You wonder if this nightmare run of home results and performances will ever end as the chilling thought that it could last half a decade or more becomes a realistic prospect. I’m sure I’ve said before that it gets hard to tell one from another as the defeats and the months rack up and this one, a 2-0 lunchtime loss to Middlesbrough, will not last long in the memory unless it proves to be the one that costs Erol Bulut his job.
I’m not expecting that to happen, mainly because, in a move that was treated by certain sectors of the printed and broadcast media and the punters on social media as if it was Jurgen Klopp who was going to be managing us after signing a two year deal, we were desperate for him to stay as the tiresome will he, won’t he debate of the first half of the summer dragged on and on.
I vowed I would wipe the slate clean with Bulut despite having been bored rigid by his style of play as his team lost their way for the last two thirds of the 23/24 campaign and saw little point in calling for the sacking this season of a man who would cost the club so much in compensation now if they decided to get rid of him.
You have to say though, after the stubbornness and I would go as far as saying stupidity of his team selection today, you do wonder if there is any point in things dragging out longer than they need to – I don’t think Bulut’s going to change and while he sticks with a starting eleven that offered absolutely nothing in an attacking sense in the first half today, we can forget about climbing the table, we must show more of a positive mentality, especially at home.
What started off as a jocular remark is now the truth – it’s not just that we look more dangerous with the kids on the pitch, we look far more dangerous. No doubt, Bulut and his apologists will say that that the goals are piling up against us while Colwill, Tanner et al are doing their stuff further up the pitch and they’d have a point, but you look at the first goal today, Sunderland’s first goal, Burnley’s first two goals and think we’re hardly water tight at the back with the old hands who start every week are we!
It was remarked at the end of last season how bad our goals against record was despite our manager being so defensive in his outlook and that has continued into this season. Callum Chambers lost Nathan Clarke to leave the Middlesbrough centre back free to stoop and place a good header from a Finn Azaz corner beyond Ethan Horvarth for the sort of cheap goal that will deflate a team with a record as bad as City’s is becoming. As a result, the worrying trend which saw our goals against record fall away badly in the last months of 23/34 is being continued.
Bulut’s team selection deflated any feel good factor that had built up following a fighting draw at Swansea and an encouraging showing by a very young team in defeat against Southampton. However, the latter was a cup match and our manager has shown throughout the last year and more that whatever happens in a match where there aren’t league points at stake counts for nothing when it comes to selection for the following game.
I greeted the news that the team was the same one that were second best to Swansea for an hour with a resigned shrug – there was a time when I would have been angry with such a decision, but you just know that there are certain players close to the first team who this manager will not pick or, worse than that, there are certain regular starters who he will not drop, no matter how poorly they are playing.
Today, in a first half which was so unbelievably poor for a second tier game in the English pyramid, Middlesbrough did at least have a couple of on target efforts that forced Horvarth into fairly routine saves. For City there were, apparently, two goal attempts, neither of which troubled visiting keeper Dieng – I can remember a shot by Manolis Siopis that flew yards high and wide, but I can’t recall the other one.
The only slight positive to come out of that wretched first half was that Middlesbrough, confidence bruised by a run of three games without a win, were looking like a team that had lost 5-0 at home in midweek, but, in saying that, they still seemed the more likely to break free from the torpor that hung over the game. Strangely, for a game three weeks into a season, much of the first half had the air of a warm up game or an encounter being played as a long season was winding down.
To be fair to City, they did have the sort of ill luck that goes with a bottom of the league standing. Jesper Daland was injured in an accidental collision prompted by Chambers colliding with Boro forward Delano Burgzorg who fell onto Dalman’s heal it seemed. The Norwegian largely confirmed the positive impression he created at Swansea while he was on the pitch, but had to give up the ghost when he went down for a third time just before the interval and was replaced by Dimi Goutas.
I was being serious when I remarked on what I still call Twitter at half time that Bulut was probably congratulating his team on a job well done so far, but it seems the manager was not satisfied with things and Yakou Meite, one of the players whose continued presence in the starting line up is a mystery to me, made way for Ollie Tanner.
The young winger had an immediate impact on Aaron Ramsey for one who burst to life in the five minutes after half time. First, he played a fine cross field ball to Tanner who beat his full back before crossing to where Ramsey beat a defender and got away a shot which went past Dieng, but was diverted on to an upright and out by Boro captain Luke Ayling.
Within seconds, Ramsey was again turning and getting in a fiercely struck shot that forced Dieng into his only serious save of the game as he tipped over for.a corner.
