Following the very good win over Southampton seven days ago, it’s been a week where those who want Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut to stay in the job for next season have been able to put their case almost unopposed.
Straight after the Southampton match, Bulut was serenaded by choruses of “we want you to stay” as he and his team took the plaudits for what I reckon was our best home win of the season. The Monday night podcast that I’m in the habit of listening to has been anti Bulut for most of 2024, but this time the four man panel was split on what City should next, but this was as of nothing compared to what Wales Online were pumping out as their readership were told it would be “madness” to get rid of Erol Bulut.
Rightly or wrongly (probably rightly), the feeling has grown that the responsibility for the uncertainty over what’s going to happen next regarding the manager lies with Vincent Tan. The perception is that Bulut is very much Chairman Mehmet Dalman’s man and the owner had to be persuaded into the appointment – the season is now all but completed and the fact that we still don’t know whether the Bulut experiment is to be continued suggests that Mr Tan was reluctantly persuaded.
It’s clear that a substantial proportion of City fans want Bulut to stay, but someone unfamiliar with the workings of the club could be forgiven for believing that they amount to an overwhelming majority if they were to go by what’s been sung, said and written on the subject in the past seven days.
If, like me, you do not want to see Erol Bulut stay, it’s been a week to maybe keep schtum while realising that, even if you might be in the minority (there’s no real evidence on this either way mind), it is, in all likelihood, a large minority.
Ill willingly admit that there is one big reason that the Bulut to stay camp can build their case on and I don’t have too much to argue back with – we are going to finish around ten points and ten places better off than we did last season.
I heard a discussion on the radio last week on the subject of at what age you are classed as “old”? The best answer I heard was the jokey it’s always five years older than you are, but, as someone who very often feels every one of my sixty eight years old, it was reassuring to hear that there were those who said I still have seven, or maybe even twelve, years to go before I should consider myself old!
Anyway, that digression is a prelude to me saying you know you’re getting old when a football season seems to whizz by in almost the blink of an eye. It really does feel like only yesterday when I was reading predictions that tended to put us in eighteenth (our normal predicted finish in recent seasons) or worse – I can’t remember a pre season since we returned to this level twenty one years ago when so many pundits had us finishing in the bottom three. For myself, I thought eighteenth wasn’t going to be too far out – I’d make encouraging noises about a top half finish, but wouldn’t really believe it, So, to finish no lower than twelfth is an achievement, no doubt about it.
Up to now, I’ve concentrated on opinions voiced locally, but if the subject has come up on the national podcasts and You Tube videos about the Championship I take in, there is an air of incredulity at the managerial situation being dragged out like it is – the uniform view is that Bulut should be Cardiff manager going into 24/25.
However, I really don’t believe it’s as straightforward as that. I’ve said before on here that the nature of the football played by City over the past decade or so has made me change the way I support my team. Maybe it was because I spent the first twelve years or so of this century watching largely successful City teams playing a pretty entertaining brand of football that my attitude became even more that the result was everything than it had been previously – I was taking the entertainment factor for granted, why wouldn’t I when players like Earnie, Kav, Koumas, Whittingham, Chopra, Bothroyd and Burke were performing for my team?
I always used to say that no matter how dull the game, Whitts would still do something in it which would have me purring. This was the first inkling of something that has become more profound with me as the years of attritional, defensive, physical and direct football mounted up – the result is no longer everything, I want some entertainment, some signs as to why football is called the beautiful game.
Erol Bulut’s City side do not provide that. To be fair to him, the old long ball approach is all but gone now, but, for every Ipswich and Southampton, there have been four Leeds or Birminghams at home this season, we have been so dull to watch, particularly at home.
Today was our final home match and, in line with the theme of improvement, we end the season with a better home record than we had in the preceding three. Unfortunately, that is more a commentary on how bad we were between 2021 and 2023 – it’s tempting, but not quite true, to say that only at Cardiff could ten home defeats and thirty two home goals conceded be viewed as an upturn!
I might go into the freakish nature of some of City’s stats for this season next week, but what I think they say is that is that, top half finish or not, the improvements we need to make to become genuine top six challengers are far greater than the amount that would have to go wrong for us to plunged back into a relegation struggle – we win, but it’s always by a single goal margin and when we lose, it’s by two or more.
The football under Erol Bulut has been deadly dull for most of the time and I would argue that the improvement this season has tended to be built on sand.
I’m not going to go into any detail on today’s match – I thought 4-1 was very harsh on us as, rarely for City, we had quite a few chances and after a season where our strikers have been blamed for many of our woes for not scoring goals when barely any opportunities were being created for them, Turnbull, Goutas, twice, Ashford and Robinson all missed decent chances of varying difficulty.
