Being devils advocate MM cannot look at himself in the mirror and say he is blameless. His 25 contained a batch of players unlikely to be of much use at this level (Connelly, Smith, McNaughton, Cowie, Mason, Maynard...) and his purchases have been hit or miss. Let's be honest here, only Caulker & Medel of the 25 would stand any chance of getting in another PL team. He had a clean sheet of paper last May, £35m reportedly to spend and he wastes (yes wastes) £8m on Cornelius. That £8m could have got an attacking midfield player and a striker, possibly on loan. Tan is a businessman and wants to protect his investment. Getting rid of the football manager of his company is no different to getting rid of a CEO of another of his businesses. He does not understand football, and its standing in the community and its traditions etc. At the end of the day, we as paying 'customers' have no say in this. We should but we don't.
Ninian....A lot of what you say is true, and I'm not saying that Malky is blameless....but the 1st batch of players you mention (Connelly, Smith, McNaughton, Cowie, Mason, Maynard...) were bought at championship level, primarily to get us out of the championship and to be fair to them did a sterling job in doing so (except Maynard and that wasn't really his fault). I also think your being a little unfair on some of the other players - admittedly Caulker & Medel are our best players and could perform at a top half of the table club I'm sure - Mutch isn't far off that standard either. Turner would (IMHO) walk into most of the sides in the lower half of the table now and could develop even further. Same with Theopile Carherine & Kim. I also think Taylor, Cowie, Noone, Whitts, Campbell & Odemwingie could all perform reasonably in a lower premiership side. Cornelius is a difficult one. Vastly over-priced at the moment, but who knows? Used in the right formation ie with genuine wide-men supplying decent ball he could turn out to be a revelation.
Fair points and I suppose it's just me letting some steam off but everyone seems to be on Mackay's side here when he really should have checked with the club before saying he was lining up 3 players. He sort of left himself open there UNLESS it was a ploy to open up the feud between them to the press and fan base as a whole because we know who they will side with!
As I said yesterday, a lot of bluff and double bluff going on. Malky could be putting himself in pole position if either the Norwich or West Ham jobs come up in the near future. However, the naivety of VT and his acolytes seems hard to understand for someone with the business success he has achieved. I didn't get where I am today etc..... As for Corney, he has been unlucky with injuries and I assume Malky is keeping him in cotton wool until he is assured of full fitness.
Malky is not blameless in this, the cynic in me believes he is orchestrating this so he can get released by the club.
Too many unknowns in this. Is Cornelius MM's man or another Etienne? Same with Brayford, did Moody and MM balls up or is it another Tan purchase. MM seems quite diplomatic and said the right things when Eti arived but has become more silent over time to the point that the guy might as well not exist. MMseems loyal to his players to the extent that we have arguments over whether or not some choices should be playing (Cowie, Whitts, Gunnar). Therefore, if these guys were his signings, however poorly they performed, they'd have game time and he'd be bigging them up. The fact that they can't even make the match day squad suggests he want's nothing to do with them, though Cornelius at least makes the bench, just rarely gets off it. There is much that we don't know and possibly never will. However, neither party are whiter than white and some of MMs reluctunce to even put some of these players on the bench may be his protest to Tan. looking at his summer buys, Medel and Caulker would be the pick of the bunch. Medel might have been highly priced but looks the right calible (think those trips to Chile on international duty are taking their toll though) and I'm sure Spurs would love Caulker back for the price we paid for him given their CB issues at the moment. £2M for TC looks ok. Odemwingie was probably a player we needed to give some premier league experience and to cover a couple of attacking positions so £2M for a player with PL experience might be more than we are used to paying but isn't a huge fee. Cornelius looks an expensive 'player for the future' and should be playing by now to justify the price tag. Brayford looks like money down the drain. So 3 good, if slightly expensive buys, some justifyable padding an overpriced youngster and £1.5M down the plughole. We also spent a nominal fee on a young CB that is in the reserves, not sure what to make of that. Anyone I've missed out? Thinking about MMs comments, praise for Odemwingie, Medel, Caulker and TC, neutral comments on Cornelius and silence on Brayford. Who did MM buy and who was bought for him? Looking further back, Kim is looking as if £2m might have been warranted and £1M for Mutch is looking to be a bargain. A few more games like last weeks and Noone may also have been a good buy.
