Cardiff City mauve and yellow army.

It’s the time of year when I ask readers of Mauve and Yellow Army to make a contribution towards its running costs again. Before I go into detail about this and what I hope you find an exciting development for the new season, I should, once again, offer my sincere thanks to all of you who have helped ensure the future of the blog over the past two years through a mixture of monthly payments via Patreon, monthly Standing Orders into my bank account and once a year payments via bank transfer, PayPal, cheque and cash.

I make this year’s request while acknowledging that the last few months has seen everyone in the world having to face up to what will hopefully turn out to be a one off situation which has meant that life has not been what used to be called normal for any of us. For many, Covid 19 has meant financial hardship and I fully appreciate that there may well be some readers who have provided a donation to the blog in the past and may wish to do so now, but, completely understandably, will not be doing so because Mauve and Yellow Army is a very long way down their list of priorities at the moment.

I first asked for help from readers two years ago at a time when it appeared likely that the blog would have to wind up due to a bill for the biggest of the charges I have to pay to renew web hosting fees.

This was the most urgent of the three targets I set out back in 2018 and was both surprised and elated to discover that enough was raised to pay the bill within a matter of weeks and, with some offers already received as to how a similar problem can be avoided when it’s up for renewal again next year in place, I do not envisage the same worries in the future.

The medium term goal was that the day to day running costs of the blog be covered and this has happened, notably when I needed to change my printer/copier/scanner twice in a year.

Finally, I set as a long term goal that money received could be utilised towards the writing and publishing of another Cardiff City related book to follow on from The Journey Back which I co wrote with Richard Holt in 2013.

I’ve dropped the odd hint on here that I’ve been working on such a book over the past year or so and I’m pleased to say that I’m on schedule to be in a position whereby something could be published by the target date I had set of Christmas of this year.

That date is an important one because on 10 March next year it will be the fiftieth anniversary of Cardiff beating Real Madrid at Ninian Park in the first leg of a Quarter Final tie in the European Cup Winners’ Cup, so any book commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of that event becomes a bit of waste of time if it comes out after that!

My plan originally was to make the book solely about the pair of matches against the club that was probably the most successful and famous in the world during the second half of the last century, but it did not take me long to reacquaint myself as to what an amazing season 1970/71 was for the club – in fact, I’d nominate it as the most memorable one in my City supporting life dating back to 1963.

So, the scope of my “project” was quickly expanded a long way further than that fortnight I mentioned earlier into a record with analysis of a ten month period which had a huge impact on the club City became and I would argue that impact is still being felt now.

As a result, quite a bit of my time last summer was spent making trips back and forth to Gabalfa library in Cardiff looking at old copies of the Western Mail, South Wales Echo and Football Echo studying the stories which would form a background to what I would write.

Over the course of the season just finished, I have been working on the book itself and am happy to say that it is now virtually finished,save for a proof reading that is about two thirds completed and coming up with a better title than “Real Madrid and all that” which is what I’ve called it up to now.

To give an idea of what the book will entail, it starts with a description of Jimmy Scoular’s early time at City with brief summaries of each season and some thoughts on transfers/memorable games etc. before concentrating on the 70/71 season with descriptions of each match based on a combination of my memories and the media reports I’d read on them.

There will also be details of both teams for each game, attendance details, goal times etc. provided by Richard Holt in the format used for the Journey Back and where I was able to find video recordings of the games, I include the ip addresses so that any readers can watch the pictures as well.

The book is slightly autobiographical in that, especially in the earlier years, I quite often refer to my parents’ reaction to events and I also go beyond the football occasionally to mention things that took my eye as I worked my way through those newspapers from half a century ago.

Broadly speaking, the season I concentrate mainly on is divided into chapters covering each month, but I devote one to each of the matches with Real Madrid and another one to the sale of John Toshack to Liverpool in November 1970. I say it myself, but I would not be surprised if the Toshack chapter is as through an examination into that very controversial transfer as there has been in the fifty years that followed it, I found it fascinating to write because it brought back so many memories and, in truth, I’d not realised the huge impact it had at the time.

City reaching the Youth Cup Final provides an interesting backdrop to what the first team were doing as the season reaches its climax and after a review of how things ended, I end with a chapter on what happened in the years that followed – for me, the club was never the same after 70/71.

There are some black and white pictures included, but, unfortunately, none of Peter King’s best goal I’ve ever seen City score in an incredible defeat by Middlesbrough which effectively ended one player’s career at the club. However, as I’m sure even some of you too young to have seen it in the flesh will have already watched it on the You Tube video that I give an address for!

I’m fairly confident that I will be able to get the book published in some format or another pretty soon, but I think it is most likely that it will only be available through Amazon in e book and, hopefully, paperback form.

Back in 2013, thanks to the help of Richard, a couple of other individuals and a loan from a group of other supporters, we were able to get The Journey Home published ourselves which meant it could be sold in some shops throughout Cardiff and from the Supporters’ Trust Office before and after matches – we were also able to offer a discount to Trust members who bought the book.

Although I think this becomes less important this time around because no one can be certain when we will be allowed to attend matches again, my hope was that I could aim for something similar with this book and therefore offer a discount to those whose support for Mauve and Yellow Army has been so much appreciated, but, although I’ll try to come up with something if I do go down the Amazon route, it may be that I’ll not be able to.

Just to repeat something I’ve said at this stage in the past two years – the blog will still be free to read for anyone who chooses not to make a donation to its running costs and, apart from the one in the top right hand corner which is to do with Google Ads, you will never have to bother about installing an ad blocker to read this site.

Finally, as mentioned earlier, donations can be made through Patreon, PayPal, by bank transfer, cheque, Standing Order/Direct Debit and cash, e-mail me at paul.evans8153@hotmail.com for further payment details.