Squeaky bum time for city fans is at the start of the season

Aaargh.

Pre season and two draws so far. Against the easiest opposition you can imagine. Forest Green from the conference and Shrewsbury from league one. Remember this is a Cardiff side hoping to chase promotion to the Premier League. Surely those two teams should be fodder for us. An opportunity to try something a little different perhaps. A test of how many goals we can score. But no. In both games we stuck to the 4-4-2 and were fortunate to sneak away with a draw.

Russell as he usually looks watching his midfield get over run by teams with ideas

 

Last season saw a talented Cardiff city team settle in to mediocrity, too good for the bottom three and most certainly nowhere good enough to even tap on the door of the top six. At times we were dreadful, pitiful. Paul Trollop did seem to sort out the defence else we may well have been closer to the league one trapdoor. In fairness the midfield seemed be improve  in the last month or so. But that really is putting a gloss on a ramshackle season.

What drove away the fans in the end was not Malky’s sacking, nor the red shirts, it was simply dour unsuccessful football. In all honesty at times it appeared clueless.

Russell as we hope he looks at the end of next season having just emulated Malky but with exciting footie.

 

Worried?

You should be.

We will get a better picture of our Bluebirds side after the tour of Holland so maybe it is too early to weep tears into buckets or shake our fists. But it’s not looking very promising is it?

We have matches against Watford and Bournemouth to follow the Dutch matches and I fear the worst.

But that gives us a problem. I honestly see why Vince, and the board might want to be fair and principled in allowing Russell a chance to prove himself. The question is how long should this generosity last. I would say as far as a draw against a non-league team and a draw against aLeague One side. But hey! That is just me.

Let us say Russel does ok in the first month. Then we are nestled firmly in the middle of the table, the top 6 in sight but the bottom three, like a snarling dog, only a few steps behind us. By then we will have played 6 matches, including a league cup fixture. So we keep him on and suddenly September is gone, transfer window is closed, mediocrity or relegation beckon and time is the enemy. It is October and a new manager will have to build a team around someone else’s players … yet again.

I am willing Russell to succeed. It may not seem like it from these words but Cardiff is my team and with the buckets of cash on offer in the Premier league it will prove tougher and tougher for sides to achieve promotion against teams who habitually get promoted and then relegated. Each time they go up they get buckets of cash.

If we don’t make it next season then life will be tough. Next season is do or die.

I just wonder what the board will do if we the Dutch tour is as crap as the first two matches and our games against Bournemouth and Watford prove disastrous? Squeaky bum time for city fans is at the start of the season not as Alex Ferguson thought, at the end of the season.

As usual I will conclude with the line … ‘and Neil Lennon actually wanted the job here.’

Legal disclaimer: I also think Russell Slade is a nice guy and would shake his hand and thank him for entering the fires after Solskjaer departure. I think he was unlucky to lose Pilkington so early in his tenure. With Pilkington and Noon he had the wingers necessary to make 4-4-2 work. But great managers turn teams around with the resources at hand.