Remember the 15th of September? No reason why you should, after all it’ll be ten weeks ago on Sunday. If I’m asked a question like that, my first instinct, if the date asked about falls between August and May, is to try and think of the nearest City game to that date to give me some form of reference point and, in this instance, that does the trick because City lost 1-0 at Derby on the 14th and manager Erol Bulut was sacked the same day.
So, that first question leads on to a second one, why am I increasingly humming this, great, record from forty five years ago in recent days?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCaf8woXAeM
The chorus will give you the answer to that one, in particular;-
“and so it goes, but where it’s going, no one knows”
As the second international break since Bulut’s sacking comes to a close, I assume Vincent Tan has some sort of idea as to where it’s going, but, after this week’s events, it’s tempting to think “but where it’s going, no one knows” (I wouldn’t rule out discussions with the Russians though).
Interim manager Omer Riza, who, earlier this month, was nominated for the Championship Manager of the Month” award for October is now being doubted again because the team that’s results he totally transformed over a period of seven games where they took fourteen points (after taking just the single point from their first six) has lost their last two games.
About ten days ago, Riza was summoned to Malaysia by our owner for discussions about the club and I think most City fans felt it was the forerunner of some sort of decision being made about the club’s medium to long term thinking when it came to the manager’s job, but, no, Riza is to continue on living from game to game while a squad that has made it clear they want him given the job, are expected to get the results to keep him on as just an interim appointment.
Quite why Riza had to travel almost halfway around the world to be given this non information is a mystery and so City drift on with a sort of manager who doesn’t know what’s happening from one game to the next, an inconsistent squad, seriously short of fit strikers, that’s level of performance has varied wildly and a hierarchy that deserves the relegation that could well be coming in six months time.
I’ve seen the decision to continue with the dithering praised by some City fans because of what’s happened before when interim managers become “permanent” ones – apparently, effectively doing nothing is the way to go when you’ve got a record of failure like Tan and co do.
The problem I have with that is that if another club had taken sixty eight days putting off a decision regarding the replacement for a sacked manager, we’d all be saying what.a basket case of a club, they’re a laughing stock.
The truth is that the Cardiff hierarchy are sending out strong signals that they have little faith in their footballing judgement. This is understandable in many ways, given their record on that subject and I thought they were right to ask the opinions of two football men (both former City managers apparently) as to who should get the job, only to have their recommendations thrown out because they were too boring or they didn’t have a Manchester United connection.
So, we’re stuck with the decisions regarding managerial appointments in the hands of men who seemingly realise they don’t have the necessary expertise to make competent and informed decisions on the footballing side of things, but then ignore the advice of “footballing people” when it’s given – good luck with that one.
On something of a positive note, the level of performance of the squad has varied an awful lot this season, but, at their best, they’ve looked like a top half team or even a Play Off contender, so they have it in them to avoid the drop pretty comfortably. However, the last game they played in particular when a Blackburn team without an away win and on a non scoring run were able to play through us so easily was very concerning and we go into what looks another vital week in urgent need of an improvement on an away return of three goals anf three points from seven matches and needing a win against a QPR team that we never beat at home lately.
Tomorrow we face Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough having, curiously, played better in losing there 4-0 in the FA Cup than we did in winning 2-1 in the league last season. I thought Wednesday edged the first half in their last game at Sheffield United before the home team worked their way to a deserved 1-0 win, but I don’t give a City team playing like they did at Luton and against Blackburn much hope of getting anything tomorrow, especially as both Kion Etete and Isaak Davies, who could have given us much needed reinforcements up front, are still both some way off a return after suffering setbacks in their attempts to overcome hamstring injuries.
Here’s the usual seven questions on our next opponents.
60s. Born in Middlesbrough, the only time this forward did not wear “home” shirts that were blue and white was when he won his two England under 23 caps. Apart from a brief spell on the south coast on loan and a few years as freebooter at the end of his career, he spent his playing time in the game in Yorkshire. Wednesday were his first club and, although he managed to score close to fifty league goals for them at a healthy rate, none of them came against City. He was also a regular opponent of ours when he moved on to his second club after nearly ten years at Hillsborough and the two goals he scored against us as his new team generally enjoyed the better of things against us helped get him to exactly fifty league goals for them before his loan and then permanent move to clubs well to the south. He enjoyed the second promotion of his career at his final club before having a managerial career spent entirely in the middle east, can you name him?
70s. This striker cum winger’s two appearances for Sheffield Wednesday against us came four years apart in different circumstances. First, he was one of a number of teenagers picked for them for a visit to Ninian Park and then he was part of a poor team on their way to relegation. He was on the losing team in both matches and his failure to establish himself saw him eventually loaned out to a Glasgow team that was managed by one of Celtic’s Lisbon Lions at the time. He had been offered to this team on a cut price fee by a cash strapped Wednesday and his loan was seen as some kind of trial. However five goals in five games, plus a sending off after the final whistle in one of them, saw the asking price go up and he eventually signed permanently for a, just about, English team that was on a long slow decline that some would say is still going on today. He had no great success at this new team and the sides he played for after that reads like a litany of northern strugglers of that time with all three of them having their spells out of the Football League since then – one of them will, almost certainly, never return, one is in the National League and the other are having better days now after dropping further than the aforesaid National League, Bizarrely, his last team were a current Premier League club from down south, but they would have been in the old Division Four when he was playing for them, can you name the player being described?
80s. This Wednesday defender from the 80s has two claims to fame – all but two of the letters in his name are an e or a g and he has a degree in mathematics, who is he?
90s. Blepharospasm sufferer?
00s. Foot in. for soldiers only by the sound of it!
10s. Gloves Lennon wore in a Hard Day’s Night? Probably not! (6,6)
20s. Copacabana meets Shakespeare country, or close to it, and you get a midfielder.
Answers:
60s. Colin Dobson played nearly one hundred and eighty league games for Sheffield Wednesday between 1957 and 1966 before signing for Huddersfield for £20,000 where he was more of a regular starter during his six years at the club. Dobson was in the Huddersfield team that won the Second Division title in 69/70 and played for them in the old First Division, moving on to Bristol Rovers, following a loan spell at Brighton, when they were relegated in 71/72.
70s. Eddie Prudham was one of five or six young players in the Sheffield Wednesday team beaten 4-0 at Ninian Park in January 1971 and he was in the team beaten 2-1 at home by us early in 74/75, a season that saw both teams relegated to the third tier. Prudham was loaned to Bertie Auld’s Partick Thistle during g that campaign and did so well there that his asking price was increased from £20,000 to £35,000, thus putting him out of Thistle’s price range. Carlisle came in with an acceptable bid though and from there, Prudham went on to play for Workington, Hartlepool and Stockport before finishing up with a spell at Bournemouth.
80s. Greg Fee.
90s. Regi Blinker – Blepharospasm is a frequent blinking of the eye.
00s Tommy Spurr.
10s. Glenn Loovens.
20s. Rio Shipston (Shipston on Stour is a town close to Stratford on Avon).