With his association with the club stretching back all the way to 2005, Mr Ridsdale is uniquely qualified to lecture Cardiff fans on how good things are now compared to the days in the late sixties and early seventies when our challenges for the top division had more than just club spin to them and we were beating the likes of Real Madrid in Europe - as our Chairman says, we have never had it so good!
Sorry for the sarcasm, but that's the way Ridsdale and co have got me now - they don't care less about Cardiff City and, given the attitude of those at the top, I find I am not looking forward to games in the way I usually do. So far I have seen nothing this season that has excited me in the way that our play two years ago and during the second half of last season did.
To be fair to them, there was nothing wrong with the team's commitment today and the description of the game that I heard on Radio Wales after the final whistle did not match the game I watched. Whereas John Hardie and Christian Roberts gave the impression there was only one team in it, I thought we were very unlucky to trail by 2-0 at half time because, up to a point, we were not doing badly at all.
The trouble was, it was that same old failing again - we don't have that natural goalscorer. Paul Parry should have put us ahead before Birmingham took the lead and there were other opportunities as Ross McCormack went for goal when he should have crossed for Bothroyd and McCormack's cross rolled across the face of the goal about a yard from the line with Bothroyd and Whittingham unable to force it home when an equaliser looked inevitable. There were plenty of other near things in and around the Birmingham goal during the first half as well, but at the end of it all, that early Parry header apart, I cannot remember Taylor having to make a save.
The second goal just before half time ended the game as a contest really as Birmingham sat back for the second period content in the knowledge that this City team are incapable of scoring twice against a well organised defence. Most of the second half had a feel of one of those cup ties where the lower division outfit huff and puff their way through a game without really troubling their higher level opponents to it until Ross McCormack scored the sort of goal with his weaker foot that suggests that I might be being harsh on him when I say that we do not have a natural finisher at the club.
Despite sometimes shooting when colleagues were better placed, I thought McCormack was our best player today and, once again, I thought our centrebacks didn't do badly, but, despite plenty of effort, there wasn't very much quality shown by anyone else. As for the Birmingham goals, both came from Kevin McNaughton's side of the pitch and while the second one was a good shot, it came straight from a Birmingham throw in.
Sorry for sounding like a stuck record here, but if we just had that one goalscorer, I still don't think we would were be far away this season. However, with our manager deciding that everything is hunky dory until January, it makes no odds because I can see us being too far away to matter by then even if , by some miracle, he is given the sort of money to spend that our transfer income over the past few years warrents.