That was as good as things got for City, they did have their attacking moments when Colwill finally came on (he replaced Alex Robertson who I assume is being gradually nursed back after his injury from last season, but there were other stronger candidates for the “hook” than the Australian international).
City had fallen a goal behind by the time Colwill appeared though, Horvarth’s fine save from Azaz’s low shot counting for nothing as Boro scored from the resultant corner, but, although there were flashes of the type of play which opened Swansea up last weekend from Colwill and Tanner, Callum Robinson and Ahmed El-Ghazi offered little when they were brought on and the feeling that the points were Middlesbrough’s became a reality when Ramsey was unlucky for a second time as Aidan Morris’ shot, which was going wide, deflected off him and into the net.
City could not put their defeat down to ill fortune though, just like against Sunderland and Burnley (the margin of victory may well have been freakish, but Burnley were worth their win), the better team won and, despite a transfer window that was not the roaring success many tried to make it out to be (more on that later), I can’t help thinking that, player for player, this squad has more to offer than the manager is getting out of them.
Where I do feel some sympathy with Erol Bulut is that it appears that, for the second successive transfer window, he has been let down by the City transfer committee or whatever they are called now. Yes, he was given many of the players he wanted and he can no longer use the defence that this isn’t his team, the truly bizarre twist at the end of the window when it came to the recruitment of a striker was just so Cardiff City – I had my say on our transfer window on the message board this morning and reproduce it here.
“It’s become popular to rate City’s transfer window out of ten, when it was done on Twitter two or three weeks ago and people were asked to respond with just a number to how we’d done up to then, I responded with “4”. Now, I accept that was a harsh judgment, I like a lot of the business the club has done and they surely must have pushed the boat out further wages wise (and probably in transfer fees as well) than many were expecting.
However, I was judging the club by the standards they had set for themselves, the standards their unofficial spokesmen on social media hinted very heavily we would be pursuing. Wherever you looked back in April and May, you were being told by these spokesmen and others in the media that the priority was a striker or, more accurately, two strikers because the lack of forwards of sufficient quality at the club had become a running sore dating back to the departure of Kiefer Moore (actually, it goes back to pre Moore days as well). I can remember it being said on social media that you would be shocked at the quality of striker City were pursuing.
I shouldn’t forget that we have signed a striker this summer and, you never know, Wilfried Kanga could become a twenty goal a season striker yet – I fully accept that it’s too early yet to judge him, but you look at what he’s done in a City shirt so far, his patchy career record so far, the fact that he cannot get into a Bundesliga 2 mid table side’s first team and that his stay here is only on loan, then it’s hardly a signing that shocks and awes us, it’s certainly not a signing that left us amazed at the club’s level of ambition.
Given the hype from the club’s unofficial social media representatives, I think it was perfectly reasonable for supporters to believe there was more, and better, to come and, in the event, there was and there wasn’t. On Thursday news broke that City had negotiated a move for a striker with Champions League experience at a more than reasonably rated club, a striker who is an under 21 international for a country that reached a World Cup Final six years ago and a striker who, we were told, was a prime target for the team that currently lead the Championship.
When our manager was asked about this new striker, he was light on details, but it’s hard to blame him really because, as he said, this was a “club signing” and he was going to be loaned out to Vincent Tan’s Belgian club for the season! How strange, but it must mean we’ll be announcing a better signing still surely?
Except it didn’t, we were informed that the club that sits at the bottom of the Championship were “relaxed” about the fact that, when you consider that two strikers currently at the club are out with long term injuries, you could reasonably argue that we are now worse off for strikers than we were last season!
I got it wrong when I gave a marking of four – after the Roko Simic farce, it’s a three. Typically, Cardiff City managed to turn what had been a good transfer window into a failure if you judge it by the standards they set for themselves. Not only that, they have, seemingly spent up to two and a half million pounds on a striker who could end up making his debut (if, indeed, he does make a debut for us) in League One.”
As for other City teams, the under 21s made it three straight wins yesterday afternoon as, benefiting from their opponents being reduced to ten men, they won 4-3 at Birmingham – Isaac Jefferies, Morgan Wigley, Trey George and Will Spiers.
The under 18s were 2-0 down at Leckwith to Sheffield United with a quarter of an hour to play, but ended being disappointed not to have won as Leeyon Phelan and Jake Davies brought them level before Mannie Barton had a ninety seventh minute penalty saved.
