Like the majority of City fans I regard Malky as a hero.
His acquisitions were bang on the money. The team he
built took city to a cup final against Liverpool
along with promotion from the Championship. All inside two short
seasons.
This was ecstatic bliss after the dour, bitterly disappointing
Dave Jones years - though I still contend that Jones was unlucky.
If a manager and owner fallout there is only one victor. And
as Terry Venables discovered during his run in with Alan Sugar at Spurs, the
owner plays the final card no matter how great the feelings of the fans.
Malky could play the fans like no manager we have seen. He
tickled us under the chin and told us how wonderful we were, and we loved it.
He may have used the same tactics to motivate his players. And fair enough. He
was in the results business.
But Tan like Sugar appear to be suggesting that each of the
managers weren’t so much incompetent as less than honourable - and my team of
lawyers are gathered over my shoulder as I write these words.
If it has reached a stage where Cardiff have sent a report
to the FA about Malky then those contents should be shared with those of us who
cough up our hard earned at the gate.
We deserve to know and we need to know.
As politicians would advise Tan, being ‘right’ in knocking
out a leader won’t make you a hero. He who wields the knife rarely wears the crown.
Destroying Malky, even if warranted, will hang around the club for years like a corpse stuck in the chimney.
It will stink.
Malky had apologised to Tan in a letter ending threats of legal
action between them. That ‘apology’ raised eyebrows at the time and in all
honesty the eyebrows haven’t fallen since that time.
Personally I have never thought that successful men in any
field are 100% straightforward. The footballing managerial giants of the 1970s
and 80s were proven to have had their hands in the tills.
The word ‘bung’ emerged
along with tales of money changing hands at motorway service stations. People
who at the time dominated soccer like Revie, Clough and George Graham were all
tainted.
Not saying that Cardiff’s problem with Malky is money just
pointing out that the best in their time were underhand for personal reasons.
But of course the fans don’t care. Whatever it takes, we might
say. We don’t want saints, we want winners. If those winners get caught out
then that is their tough luck.
But now Vincent must share it all with the rest of us. It’s
like being at a family funeral with people shaking their heads and muttering
dark thoughts about good ol’ Uncle Dick. We need to know and we need to know
now.
Whether other more illustrious managers have put their hands in the till before does not justify what happened in Cardiff City FC. They too would have been run out of town if their misdeeds were discovered during their tenure as managers!
ReplyDeleteThe unkindest cut of all was the way the owner was castigated by fans and the media alike. They were cleverly fed mistruths and little leakages from the dressing room, all calculated to paint Vincent Tan as an erratic, eccentric and unreasonable man. The poor man was no match for this devious duo, until he was advised by, ironically an incensed football fan.
It is time that scribes like you set the record straight and redress the gross mischaracterization of a gentleman who used civil language to describe their misdeeds. It was honorable but misguided in dealing with motivated adversaries!
Totally right about it not justifying what Malky was alleged to have done. But i still reckon there is an unhealthy link between managers and agents.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see if the fans will react differently to Tan the man who, people forget, saved the club.