Weekly review 5/6/11.

Posted on June 5, 2011 by The other Bob Wilson

Given that I have covered all of the main news to come out of the club over the past week or so in other posts, this isn’t going to be a very long piece. On the financial side, there was another statement put on the club’s official site which outlined a debt for shares agreement with PMG (one of our secured creditors) which also saw the reappointment of former Wales centre and PMG partner Mike Hall to the Board of Directors. Hall had stepped down from his position originally due to “a conflict of interests” when Sam Hammam, sorry that should read Langston, first announced they were taking the club to court four years ago – speaking of Langston, the statement also reaffirmed the club’s desire to investigate, through the use of forensic accountants, the loan note debt of £24 million they were saddled with in September 2004.

Although I came across this piece on an excellent Ipswich site linking us with Sheffield United’s Ched Evans, I think that we are going to see very few credible reports as to who we might be signing until the manager situation is resolved and, on that score, here are the latest odds on who will be the next manager of Cardiff City. As Chris Hughton is the name being mentioned in dispatches more often than any other, his name at the top of the list should come as no surprise, but I must say that the identity of the second favourite does. Former Barnsley boss Mark Robins has been odds on favourite over the past few days, but there has been little from those who claim to be “in the know” to indicate why this should be.

Of the others, Roberto Di Matteo is someone who has a lot of supporters. With the club, seemingly, wanting to keep most of the current backroom staff in place, his desire to bring in former City loanee Eddie Newton and Olympic athlete Ade Mafe, who both worked with him at MK Dons and West Brom, might work against him though. Neil Ardley’s name is still cropping up and it seems pretty clear that, even if he doesn’t get the top job, there would appear to be a higher profile role at the club in the offing for the man who is currently youth team manager.

Normally, you would expect there to be all sorts of rumours and theories flying around in the Sunday press about a vacant manager’s job at a high ranking Championship club, but, apart from this story in the People linking us with Watford’s Malky Mackay (would we be willing to pay compensation to his club for him?), there doesn’t seem to be anything – maybe the powers that be are actually managing to keep their plans a secret at a club that usually leaks like a colander?

 

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2010/11 off the pitch.

Posted on June 3, 2011 by The other Bob Wilson

Although the season ended in what it has to be said was the normal disappointment, there is no doubt in my mind that, for the first time in ages, Cardiff City resembled a proper and, dare I say it, normal football club off the pitch in 2010/11. That’s not to say that TG and Vincent Tan have sorted all of our financial problems with a wave of their magic wand mind. We still have a huge debt, which has probably increased at a higher rate than it has done in recent years, and much of it is in secured loans – however, what we don’t have, for the first time in more than a decade, is some publicity hungry chancer telling us what a great job he is doing every other week!

I mentioned in my last piece under this category that I had only done six in it so far in 10/11 as opposed to forty six in 09/10 and that really does say it all in a season where attention could, thankfully, be focused almost entirely on what was going on out on the pitch. It wasn’t just that there was less hot air around than previously, but also that things actually started getting done – for example, the winning of an award for Family Club of the Year by Cardiff City would have been considered as somebody’s idea of a joke until quite recently, but not only were the club worthy nominees, they also sometimes received the praise of visiting fans for making their visit to Cardiff City Stadium an enjoyable experience (Derby may have lost 4-1 here in April, but that didn’t stop some of their fans praising the stadium and atmosphere as well as the welcome they got in Cardiff).

There have even been a few home matches that were police free as control of the crowd was left in the hands of stewards – actually, I’ve just read the last few sentences I’ve typed back and I found myself thinking “now I didn’t dream this did I?”, but, no, I didn’t! Personally, as I have mentioned before, I found the whole “match day experience” thing a bit homgenized, but it’s not aimed at dyed in the wool old fogeys like me and if it means that we keep on getting the same numbers of women, children and families attending as we have done over the past few seasons, then I’ve no problems with it.

On a similar theme, Chief Executive Gethin Jenkins uses a bit too much corporate speak for my tastes, but that’s a small matter when set against the overall impression he has made in his first year in his job. Although often singled out for criticism by some on the messageboards for his rugby background, it seems to me that Jenkins has gone about his business in a quietly competent manner (oh for a bit more of that since 2000!).

The off field hierarchy at Cardiff have a very big decision to make in the next week or so when they choose a new manager and, if they get that wrong, then opinions on the job they are doing will change pretty quickly, but I would say it has to be so far, so good for the Malaysian investors and the people they have appointed – it did seem that they were taking their time in coming to a decision on Dave Jones’ future, but the statement issued on the Official site this week would seem to indicate that the end of season review we had heard about was a wide ranging and thorough exercise which has benefited the club.

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