We have Mehmet Dalman Saying this on the 6thDec Dalman outlined how Cardiff will work when the January transfer window opens, but would not reveal whether they will be looking to strengthen the squad. It is thought Mackay will want to add two players, probably a defender and a winger, in January, while Dalman said: “I have not sat down with the manager to find out what his needs are, if any. That will be a topic of discussion soon.” Mackay has been heading up Cardiff’s recruitment department since Iain Moody, now sporting director at Crystal Palace, left the club and is liaising with chief scout Mark Stow on possible targets throughout the world. The manager has confirmed they are looking at players within a number of countries including south and central America. “Our major shareholder Vincent Tan provides the money for transfers and he is a man who has put his heart and soul behind this club,” says Dalman. “Our manager is the best person to know what he needs on the pitch and what he doesn’t. Then we have MM saying this on the 9thDec “We are constantly looking at our striking area,” said Mackay. “But at this level clinical centre-forwards who are proven cost £20m to £25m and even at that level people still query them. “At this level that is not an easy position to fill. “Stepping into the Premier League is not easy. To put in a player who is going to get you 20 goals in the Premier League teams are looking all over the world for that. “The search is always on to find players who can score goals.” Nothing untoward here But then Malky comes out with this, and it's a bit out of character for me. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/cardiff-city-boss-malky-mackay-6407639 And we know Tans response via LIM Note nothing is said about the first set of comments, Tan is fine with that, but the last he was not happy with. Is it merely because he feels they should keep things close to their chest, was there an agreement after all the leaked bids from before. The Moody episode comes to mind here. Is this just Tan saying, look, we said we were not going to go public with signings we might need and you go on record saying we are looking for these players, well here is some news, you're not getting any of them now? and starts to throw toys out of said pram via Lim. All strange and no doubt things will have to come to a head one way or another.
I wonder if the differing view in budgets is between what MM spent and what Tan spent. MM believes he is within budget on what he spent. If Tan spent £15M on players MM didn't want, perhaps he doesn't see that as his spending. Which ever way, something's not right. They can't both be right, though they may have different perspectives. Repeating what has been said before, why hasn't Lim been sacked. You can't tell me that £15M was spent without his knowing. If he did know, he must be equally culpable.
So owning a football club is all about making money? That is a joke...it is all about not losing too much. The chance to support the club was when it could not pay the tax bills...no we all waited for the worse to happen then along comes tan...tax bill paid. The huge problem with the massive loan...let me think...who paid that off? Who gave the club over £30 million for players this season. The stadium is going to be improved...sit back and enjoy it is all being paid for with no worries anymore. When Jones failed time and again to get us promotion did Tan turn his back on us? Malky was a small club manger given a big chance and this is how he repays that opportunity...he talks about concentrating on the football and acts aloof from the owner who gave him the best job he ever had. Go into work tomorrow and start acting like this with your boss..and expect a big pay off if he sacks you. Malky is not big league his pay off would be small change to Tan..who at the moment is keeping Malky in a job. The manager spending all the owners money should make sure that owner is happy..this is not about football it is a personality problem with Malky showing no respect for Tan. It is only fair the fans have their say and I respect we will not all share the same view but one thing we might agree on is Malky`s selection and tactics... If we look at his start line up we worry...then his substitutions are sometimes beyond belief. Why are we one of the lowest scorers and shot takers in the league? The Palace game was the worst... a side we needed to go for all out attack and what did we get from Malky? Tan owns the club and has invested heavily...go ask Chelsea or Man Utd fans how much say they have with the owners of their clubs. The old days are gone we all have memories but these are the new days and times have changed...it will always be our club and it will always be the Bluebirds no matter what but let us enjoy being in the premiership while we can. Everyone will have a big smile on their face if we are in this league next season and we have that chance...it is slightly easier than trying to get out of the championship. If it comes to the crunch who do you want to go Malky or Tan? jkc
If Malky IS trying to force the issue, it's a dangerous ploy - he's actually doing himself a lot of harm at the same time. Mad as Tan is purported to be in footballing terms, he is none the less highlighting potential flaws in Malky's managerial makeup. If Malky continues down the suggested "engineering an exit" path, there will be a lot of clubs who will take on board as much of the negative as well as the good stuff. Malky's achievements so far are not that impressive as the media would like to make out. Of the three Championship clubs that came up, Malky has had far more provided by his owners than the other two. Holloway has already paid the price and Bruce is surviving because he is a bloody good manager. Neither had anything like the opportunity to spend £35M (£50M?) and in reality, both came up with only Championship standard players. The deal that Bruce got to take both Huddlestone and Livermore up there from Tottenham was a steal compared to Malky's/Moody's efforts. By comparison with a number of clubs, it could be said Malky is actually under-achieving, and despite the oddness of Tan's style, many other club owners will not have been as impressed as the media seem to be with their continuous accolades. He'd be a new broom for a club owner that wanted just that, but employing Malky to change a struggling bottom half Prem club's fortunes in the second half of the season and keeping them off the trap door come May could be a big gamble that only the desperate would take.
