Most of that Cardiff City team should be ashamed of themselves, but I bet they’re not.

4 Responses to Most of that Cardiff City team should be ashamed of themselves, but I bet they’re not.

1. Dai Woosnam says:

   December 27, 2024 at 12:52 pm

   A very fine report Paul. I look forward to see if Blue Bayou will still be confident that we will escape the drop.

   I noted with interest some chap on WOL saying that we are doomed and that the only club we will finish higher than will be Plymouth Argyle…!! Eh? What world does that dear gent live in?

   Remember how Argyle stuffed us at Home Park last season? I predict they will do it again this.

   Here are a few of my thoughts this morning… in no order of preference/priority…

   1. What is it about us, that when we transfer ‘failure players’ for just pennies, those players almost always become relative world-beaters in their new clubs? We can go back to the 1950s for evidence: the late Brayley Reynolds for starters. And it has continued through the decades… right up to Eoin Doyle… and to the trio playing in yellow yesterday. And don’t get me started on the even greater number of ex-Bluebirds at Derby…!! (I have never got over our stupid ‘virtue signalling’ as a club in our immediate cancelling of Mendez-Lang’s contract because of his recreational drug use.)

   2. The only assessment in your match report I disagreed with was your positivity re Chambers. Were I to win Euromillions, I would personally pay up his contract and call an immediate taxi. To me, he might be a half decent City right back in a very lean year, but he is a million miles from a centre half. He is too physically weak and easily brushed off. We gave always had strong centre halves from Danny Malloy, John Charles, Don Murray through to Sean Morrison. Look at the Swans a season or two back with Nathan Wood and the bullying Harry Darling quite imperious. Us? We are having a laugh with Chambers in that role. I get the concept of a false centre FORWARD… but false centre HALF…??!! Never. The otherwise excellent Archie Gray is showing just that at Tottenham right now… he is just too slight for a centre half.

   3. The biggest lesson to draw from this season is this: do not bow to fans’ desire to make managers permanent. As Churchill said (the gist of… not verbatim)… ‘the crowd that are currently cheering my name could equally be happily attending my public hanging’. In other words, understand that fans are intrinsically FICKLE people. Vincent should never listen to them. Their urging was instrumental in Vincent giving daft contracts to McCarthy and Bulut… and the only way I came round to my reluctant view to give Riza a contract till the end of the season was that I was genuinely terrified that we would give a contract to that absolute bounder Slaven Bili?. (You know Paul how I have never forgiven him for what he did to Laurent Blanc… and that he never had the grace – even a decade later – to own up to his deplorable mendacity and deliberate ruining of that Frenchman’s dream… even though in a simultaneous interview, Blanc forgave Bili? for his utterly shameful behaviour.

   Always do due diligence… and if
   City fans think a total snake like Bili? a potentially good fit, well we have lost our moral core as a club.

   Please read the last three paragraphs here… https://taleoftwohalves.uk/featured/slaven-bilic-dive-robbed-laurent-blanc-world-cup-dream/

   4. Like I said to you Paul re the summer signings… we should always go to the respective FANS FORUMS of the players we are buying and see how many of their fans lament their departure… for instance when we sold Graham Moore, Peter Rodrigues, John Toshack, Gareth Williams, I fired off letters of protest to the Football Echo (our pre Internet fans forum).
   But when it came to recent(ish) transfer-ins, when I could check… eg. Horvath, Turnbull, Willock, (not possible with foreign clubs as I am no polyglot)… well NOBODY protested their departure, and there were occasional postings along the lines of a mild ‘good riddance’.

   5. Fine Willock a week’s wages over that dereliction of duty yesterday.

   Right… lunch beckons.

   TTFN,
   Dai.
2. Dai Woosnam says:

   December 27, 2024 at 1:01 pm

   PS Your blog software is a real mystery. When I transferred my text from my iPad Notes to your ‘leave a reply box’ it did not like my acute accent on the last letter of BILIC… and turned it into a question mark.
   Apols.
   But trust me, there is no question mark over that scoundrel’s character.
   DW
3. Clive Harry says:

   December 27, 2024 at 4:21 pm

   Compliments of the season to all. It looks to me as if many of the sensible followers on here are becoming so dumbed down and apathetic about the state of the Club we have followed for best part of a lifetime that they can’t even be bothered to comment on the shambles unfolding in front of us. The fact that none of the Club’s hierarchy seem to be bothered either is mind numbingly unbelievable.
   Like a lot of us, I’ve seen some terrible sides down the City but they were frequently caused by a lack of available resources and the players on the pitch, despite not being good enough, usually gave of their best which placated supporters to some extent. Unfortunately, we now appear to be in a situation where the owner doesn’t really care anymore – an attitude which is pervading the Club from the two Muppets at the top to the first team squad. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to have affected our other squads who hopefully still have the enthusiasm of youth – something which makes me concerned about too many of them being involved higher up and becoming infected! I have now reached a stage where, for the first time in my life, I would accept relegation if it meant a change of ownership and a reset in the way the Club is being run.
   Yesterday was another depressing watch being played out by a team mostly going through the motions watched by a bloke in the technical area who looks as if he’s popped in on the way to the pub. The experience wasn’t helped by the constant drivel being churned out by Earnie who veered from stating the bleedin’ obvious to spouting complete nonsense – please don’t use him again Sky.
   Happy new year everybody!
4. Brian Andrews says:

   December 27, 2024 at 6:54 pm

   Hello Paul – Thanks for another splendid piece of writing – I agree with everything.
   I no longer have a season ticket, but the new arrangements made by the EFL selling out to Sky allow me to watch our lot probably just as much as if I still had my seat at the CCS. So my frustrations and anger at our woeful performances are vented from the comfort of my home causing some concern to my dog believing that he is responsible for my outbursts. There were many yesterday.
   How is it possible that a team that finished so comfortably in mid-table last season, can perform so miserably this? There is clearly something radically wrong but I cast my mind back to the last two games of last season when we were comprehensively out played and conceded goals for fun. And that malaise has continued.
   Currently there does not appear to be any part of the Club’s first team set up that is functioning well, on or off the field (e.g. recruitment, training, selection, medical) and I include managerial appointments in that summary. It gives me no satisfaction in stating that the current incumbent is out of his depth and engaging his mate from Watford hardly convinces this writer otherwise. “Silk purse, sow’s ear” springs to mind.
   Paul, you mentioned many in your article who, I believe, would be given their P45s in many other walks of life and justly so. I have no confidence that we will attract those that are needed in the January “window”, but for starters I would recall Colwill minor and Wintle and install them immediately, probably with Robertson or/and Siopis, and I would forever regret letting Derby have Adams. You see much of our youngsters and surely we could give one or two a decent run of games instead of those who purport to be forwards.
   I wish you and fellow MAYANS are HYN and thank you on their behalf for you insights over 2024. An absolute Trojan