Middlesbrough were largely in careless, end of season mood for much of the first half, but they’re are a confident side who are finishing the season well whereas it’s tended to be one step forward and two back with City since October. Middlesbrough are also used to scoring goals and the difference in finishing quality between the teams today was marked.
I’d say today confirmed a feeling I’ve had for a while – Erol Bulut may have improved various aspects of our game compared to last season, but I think the 22/23 strugglers were better defensively than this team – Middlesbrough wouldn’t have scored four against last season’s defence.
The first Middlesbrough goal came just before half time when Famala Diedhiou lost his man, Matt Clarke, from a free kick and the defender scored via the underside of the bar. Middlesbrough then scored at will in the early minutes of the second half as a series of weak challenges allowed Finn Azaz to make it 2-0 from close range, then Josh Bowler lost possession cheaply and a long ball over the top enabled the in form Emanuelle Latte Lath to out sprint Nat Phillips and score easily.
All three goals could have been defended a lot better, but Alex Gilbert’s strike from the edge of the area to make it 4-0 was a quality effort.
Middlesbrough rather sat back after that and City spent the last half an hour seeking consolation goals with one arriving in added time when goalkeeper Seny Dieng, who made fine saves to deny Turnbull and Goutas, presented the ball to Callum Robinson and he crossed for Josh Bowler to roll into an empty net.
Looking for positives from the game, I’d say it was all but impossible to blame the younger players who’ve been given a chance in the last two games for what went wrong – the main damage had been done by the time most of them got oe the pitch. The exception was Cian Ashford who started the game on the left and after playing like a normal winger for much of the Southampton game, was more of a Bulut winger this time (i.e. he spent about eighty per cent of the time behind the ball). It was maybe a dose of reality after last week for Ashford, but there were still a few signs that he has the ability to play much more first team football for the club.
As for the others, both Lucy Giles and Raheem Conte repeated the positive impression they had given on their debuts the previous weekend, with the former looking unflustered in his play on the left and the latter adding things at right back in an attacking sense that his seniors in the position Perry Ng (voted Player of the season for the second year on the trot last night) and Mahlon Romeo struggle to provide.
There was also an overdue league debut for Joel Colwill who was brought on at 3-0 down with about thirty five minutes to play. Unfortunately, Joel’s elder brother was absent through injury and so we’ll have to wait a bit longer for the two of them to be on the pitch at the same time in a league match, but on yesterday’s evidence, it will happen eventually – Joel coming on didn’t represent a step down in quality in City’s midfield, quite the opposite really, as City were able to
A very young City under 18 side took on Fleetwood at Leckwith this lunchtime and won 2-0 thanks to goals from Alyas Debono and Mannie Barton with a penalty.
In the PremierDivision of the Highadmit SouthWales Alliance Premier League, Treherbert Boys and Girls Club kept their faint title hopes alive with a 1-0 win at Tonyrefail.
I am to the financial logistics of managing a football team as Joe Biden is to honesty. Even so, I have a thought concerning Aaron Ramsey. I believe he is still under contract as a player for Cardiff City. So, he receives his salary whether or not he plays next season. However, if he is immediately given the title player-manager he could be in charge of the team (or at least, second in command) and continue to keep his wage. Presumably, this would be enough to be manager at guaranteed money without anything extra involved. I honestly believe he has the football intelligence, history, and links with Cardiff that would allow him to be an outstanding manager capable of experienced man-management and successful results. Or is this just pie in the sky?
As respect our current manager, I don’t believe he has the flexibility and footballing know-how to change his response to the game. I feel that on the rare occasions our team have shown initiative and effective forward play, it has been from the players, not from the manager.
Yesterday’s performance, sad to say, is like the first four words of a famous song , ” I go to pieces”. A lady on Call Bob yesterday claimed the players not the manager are responsible for our performance. Even so, there is a hardcore of very good players already in the team, and given the return next season of the likes of O’Dowda and McGuiness (who, incidentally, would be my choice as captain) there is every possibility of a team playing with successful and attacking football, given the right manager.
Thanks as ever, Paul.
I pray for miracles, but have really resigned myself to him avoiding the axe.
DW
AMO is right.
I don’t think Bulut really values the two players I rank as my favourites: McGuinness and Jak.
They would love to have Mark at Hillsborough, and if the current owner sells, then expect a big bid with American money. And that money Vincent will hand to Bulut to buy a striker and presumably Phillips… a decent player but not an EPL player in a 100 years.
