Russell Slade speaks ahead of trip to Leeds

Last updated : 10 April 2015 By Michael Morris

 Russell Slade is hoping to continue City's impressive away form.

Full Q & A from Wales Online:

Q: What is the injury situation after two matches in three days?

RS: There were a few broken hearts in our dressing room after the Bolton defeat along with a few injury niggles. Hopefully we will be okay.

Alex Revell and Federico Macheda will both be missing at Leeds. Revell has a grade one hamstring and will be out for between 10 and 14 days.

Macheda won’t be in the squad at Leeds. We have to be careful with spine/back problems, but he is making progress.

Conor McAleny is a yes. He is training and is likely to be in squad.

Kagisho Dikgacoi and Anthony Pilkington are playing for our Development team today and Scott Young is going to watch them, while Ben Turner will play in a development game on Monday.

 

Q:You're unbeaten in six matches away. How pleased are you with form on the road?

RS: Our away form is terrific. Six games unbeaten.

We have been consistent, resilient and we need that kind of response at Leeds. I am sure we will get that.

 

 

Q: How far ahead are you with plans for 2015-16?

RS: We have done a lot of work already.

One thing I was keen to do was bring Joe Mason back in and that’s part of the process in looking towards next season.

One or two younger players, Joe Ralls for instance, have had more pitch time.

Little things like that are helping us plan.

 

Joe Ralls gets a shot inJoe Ralls gets a shot in against Bolton

 

Q: How far have you got in deciding who has a future at the club?

RS: All players are in my plans for next season other than a few out of contract.

The football world is such that clubs will come in and make offers for players. Then it becomes a financial issue when we decide what is best for Cardiff City.

We are not the only club in that situation. Most are.

Kenwyne Jones and Matt Connolly are both contracted to Cardiff City through next season and a decision would have to be made on an agreement that suited both parties if that was the case.

Q: Will Declan John be coming back from Barnsley?

RS: That was a football decision. Declan needed to play games. I have had reports on him and am looking for another in the next 24 hours. He is doing fine. He is not somebody I am contemplating losing in the summer.

The decision for him to go out on loan came because we have Scott Malone, Fabio and Lee Peltier in that position. Declan’s games would have been restricted here, while he is playing 90 minutes a game at Barnsley and at this stage of his career, that is more useful to him.

I watched him play for the Wales under 21 team and he did fine.

His desire to play at under-21 level after being with the Chris Coleman’s Wales team in Israel showed his hunger to want to get minutes on the pitch.

That was an example of his hunger. I am pleased he is playing for Barnsley regularly and had that under-21 appearance, while he is in Chris Coleman’s plans.

 

Declan John will be coming back to Cardiff City

 

 

Q: What would your message be for fed-up fans?

RS: Everybody entitled to opinion and that’s how it should be.

I always try to explain that as we go through transition there will be ups and downs. There have not too many downs recently.

Bolton scored a well taken first goal, but 2-0 and 3-0 killed us.

Before that when we had gone a goal down we had, over last few weeks, hit back to draw or even win.

Q: You have been Cardiff manager for six months. How has it gone?

RS: When I came in I knew it was a big job. There were 38 players at the club.

It was inevitable there would be a lot of movement, which there was in the January window.

We could not get all the work done in one 30-day period and we are going to need the summer to continue that process.

Things will settle down a lot more with a good pre-season under our belts.

The owner (Vincent Tan) and chairman (Mehmet Dalman) have really supported me.

They know mistakes have been made in the past and there was a need to have to get club on level footing, regroup and rebuild. They support that wholeheartedly.