Cardiff City fan Jordan Alexander, and Jamie Kemble from website Inside Cardiff City, give us the picture from South Wales as Russell Slade tries to bounce the Bluebirds back to the big time at the second attempt.
Assess last season for us, why did you fail to bounce straight back up?
ICC: We failed to bounce back because we really didn't have a game plan or a transfer system in place. We sold our stars of the Premier League and although we bought players that are decent at this level, they just didn't gel together. We started off August expecting to bounce back and then Solskjaer was sent on his way, so all of a sudden we decide that cost cutting measures are needed even though only two months prior we had spent up to about £10m on transfers. Slade didn't really give Solskjaer signings a chance so, even if they had quality, we wouldn't play them because it seemed like we wanted to rid of the previous regime. Slade, even with quality players at his disposal, couldn't get us promoted. The dressing room was at an all-time low and there was barely any co-operation, not to mention the off the field issues in terms of the disharmony between the club and fans. It was making for a sour atmosphere, there was no unity.
JA: I think it’s always difficult to bounce straight back up and unless you can come down without losing too many players, it’s always going to be a struggle. We saw some of our quality players leave the club during the pre-season such as Fraizer Campbell, Steven Caulker and Jordon Mutch. We lost our core group and unfortunately, we paid the price. The lack of experience from the manager cost us in the early season and the lack of fitness halted our progress in the second half of the season. During the last ten games we were high up in the form table, I believe we were in the top six of that so we will be looking to continue that throughout this term.
Why didn’t it work out for Ole Gunnar Solskjær? What did he do wrong?
ICC: It didn't work out for Solskjaer because he was given too much freedom and we never had any kind of philosophy to be judged on, no transfer system. Not to mention what Mackay left. Mackay was clueless in the transfer window in the season we got promoted, the players he bought in our Championship winning season weren't any good either. We didn't have a Premier League squad who could adapt, we weren't scoring and we were awful defensively. Ole had a tough first month and obviously couldn't get anything from it. January is also a tough month to do any transfer business so in reality he was doomed from the start, I could see the football he was trying to bring in but it wasn't with players who were here because they wanted to play here, the method was there but there wasn't any action to show for it. The most important thing in a squad is unity and chemistry, we had none of that.
JA: Solskjær struggled because he didn’t like to stick to a regular starting XI. He chopped and changed the team and in the Championship you simply cannot afford to do that. One of the necessities of doing well in this league is having a solid core group. Solskjær also decided to sign a number of players (some quality some not so good) without giving them enough thought. There were no partnerships in the team and that lack of cohesion between the players showed time and time again. If I was to put his lack of success down to one thing, it was simply a lack of experience in the English leagues.
What did you think of Russell Slade before he arrived, and what have you made of the job he’s done so far? Is he the man to take you up?
ICC: Russell had done a great job at Orient - he did so well with such a poor budget and that’s what we were used to doing ourselves before Vincent Tan came in. Solskjær gave the players a poor pre-season and because the players didn’t know each other well enough, the dressing room was the worst it’s been for a long while and that held us back to a certain extent. I don’t want to blame Solskjær too much, what’s done is done but Slade kept us at mid-table and that was an OK finish considering the first half of the season we suffered.
Slade is now putting in some great foundations, the team spirit is at an all-time high, the football is so much better than last season (we had the highest pass success rate in the league on Saturday with 82%) and he is starting to win some fans over. I have no idea if he is the right man to take us up but if there’s anything this club needs after a tough couple of years, it’s some solid foundations to move forward and he’s certainly creating them at the moment.
JA: Before Russell arrived, I didn't know much about him, all I remember before is that he wore a tracksuit when he managed Orient in the Play-Off Final. But really before he managed us I knew nothing, I wasn't excited his by appointment by any means, most fans here wanted Tony Pulis but I wanted another continental manager, I wanted someone with a great philosophy who would use the players at his disposal and make us an attacking outfit.
