A Storming Start To 2005

Passion. Determination. Desire.

Not words you would normally associate with the playing staff at Cardiff City this season.

However, their New Year’s resolutions must have involved ‘pulling’, ‘fingers’ ‘out of’, ‘arses’ because City followed up an away victory against Derby with a public humiliation of Nottingham Forest.

It is amazing how much more enjoyable it is to support Cardiff when the players, well, actually ‘play’ as a team, show a bit of passion and make an effort to earn their wages.

Monday afternoon’s game was nothing like a traditional ‘relegation scrap’. Forest were beaten before the match had even started.

Hardly surprising though, Nottingham showed no fighting spirit or unity 20 years ago so why should today be any different?

City were faultless all afternoon. Thorney scored yet more goals, the Langley that hid out on the wing has transformed into a tough tackling and interested wide man, while James Collins was like a human brick wall at the back yet again.

Even Tony Warner was commanding, stood tall and caught anything in the box, rather than treating us to the usual horror show.

It was all a bit emotional towards the end when Kavanagh punched the air, geed up the crowd and pulled at his captain’s armband, signalling to the press that he was very much Charlie Big Potatoes at Ninian Park.

Very Roy Keane and very welcome. Just the sort of attitude required when you are scrapping at the bottom with the rest of the dregs.

The players were genuinely pleased to see him score and while Bluebirds.tv witnessed an elated Kav hug Thorney on returning to the centre circle, Tony Warner charging out to congratulate the under-fire captain was unfortunately missed.

Cardiff have now beaten all three sides below them, i.e. Forest, Gillingham and Rotherham at home in what appears to be a winning battle against the drop.

If this type of display is repeated until May, there is no way Cardiff City will be a League One side next season.

The same cannot be said of spineless Forest – a club ‘with a better chance of staying up’ according to recent signing and ex-City loanster Neil Harris.

Blackburn Rovers on Saturday is something to look forward to, but three points away at ‘dirty’ Leeds a week later is far more important.

New Year's Optimism

After a miserable 2004 has passed, perhaps us faithful fans have better things to look forward to this year.

Let's look at the positives of the last three games - two draws and one victory.

Lennie's new "diamond" formation seems to be working, with loanster Junichi Inamoto playing just behind the front men.

This formation has given us a more solid and balanced look, as well as guiding the side to two successive clean sheets.

We are still only two points above Gillingham, but only six points away from Leeds in 14th place.

If our mini revival continues, we could soar up the table.

Gary O'Neil's stint at Ninian Park saw City's results improve and hopefully Inamoto's arrival will inspire the Bluebirds to reach the dizzy heights of mid table.

We Want Lennie Out!

The fans have wanted it since before we won promotion. The sycophantic local press have finally cottoned on. The overwhelming response is “We want Lennie OUT!”

A staggering 92% voted that it was time for Lennie to leave in an online poll conducted by icwales. Fans are voting on the internet and it won’t be long before they are voting with their feet, and more importantly, their pockets in greater numbers than they are already.

Just 12,500 turned up to watch a load of dross against Sunderland last Saturday and Bluebirds.tv commends the die hards who will make the long trek to Yorkshire to watch a likely similar display against Sheffield United this weekend.

This season two managers of relegation threatened teams – Andy Hessenthaler, and today Joe Kinnear, did the decent thing and resigned. They knew, in their heart of hearts, they could do no more while in charge of their clubs and realised an injection of fresh ideas and renewed impetus was required if relegation was to be avoided.

No such luck at Cardiff City.

Fans have been calling for Lennie’s head for almost two years – beginning with our humiliating home defeat against Colchester in our promotion season.

And, bar a few obvious highlights such as the play-off final win and a few scalps against former Premiership giants, City’s results have got steadily worse.

Lennie has always insisted he is the right man for the job, but even he can’t believe that any more.

The right man for his swanky apartment in Cardiff Bay more like.

12 wins in 47 games stretching back to a year ago is not the work of a manager taking this club to bigger and better things.

He doesn’t have a Graeme Souness type mean streak that would strike fear and command respect at the same time, something that’s required when you have average players earning more than their worth and simply not rising to the occasion.

Giving the players a rollocking in the dressing room, a battering on the training field or forcing them to drink cups of piss at half-time if they were losing may have given our pampered players the kick up the arse they so desperately need.

