History will be a very kind judge to Lennie. For that, he’s a lucky boy.
I want to personally thank him for the good things that happened during his tenure. He is, after all, the man who brought Cardiff City back to this level for the first time in 20 years. The fact we're competing in the Championship and can dream of the Premiership, however unrealistic, is still something to behold.
In winning a play-off final in our home city, he's carved in CCFC history. It provided one of the greatest days of my live and I'm sure it's the same with all City fans. It is something I will take my my grave and forever smile at its memory.
We had more than a few great days with Lennie – that 7-1 at Oldham (when we were 5 up at half-time), great home and away wins, incredible whippings of teams like Sunderland and West Ham.
Nobody ever really turned us over while he was here. The man showed great dignity through the crisis this season which was admirable although, in truth, it was a situation he helped bring about.
It would be wrong not to thank Lennie for all of that. It certainly has been memorable and, on our best days, I've never enjoyed sup[porting City more. Cheers Lennie.
Those plusses however disguise a lot of minuses and that's why many will have mixed feelings and some sorrows, probably many more will be thinking to themselves, 'it's not before time'.
His honeymoon period after taking over from Alan Cork was stunning. The only downside was that he was generallly aloof from fans, didn't ayatollah, didn't look as animated as fans sometimes like anbd rarely did more than a quick wave to us - if we were lucky. In good time, you can forgive and overllok that but when times aren't so good, these are invariably seized upon. However if you judged him on football alone, I believe both he, and his teams, badly under-performed and that's where the real grumbles came from.
Lennie's debut half season saw him perform a miracle to rocket us into play-offs. Unbelievably, with the play-off final and promotion in his grasp, he blew things through negativity as we lost at home to Stoke when it was our tie.
It didn't seem a worry when nthe following season, we flew to the top of the league in a cavalier style. As, to be honest, we should have been with the players and resources at his disposal compared to others. It was simply whether we’d be Champions or runner-ups.
Well it was until, once again, Lennie got negative, bored us and affected things to the extent that City eventually scraped into the final play-off spot by a single point. It was that close to complete disaster. Instead, we had a get out of jail free card and took it. Millenium Stadium was a poor game but perfect for us. What a day but Lennie enjoyed some luck when he needed it at that point.
Last season saw another fantatsic start. For sure, we were found out but, yet again, Lennie's "safety first, let's make sure we don't concede and then hope we somehow score" style took over. This time, almost in panic after City stuttered following three successive defeats when we were leading at half-time.
Since December 2003, it has been generally awful with occasional, but too few, releases from poor displays and tedious football. It wasn't pleasing to watch, it wasn't pleased to read about. The club went stagnant and then went backwards - both on and off the pitich. Whatever the immense problems behind the scences, Lennie was failing to get a good bunch of talented players to perfrom to expectations - he knew it, we knew it.
His record with money has damned him, almost £2M for 2 strikers either not good enough or barely good enough to make the bench. That's chilling.
Lennie should have gone much earlier this season, nobody or nothing will ever alter that view of mine. Instead, we bottled it and got rid of the coaches – dealing with symptoms only. It did however bring Terry Burton here and there’s little doubt he’s been proven to be good for us and, I’d argue, as much as – if not more so – the reason for City’s improvement during the later months of last season.
The tactics were generally predicatable as were the selections, the brand of football – especially for far too many home games – so bland it was indescribable, the use of substitutions generally laughable.
Many may forget we played several games under Lennie without even mustering a shot on goal, I haven’t. Coventry at home last season, Watford at home this season, QPR away this season rank as amongst the worst displays I have seen from a Cardiff City side in any era in any division. And that's just examples straight off the top of my head. Sheffield United at home last season was probably the most spineless and passionless FA Cup exit. And don't even get me started on sides he sent out to lose in Carling Cup and FAW Premier Cup games.
He didn’t help himself with his p.r. – quotes like “these are the best group of players I’ve ever worked with”, “judge me after 12 games”, “I expect nothing less than a sustained promotion or play-off push” – whilst this was going on and accusing fans of over-hyped expectations was plain annoying.
He’s likeable, open and honest in many ways but found it hard to accept how bad it was in public anyway.
For too long, there has been an absolute stalemate. Most fans respected Lennie but were unhappy with him, Lennie wouldn’t resign, Sam wouldn’t sack him. It did nobody any favours.
Someone rated him earlier as one of the best five City managers they’d seen – given the dubious occupants over the past 30 years – you couldn’t really ask for fainter praise. But I think that’s what Lennie does to you. You can’t really like him, you can’t truly hate him – he’s solid, average and likeable. He did exactly as it said on the tin. It’s easy to see why he’s survived so long in the game..
Whether changing manager actually achieves anything at Cardiff City in our present state is highly debateable – only time and many other issues being resolved can determine that.
If only problems at Cardiff City could be addressed right now just by putting a different guy in charge. Those problems only underlined by the p.r. shambles leading to his removal – telling us he’d be staying for next season, wiating until he was out of the country to speak to someone else and getting rid of him once he got back. He deserved better than that.
Long overdue, just like the stadium, Lennie;s departure was necessary. I just hope Lennie doesn’t do too much consulting for us.
Thanks Lennie, goodbye and good luck. I’m sure he won’t need it much. Someone like him will always get a job. His c.v. can only be enhanced by his spell with us. As I say, history will judge him kindly.