Mark McGuinness, as Anthony says, has class written all over him.
DW
Reading your report of the Boro game Paul, I was reminded of Eric Morecambe’s reply to conductor Andre Previn, about his piano playing ability.
In your case, I’d say your report used a lot of the right words, just not necessarily in the right order.
For me, an end of season game with nothing riding on it for either team is one where performance matters far more than the result, and so the result of the game was far less important to me than the performance.
Although the match had something of an end of season feel to it (neither team was in a hurry to take throw-ins and no cards issued to either side), I thought it was largely an entertaining game played in the right spirit.
We had more shots than Boro although fewer on target. That was the main difference for me.
After Boro’s fortunate first goal at the end of the first half (defender Matt Clarke looked as surprised as anyone when the leg he stuck out to stop the ball going behind for a goal-kick, resulted in it bouncing off the underside of the bar into the net), Boro showed clinical finishing for their remaining goals. It was indicative to me that just after a Goutas header hit the post and Ashford failed to convert the rebound, that Boro demonstrated how to finish at the other end.
I think it’s significant that the Boro squad cost much more than ours (their squad value was @ £63M when I last checked, whereas ours is £20M less).
We started the match with Diedhou upfront (rated £420k) whereas Latte Lath (who scored an excellent third goal) is rated just over £3.5M and surely rising!
One other thing I appreciated was our teams character. Despite being 4-0 down, we didn’t give up and kept competing, and we deservedly got a consolation goal.
Once again Raheem Conte and Luey Giles played really well as full-backs and must be considered as first team candidates for next season. Although Ashford didn’t quite have the impact as against Southampton (he seemed to have Boro defenders quickly on him, as if they’d seen his Southampton performance), I thought Joel Colwill was excellent in midfield when he came on.
I think all this indicates that the players are very much playing for Erol Bulut, and as such I think it would be madness if our board didn’t extend his contract (although judging by recent Board decisions, it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t). And hopefully, if he stays, Erol will be backed to a greater degree than so far, in the transfer market.
I’ve just seen a report that Vincent Tan has authorised contract discussions with Erol to take place. The slightly mischievous side of me wonders if the contract will include a clause that requires Erol to take Vincent’s half-time phone calls?
Thanks for the replies and apologies for my belated reply. I’m with you Dai, I don’t want Erol Bulut to be our manager next season and, given that Lamouchi reached a similar stage where he was talking to the club (Tan) before he left, I wouldn’t quite say that it’s inevitable that our manager is staying, although I’d accept that it’s more likely that he is than it appeared a week ago.
AMO, I think Nat Phillips has been the best of our January signings, but I confirmed a suspicion I had this morning when I checked our goals against record – we let in thirty eight in twenty eight matches before he made his debut for us (i.e. when Mark McGuinness was starting) and twenty seven in seventeen games since Phillips broke into the team – there’s not a great deal in it, but our defensive record was better without Phillips.
I’d like to see Aaron Ramsey given a chance to manage the team if it was what he wanted to do, but, and I know Dai won’t like this, you have to factor in when asking anyone to take over at Cardiff what their response will be regarding working with our owner – I definitely believe the list of candidates is restricted somewhat when we’re looking for a new manager because of the Vincent tan factor.
Blue Bayou, I decided not to write too much about Saturday’s game because the conversation seemed to be more about the managerial situation. I tried to say that the situation was not quite as straightforward as some would have it. I’ll probably develop things a bit more in my piece on the Rotherham match because, barring something sensational happening, we’re probably going to get a game which will not offer much insight into what we can expect in 24/25.
What I will say about the match now though is that, despite it representing out joint heaviest home defeat of the season, we were nowhere as pathetic as we were in the Leeds game which was also lost by three goals. 4-1 greatly flattered Middlesbrough I thought, but I also thought they coasted through the last half an hour or so once they went 4-0 up.
As for the players being behind Erol Bulut, I think you’re always going to get the required effort from youngsters eager to impress at the start of their career in senior football and, for that last half an hour, more than a third of our team fell into that category. The more senior version that played for the first hour were less impressive in terms of giving everything for the manager – the words “go to pieces” were well chosen by Anthony.
I must admit that I change my mind a lot as to whether Bulut has the backing of the players – our wins tend to come in tight games that are quite often won by late goals. This is suggestive of a strong team spirit and a squad that is playing for “the gaffer”, but, on the other hand, the last game we lost by a one goal margin was way back on December 13 when Birmingham won at Cardiff City Stadium – that says to me that heads can go down too quickly in the team and that is quite often a sign of an unhappy dressing room.