before we actually did, you are preaching to the converted as far as he goes Dai.

   I’ve done a piece this morning about the Daily Mail story, so won’t bother replying to you regarding what you say about Messrs Mackay, moody and Tan.

   Paul
4. Dai Woosnam says:

   August 21, 2014 at 10:00 am

   Thanks Paul.
   Can’t fault you.
   But you have read one line of mine the wrong way, methinks.
   When I said “But you are proving my initial feelings re Brayford right …again and again” …that was emphatically NOT a criticism of you!
   I am simply saying that your excellent reports that stress how good Brayford is playing, are proving ME right every time.
   Not YOU wrong!
   I always KNEW you were pro the boy.
   Kindest,
   Dai.

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