If he had slagged off the players, or the fans, as was Joe Kinnear’s downfall, his position may have become untenable and he would have been forced to leave.

His problem is he is too nice, but as the old saying goes, ‘nice guys finish last’.

And at the moment we are three places and 10 points away from just that.

Lennie has always been diplomatic when interviewed and he knows he is hardly top of the fans Christmas card list, but the vote may have come as a shock as he responded to it in a radio interview with something along the lines of ‘the fans have short memories’, obviously hinting at the play-off win 19 months ago.

Swallows. Summers.

Sam Hammam has taken a familiar stance insisting that Lennie will not be sacked and he will incredibly give him ‘more time’. How many more games does he need to be adequately judged on to prove he can’t do any more for City than he already has?

Sam also argues that there is no point in bringing in a new manager because he will want funds to purchase ‘12 or 15 new players’.

For an intelligent man this is a ridiculous statement. Given the financial state of clubs outside the top flight and City’s well documented debt situation, no prospective manager is going to demand such wholesale changes.

What makes it even more contradictory is Sam claims a transfer warchest of £10 million will be made available when the stadium is given the go ahead.

So what’s to stop him from selling the City manager’s job to the likes of Micky Adams or Gary Megson with something like:

“We have a squad full of international players who are just not doing the business – see what you can do to improve their attitude and on-field performances.

“We have some of the most talented young players in the division in Joe Ledley, Cameron Jerome and Byron Anthony, with many more coming through our academy.

“When work on the new stadium starts in March we will review our league position and I will make funds available, up to £10 million between then and during the summer.”

Not many out-of-work managers would turn their noses up at that.

It beggars belief that City are in this position with seemingly nothing being done about it until it becomes a case of too little too late.

Roll on Saturday.

The Safest Job In Football?

It sounds too good to be true - like heaven, almost.

Would you believe Bluebirds.tv if it could tell you of a job where:

• it didn’t matter how bad your performance was?
• or how dismal you were at reaching your targets?
• you can set a performance appraisal deadline but can conveniently forget about it if results did not improve?
• you could ignore a decrease in customer sales of 25% in just a matter of weeks?
• you could fail time and time again on the most basic tasks but nonchalantly claim you will get it right, even though the facts suggest otherwise?
• public and unjust criticism of your competitors goes unpunished even though it has detrimental effects on your company’s own position in the market?

Such a job exists – the manager’s position at Ninian Park, quite possibly the safest job in football or any other sector. Ever.

It beggars belief that in football, the most results-dominated industry of them all, a manager can keep his job after just five wins in 23 games, or 12 wins in 47 games stretching back to this time last year?

City endured their eighth game at Ninian Park on Saturday without scoring a goal

“They can shoot and we can’t” was Lennie’s assessment of another dire performance in which just 12,500 masochists turned up, around 5,000 less than anticipated.

He has a point to some extent but the problem does not begin and end in the six yard box. City have proved so far this season they cannot compete at this level for a sustained period and no amount of extra shooting practice is going to change that.

Sunderland were no great shakes and it is remarkable how such an unimaginative side, lacking in any real class can be knocking on the Premiership’s door – so what does that say about us?

City undoubtedly has, man-for-man, one of the better squads in this division and one that is packed with players experienced on the international stage.

This is largely the same squad that finished comfortably in mid-table last season and one which sat in eighth position with 35 points this time last year.

So why is it that whenever the team now takes to the field they look uninterested, lack ideas and show no desire to win, let alone be able to string a few passes together in order to ‘have a shot’ if Lennie believes that is indeed what the problem is?

It has to be a question of motivation and desire. A problem that lies squarely with the manager and the manager alone. The results over the past 12 months suggest Lennie is unable to man-manage his squad effectively to gain the results demanded of them.

Even Bluebirds.tv’s own Jobi McAnuff is fast becoming a member of ‘City Anonymous’ after exploding onto the scene following his switch from West Ham and looked superb even when his useless team mates were getting thumped 3-0 at home to Watford.

Before the season started Lennie claimed City’s bunch of underachievers was the best squad of players he had ever worked with and that the play-offs were a realistic target.