In local football, no game for Treherbert Boys and Girls Club in the Ardal Southern (West) where they have a win over Clydach, a loss against Cefn Cribwr and draws against Ynyshir Albions, Cardiff Corries and Pontyclun from their first five matches. I only caught the back end of a feature on Ton Pentre on the Rob Phillips phone in, but it sounded like they had a renewed sense of optimism as they concentrated on recruiting local players. They lost again today in the Highadmit South Wales Alliance Premier League by 6-2 at home to Porthcawl Town Athletic, but at least that’s an improvement on 12-0! There was a visit to my old stamping ground in Fairwater for Treorchy Boys and Girls Club in Division 1 East with the home side coming out on top by 2-1.
The great joy of watching football is the occasional instance of perfection. We can see a perfect piece of ball control, a perfect tackle, a perfect header, a perfect example of position, a perfect at of bravery, a perfect pass, a perfect shot, a perfect goal, and – albeit occasionally – a perfect act of sportsmanship. We can even on occasions a perfect throw-in of the ball. I saw such an example of a perfect throw-in yesterday, unfortunately by a Middlesborough player.
He threw the ball with perfect accuracy, with perfect trajectory (i.e., not looping), with perfect velocity, and perfect placed for a team-mate standing without being challenge which enabled him to use the pace of the ball and direct it into a perfect goal.
The only player on the Cardiff side to direct a such a potentially effective throw-in of late was O’Dowda, but for one reason or another, not achieving it.
From the City side, I think Tanner showed signs of his ability going wide and forward. Given continued determination plus opportunity and support to express himself he could be a vital contribution to the team and the scoring success of his colleagues. I sincerely hope to see Cardiff City achieving things after the current break.
TOBW – you say “little point in calling for the sacking this season of a man who would cost the club so much in compensation now if they decided to get rid of him”. If our club were astute they would have negotiated a clause in Bulut’s new contract which gave them the option to dispense with his services with no compensation after 8 or 10 games if we were struggling or in the bottom 6. I believe Tottenham did it in 2004 when Jacques Santini left suddenly after 13 games but we are a club who did not put a sell clause when we let Ross McCormack go cheaply to Leeds or when Semi Ajayi went to Rotherham (theses are just 2 examples).
During the close season we were hearing that Cardiff City supporters were split 50/50 on whether Erol Bulut should be offered a new contract.
At the time the only thing I could see in his favour was “better the devil you know”in view of our track record for picking managers.
I wonder what the split is now
I hear that most of the fans who sang “we want you to stay” after the Rotherham debacle meant stay in Rotherham and don’t come back on our bus!
After what happened in Swansea and the way our youngsters played against Southampton it’s hard to imagine any manager doing as badly as Bulut in the following days.
He not only made a bewildering team selection followed up with poor use of substitutes but off the field he chose to go public about on one of our young player’s eating habits. He also seemed to be unaware of the potential of our younger talent by omitting Michael Reindorf from the squad and sending Raheem Conte to Woking!
Mind you Bill Irwin is probably right in saying that young talent is better off away from Bulut.
Thanks all for your responses. To try to address Mike’s point about how Erol Bulut was perceived by City fans at the end of last season, I heard someone say on a podcast that the “overwhelming majority” wanted him to stay. To be fair to the person concerned, he did correct himself to say the majority wanted the manager out and I must admit that whenever I went on social media sites like Twitter/X, it did feel like I was in a small minority in thinking that I wasn’t bothered in the slightest whether he stayed or not (in fact, I prefered that he didn’t), but then I’d look on here where it seemed the general view was a lot different and it certainly was among the supporters I spoke to.
Got to agree with Mike as well about what Bulut had to say in the media – he chose to go public about Tanner needing to lose weight while whinging about the lack of pace in his squad a day after the transfer window closed, clearly the near three months he had to try ans solve this problem were not enough!
BBIF,I was not aware of such clauses reagarding the sacking of managers shortly after they had been given a new contract. Normally, I wouldn’t be too supporting of a club trying to cover themseves for making a poor decision, but I can make an exception this time! You’d like to think that, having been through the Mick McCarthy experience, Tan and co would cover themselves against the same sort of thing happening.
To finish on a bit of a positive note, I agree with Anthony, amid all of the glaoom, there are some players who are showing signs of improvement. In Oliie Tanner’s case, he didn’t help his cause by having a bit of a nightmare against Sunderland when he started in the season opener, but I’d say he’s made up for that in the games that followed. It’s easy to find reasons why a young player might fail when given their chance, but the obvious reply to anyone saying that the player concerned needs to be given more time to develop, is just what are about two thirds of those who are there in Bulut’s selection week in, week out doing to justify the manager shpwing them such loyalty?