Tan has had nothing but bad press and rightly so with his idea what a football club is about in this country, He is slowly digging himself into a big hole where no decent player or manager would want to play for him or his foreign club he is doing his utmost to create. Everyone you hear in the media is on malky's side and even ex players are coming out accusing tan of underhand tactics....He is making himself into a laugh a minute and if it was not for the fact that he is taking the club with him it would not be so serious. Bloody hell he calls the fans customers No they are not they are fans who have more claim to owning the club than ever tan has got...He is nothing more than a temporary benefactor using the club like they all do to make money but the difference between him and other owners is he thinks the club is his and nothing to do with the cardiff people and he can do and sack and employ who he likes and everything will be fine....Well as we know but he doesn't seem to grasp is football clubs can't be run by a single man who just because he put money into the club can do whatever he wants,....He is heading for a fall and taking the club with him. It's The fans club and not his toy plaything and without them and a manager who knows what he is doing then the club won't last long as no club can expect to survive on money alone. If you can't get the right staff and players in the future because of tans antics as you will get nobody in their right mind that would want to come to cardiff and work in those terms.
Interesting views jck and Sparks. As ever the actual situation will be somewhere inbetween. I am still uncomfortable with Lim's role. While Mehmet Dalman appears to try to mediate, Lim's views (when heard) are usually somewhere right of Attila the Hun and reactionary. Is VT using him as the bad cop and Dalman as the good one? Is he trying to divide and rule - certainly succeeded in chopping Moody? All told the club must be a pretty uncomfortable place to be at present and cannot be good for team spirit. As someone said earlier it's about time Malky and VT got together to thrash this out instead of all the smoke and mirrors. What would be really bad is if he refuses to communicate directly with Malky and continues to talk through Lim only.
Tan made a fatal error when he changed the colours, take that out of the equation and you would have someone whose hero status would be greater than Malkys.
Reallly? So you wouldn't mind the fact that he sacked Moody without consulting the Manager first and you wouldn't mind that he replaced him with a 23 year old foreigner with no experience in the role who wasn't even legally able to work here - thus making you a laughing stock; and you wouldn't mind the fact that this nonsense could have been kept behind closed doors but a statement was released to the media expressing his unhappiness with MM, again making you a laughing stock. All of that still wouldn't have dented his 'hero' status if you'd still been in blue. Really?
Who said he hasn't consulted the manager? you know this? perhaps consult is not the word here though, informed the manager would be right. No point in going over the whys and wherefores as to why the young man was put in place temporarily, it's been done and just a point scoring exercise on your part. I don't and have never felt a laughing stock about any of the dealings done by the club, I'm not running it, I don't make the decisions, why would I be embarrassed by the failings.
Aussie - I think you've been treated very reasonably by the Cardiff posters for your interventions on this thread. The language and replies are measured and not offensive in the main. It certainly wouldn't have been the case if this was the other way around on your forum and you had a similar thread running. You have a perfect right to your opinions and to express them - please remember that should Cardiff posters venture across to comment on your issues in the future. In the meantime, nothing to do with this thread, but then again it often doesn't matter to you, would you care to comment on this: - http://www1.skysports.com/football/...ague-fa-fine-swansea-city-and-hull-city-20000
My comments haven't been offensive either so I'm not sure of your point, but a link to an irrelevant off-topic story that doesn't concern Cardiff is just a silly attempt at point scoring. Handbags resulting in a fine. Nothing to see here. My comment on the other hand was relevant and a direct challenge to the rather incredible comment that Tan would be a 'hero' if it wasn't for the change of kit. You cannot deny the things I have listed have happened. You cannot deny that your club has been made a laughing stock. I lost count of the number of times I heard commentators on Talk Sport almost laugh out loud. It's not wumming - it's relevant and perfectly true so wind your neck in and stop being so sensitive. There might actually be some Cardiff fans that agree with me and find that comment about your 'hero' rather risible. As for visitors coming to our board as far as I'm concerned that's been continuing as it should. Itiwran was there today, actually agreeing with me. Haven't seen you for a while though which makes a change. Got to watch yourself now that you're a mod, right?
I did not laugh when swanc went into admin twice , i felt quite sorry for the local folk they turned over ..........................sad really
