I’m a member of Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust and have been helping them out on the Admin side of things for nearly fifteen years. However, with all due respect to those who give up their time to represent their members, what the Trust has to say on a City related subject shouldn’t really be the most newsworthy thing to happen to Cardiff City in the past week as we approach the opening of the transfer window and the return of the players to training after their holidays in the next few weeks, with no clue yet as to who will be the manager when preparations for the new season begin in earnest.
That’s the position we find ourselves in though as the lack of news from the club and manager as to his contract situation reaches farcical proportions. This week the Trust issued the following statement;-
“Dear Member,
You will recall that I emailed you on 6th April regarding the situation in respect of the position of Manager. In that email I informed you that, at that time, the decision regarding the future of Erol Bulut had been in the hands of Vincent Tan for some time. The Trust made no observations as to who should be appointed to the post only that a decision should be made speedily to remove uncertainties and disquiet amongst fans.
Well, here we are, more than 7 weeks later with no sign of any progress on this issue. There has been little or no meaningful information from the club on this matter leading to rumour, speculation and frustration amongst the fanbase.
The absence of footballing expertise at board level and the intransigence of Vincent Tan in his views on the appointment of a Director of Football or similar continues to be a concern, especially in the current circumstances.
I think it is fair to say that an extended contract for the current manager does not necessarily have 100% support amongst the fans. There are concerns over style of football and tactics but there seems to be a degree of unanimity amongst the fanbase that the current situation is unacceptable and should be resolved one way or another as soon as possible.
Keith Morgan
Chair”
There’s plenty I could say about a club. that expects their fans to buy/renew their season tickets, while being incapable/unwilling to give them any idea as to who the manager will be for 24/25, but I’ll limit myself for now to an “amen to that” regarding the statement above.
A couple of very small snippets of City news from the past seven days, first, they have added Ben Pickford to their recruitment staff. Pickford worked as a scout for Colchester and Wolves before becoming involved more in the analytical side of things while working for the Welsh FA and Southampton and last season he worked as a recruitment analyst for Cheltenham Town. Some have seized upon this news as proof that Erol Bulut, who said he wanted to add to the coaching and recruitment staff at the club, is working as normal and his new contract has been signed, but that seems like wishful thinking to me which only tends to emphasise how desperate some City fans are for news from the club during the close season.
Also, Rubin Colwill finds himself back in the Welsh senior squad for the upcoming friendlies with Gibraltar and Slovakia. It’s a deserved recall for Colwill, who was one of City’s better performers in the season just ended, but Aaron Ramsey has been leftt out with the reason given being that he is being allowed the best opportunity to get himself fully fit for the new season.
Finally, the Welsh Under 17 and 16 sides played their final game in their respective qualifying groups while knowing that further progress in their age group Euro competitions was impossible. At least the under 17s managed a first point and a first goal in their group when they drew 1-1 with Croatia. Wales, who again had City youngsters Ronan Kpakio and Jan Thomas starting as wing backs and Jake Davies introduced as a second half sub for the third time, fell behind after another goalkeeping blunder saw the Croats take the lead midway through the first half with a goal scored direct from a corner, but Derby’s Cruz Allen equalised from a free kick ten minutes later – a goal which effectively eliminated Croatia who needed a win to edge out Denmark after they went down 4-0 to group winners Austria on their last match.
The under 16s campaign ended ignominiously when heavy defeats against Poland and the Czech Republic were followed by a 5-0 loss to Turkey with all of the goals being scored before half time – Hayden Allmark was the only City player involved as he started the game in midfield.
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