Until today, there’s been a common link with every instance of a City manager leaving bar one in my time supporting the club – you’ve seen it coming. The one exception to that rule was when Phil Neal left us in October 1996 to become Steve Coppell’s assistant at Manchester City, only for Coppell to resign about three weeks later.
It was a surprise to see Neal go, but not an unpleasant one- he’d done little in his eight months in charge to get supporters enthused, but I can’t remember there being many calls for him to be sacked, so his departure came out of the blue.
Usually when a manager goes, there’s a groundswell of opinion against him and Board cottons on to the fact that there would be no great reaction against them if they gave the man in charge the bullet – in fact, the fans are grateful to them for doing so more often than not.
All too rarely in the case of Cardiff City, clubs from higher divisions become interested in a manager because he’s doing such a good job for us. I wouldn’t say that was the case with Phil Neal, but it definitely was when First Division Sunderland came in for Len Ashurst in 1984 and Frank Burrows’ first spell with us ended in 1989 when he agreed to become Assistant Manager at Portsmouth.
There’s one other category – although the club could claim that Malky Mackay was sacked because of poor results just after Christmas 2013, it was also true that his relationship with Vincent Tan had broken down months earlier and Mackay had been on borrowed time after that.
So, no shock when Mackay left, nor once news had broken of Ashurst and Burrows being wanted by clubs from higher divisions and none either for any of the multitude of sackings I’ve seen down the years – until today.
I’m sure I’m not the only City fan who thought it was a joke when the news broke at lunchtime today that Steve Morison had been sacked and my messageboard reaction when I realised he had gone was to say it was the most ludicrous sacking in the club’s history – I’ll try and explain why presently.
First though, although I think the decision a truly daft one, I can never say I was a big Morison fan. I’ll always be grateful to him for keeping us up last year and for taking us away from hoofball – in fact, such was his commitment to that cause, even I, as a dedicated anti long ball merchant, thought he’d gone too far down that road and wanted some more height in the team to counter set piece weaknesses at either end of the pitch.
However, right from day one, Morison (a self confessed “Mr. Angry” as a player) seemed overly abrasive in his dealings with the media, he was also too quick to criticise young players in public while under performing seniors escaped censure from him. The worst example of this was how he answered questions about his decision to sub Isaak Davies half an hour or so after he brought him on at Bournemouth- that was just rank bad management in my book.
Similarly, I think it can be said now that Morison’s approach towards Rubin Colwill did not work – the player that came on and won a game at Forest around this time last year under a different manager has been held back by his predecessor who came over as being wholly unsympathetic towards a talented youngster despite his protestations to the contrary..
There are other examples I believe of Morison hindering, rather than helping, younger players, but to return to the point I want to make about the timing of this sacking, whatever my gripes and those of other supporters regarding some aspects of his work, Morison was handed a double vote of confidence in the spring and summer.
Firstly, he was awarded a contract until June of next year once our Championship status had been secured and then he was given a virtual free hand to rebuild the playing staff when so many senior players’ contracts were running out. Not only that, he was seemingly backed by the owner and the Board when it came to introducing a more progressive style of play with more emphasis on ball retention and less reliance on power and resilience.
So it was, that Morison was allowed to bring in an amazing seventeen new players on what we were led to believe was a shoestring budget, but, after being given around half a million pounds to spend on a young “project” striker, a further £1.5 million was found to spend on Callum Robinson on the last day of the transfer window less than three weeks ago.
Now, all of this strikes me as an enormous display of faith in someone who was an inexperienced, young manager – did anyone truly believe when Morison was taking questions from the media about what he thought Robinson could bring to his squad that he would be sacked a little over a fortnight later?
Of course, after an encouraging first few games, things were not going as hoped in Morison’s Brave New World. I found, and still find, the performances in our four away defeats to be concerning and there has been a distinct lack of chance creation and natural finishing ability so far, as evidenced by just seven goals scored in eleven competitive games, with three of them coming in the first half at Middlesbrough five days ago. Again I ask would anyone have thought Steve Morison would have been sacked on the weekend when Perry Ng put us 3-0 up on Tuesday?
Last night, there were a few calls for the manager to go as there always is these days when a team have won three, but lost five, of their first ten league games. However, I’d say that the large majority recognised that patience was required because a big rebuilding job was being undertaken – however here we appear to be in an almost unique position where the fans are calling for patience and it’s the owner and Board that have the jerking knees!
On the face of it, it’s ridiculous sacking a manager so soon after what the City owner and Board were prepared to grant Steve Morison at the start of this month – Vincent Tan and co have form for naivety and poor footballing judgement, but this is in a different league to anything we’ve seen from them before.
Yet, it’s so foolish that you start to think there has to be something other than just dissatisfaction at eleven points from ten games and eighteenth place in play here. While I find it hard to believe that Morison has gone because this lot have a replacement already lined up who will enthuse the fans and galvanise the club, the notion that something has happened “behind the scenes” to bring about today’s dramatic news does not seem completely far fetched.
For now, Mark Hudson will take over as caretaker manager, so, if the Board and owner run true to form, we can expect him to be given the job for the rest of the season if we manage to avoid defeat against Burnley in the first game after the international break.
Hopefully the next few days will bring news which makes today’s decision look more sensible, because, as things stand, our reputation within the game must be a lot lower than it normally is – would you apply for the manager’s job at Cardiff at the moment?
Having just written the above, I find that Paul Abbandonato of Wales Online has written a piece which I must admit has left me wondering whether Cardiff City are worth bothering with any more under its current ownership. Mr. Abbandonato can usually be relied upon to provide a pretty accurate account of the thinking of those in power at Cardiff City Stadium and I’ve no reason to disbelieve him here. I despair, I really do despair – all aboard for the cheapest managerial option again and probably a return to hoofball with a squad of players wholly unsuited to playing that way.
