OK, so it's Premier League football at long last for Cardiff City after the relative failures of the previous 10 years or so since the infamous Langston loan notes surfaced to cast a cloud over proceedings. Most of that time we had the Hamman/Ridsdale leadership off the pitch and DJ leading us on it. All change now with Tan in the financial box seat and Malky running the football side of things. Now the question: - Who should take the greater credit for getting us into the Prem - the money man or the football man? Second question: - Which one of them is the more likely to keep us there?
Can I answer both? Unfortunately you need money to get anywhere in football these days but I think tactically Mackay has got it bang on. Not as exciting as under DJ but solid and we play to ours strengths. Does he have it in him to change it though, if we become more established?
I think Malky took us up he build a Championship squad with free transfers and good cheap players. Who will keep us up, that's got to be the money man with out the likes of Pit Bull & Caulker we would just above Palace.
When DJ came in he brought in a load of journeymen and got them playing as a team. We let the crown jewels go to keep the books more balanced than would have otherwise been. Collins, Kav, Earnie, Gabs and a few other big earners left, yet the following season we finished higher than when we had them. That platform pushed us on into the playoffs for a couple seasons and got us more exposure which allowed us to attract the investment. For that, DJ and the Riddler must take a deal of credit. From that point we ended up with a thread bare squad that MM, as DJ did, was built from freebies and bargain basement signings. That first MM season gave Tan the confidence to stick his hand in his pocket in a limited way to get us up and then in a big way in an effort to keep us up. Credit to the managers to get us to the point where the moneymen made life a bit easier for them. Would DJ have got us up with the funds MM was afforded. I don't think so as he is better at getting the best out of lower player, especially through the psycology of flawed tallent. I think MM is a better tactical manager, organiser and analyst. So, in summary, we needed DJ establish us in the Championship and to atract the investment, MMs skills to get us up and a spash of Tan's cash to hopefully keep us there.