From what I've made of him so far is that he's limited, I have to give him credit for managing to slash £12m off the wage bill and deliver a mid table finish. But what I want from him is to use more of our homegrown talent rather than having cheap buys from Premier League clubs and lower league sides. I want a team to be proud of. He's reluctant to change things around with him being a proper old fashioned kind of manager with his obsession of 4-4-2, with a big man receiving long balls from the central players. He is by no means the manager to take us up at all, that would be an absolute miracle, the only thing we can hope is if he performs what Mark Warburton did I can’t see it. He is a limited manager and there are teams who are way ahead of us in this division, we will not be challenging any time soon for promotion.
What business have you done over the summer and what do you think of it?
Have things settled down at all between the fans and Vincent Tan since the kit changed back? Has he mellowed, is he getting any better?
ICC: Tan has stepped away somewhat and has left the running of the club to chairman Mehmet Dalman and CEO Ken Choo. We rarely see Vincent Tan as he concentrates on his other businesses; this is a welcome change for many of the fans. The silly supporters have their conspiracy theories about some of the decisions the club make but by the large part, most fans don’t have a big issue with him now. After all, if Vincent Tan didn’t come to the club, we would not have a club to support. It takes a big man to make a U-turn on a big decision like that and most of us are just glad we’re back in a lovely blue kit and have a smart new badge.
JA: Things are getting better but unfortunately a lot of fans have left since last season, feeling the club are now showing no ambition, which shows that our fanbase is extremely fickle. Heck apparently we've sold under 500 for Saturday's game and that's embarrassing considering last season we took more than 1,000 to Blackburn on a Friday. I feel more welcome at the Cardiff City Stadium now. Vincent Tan never comes to games anymore but he still contributes with his money - we appreciate he's the only man who would probably invest in us right now as we're not an attractive proposition but king of feel like he's thrown his toys out of the pram. The return to Blue was definitely needed but it's come at a cost - we're now not as ambitious and midtable mediocrity beckons for many years.
Likely stand out performers and weak links in the Cardiff team this season?
ICC: Surprisingly Scott Malone was terrific during Saturday’s game and so was QPR old-boy Matt Connolly. Joe Mason has had a terrific pre-season up top as well Anthony Pilkington out wide so they may be players to look out for. I’m sure you have seen Craig Noone’s stunning equalizer on the weekend and you can expect him to make the starting line-up at Loftus Road.
The whole team looks reasonably sharp and a lot better than last season; we played some nice football through pre-season and on Saturday which comes as a nice change from the boring style of last season. I wouldn’t like to say there was a weak link in our team at the moment but Sean Morrison struggled a little at centre-back on Saturday so that’s the only player I currently have concerns about.
JA: Our strong link is Joe Ralls, although he'll only be a strong link if played as a CM, for some reason Slade plays him on the wing, although playing time is important to him at this age but we desperately need him at central midfield as he can do all kind of jobs and that's what we want to see, on the wing he doesn't have any space and can't show off his creative traits. Craig Noone is coming into form so maybe he'll cause the defence a few problems considering he's grabbed two goals now for the season. Our weak links will be nervous goalkeeper Simon Moore who will continue to don the gloves as David Marshall is serving the final game of his suspension, he made a mistake against Fulham which could have been easily dealt with and that'll probably still be in the mind of our keeper. Kagisho Dikgacoi isn't match fit and may give away a few balls in the middle of the park, he'll also shy out of a few tackles despite playing the 'enforcer' role, not good when it's expected you'll pack the midfield.
Short, medium and long term aims for the club?
ICC: I guess we’re all looking to get into the lottery that is the play-off’s come the end of the season so that would be our long term goal. I wouldn’t like to plan out further away than that because in football you can only take it season-by-season. Our medium goal has to be, to be within striking distance of the play-off’s come Christmas time because that is such a critical period in the season. The short term goal would then be just to get off to a good start and for our play-off goal to still be a very realistic target after ten games. The opening games don’t give anyone much to go by because everyone is so fresh and full of concentration but after ten games you can start to see the teams who will be battling it out, we would like to be one of them teams.
JA: Short term, we want to get another midtable finish this season, but with a bit of optimism, sixth place would be the highest we can reach. Medium wise I think that's about the time, we'll want to be what we were before, always challenging for the play-offs and always getting near. Long term, I think we want to build a sustainable club that doesn't have to rely on a foreign benefactor all the time to pay the running costs. But we want to be in the Premier League let's be honest, the city needs Premier League football.
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Pictures — Action Images