If that is the case, and after 20-odd years in management and some 1000-odd games in charge, it is unlikely that Lennie is a bad judge of character – it is more likely he has just outlived his usefulness at Ninian Park.

The financial constraints at the club may be the stumbling block in showing Lennie the door and bringing in a dynamic replacement (Micky Adams, anyone?) to shake up our ‘stars’ who are happy in their own little comfort zones and have been for far too long.

But the question to Sam Hammam is, can Cardiff City afford not to sack Mr Lawrence if poor results stretch into the New Year and the club slips further into relegation trouble?

And City's New Midfield Signing Will Be.....

After reading the report's that Lennie is looking for a "Premiership Playmaker"to the squad on loan, I have drawn up a short list of potential signings.

Kleberson - Manchester United
A World Cup winner at Ninian Park? If City want a bit of flair pulling thestrings in midfield then the overlooked Kleberson may be the man to get City playing to the Samba beat. Even though he is unlikely to be interested in the scrap at the lower end of the division, his skill and creativity would certainly add a new dimension to City's game.

Gary O'Neil - Portsmouth
I, like many would love to see him with the correct blue shirt on again. Lennie has hinted about "complicated issues" at the moment regarding the loan signing, could this be to do with the lack of a manager at Portsmouth?

Graham Stuart - Charlton Athletic
An all action midfield player, currently out of favor at Charlton. An old school box-to-box midfield player who is no stranger to rolling up his sleeves and scrapping, having previously being involved in relegation battles.

Steve McManaman - Manchester City
Overlooked and out of favour with Kevin Keegan, his contract is up in the summer and he may be after first team football to put him self in the shop window again. His experience would help "Lennie's Lads" progress their game.

Darren Ambrose - Newcastle United
A star a few years back in Ipswich's Division One campaign. He can player on eitherwing and has geniune quality but is struggling to make an impact in the Premiership. A move on loan may rebuild his confidence and help him force his way into the Newcastle first team.

Michael Brown - Tottenham Hotspur
Whilst at Sheffield United he proved to be one of the best midfield player's in the division. He is a target for the boo boys at White Hart lane and is struggling to hold down a first team place.

Sunderland Up Next

Gillingham came and went. City won but are still in the same position – one place above relegation and three points adrift of Brighton.

Akin to a Gareth Gates concert, City stuttered their way through 90 minutes of dross yet still managed to please the 10,000 weary souls who bothered to turn up.

Not a single chant of ‘We Want Lennie Out’ was uttered at Ninian Park as Cameron Jerome and a brace from Peter Thorne City sealed a 3-1 victory over Gillingham.

City have registered home victories against two of their biggest survival rivals which will certainly help the cause but they need to start beating other teams if they want to avoid the drop.

Starting with Sunderland this Saturday.

Last season the Bluebirds turned the tables and had the Black Cats for an afternoon snack, smashing in four goals and prompting the Bob Bank to chant of “Newcastle, you’ll never play them again.”

And then there’s Nottingham Forest on January 3.

This match is massive since Joe Kinnear’s team are breathing down our necks faster than a lag fresh from a 10-stretch on a visit to the Ambassador.

Bluebirds.tv cannot see Forest being relegated from this division, so it is difficult to predict who will join Rotherham in League One next May, since Gillingham may experience an upturn in results with the arrival of gritty manager Stan Ternant.

These are uncertain times but three points against Sunderland would kick start City’s Christmas.

Gillingham - The Final Countdown

Bluebirds.tv thought its pleas for some action in the transfer market had fallen on deaf ears as the deadline loomed for the ‘crunch game’ against Gillingham.

Following an injury to Alan Lee, Thorney just coming back from one, Cameron Jerome lacking experience and Andy Campbell just plain lacking, Lennie may have pulled off another loan coup by snapping up Millwall’s Neil Harris.

Excusing a terribly bad taste pun, Neil Harris was the bollocks a few seasons back and regarded as one of the deadliest strikers outside of the Premiership until he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

He fired in 25 goals during the 1999-2000 season and managed 28 in the 2000-2001 campaign but has struggled for form following his illness.

Harris has scored just once this season, ironically against City in their 2-2 draw back in October, but netted 10 goals last season and 12 the one before that.

In conclusion, even an off-form Neil Harris is better than what we have in attack at the moment.

Bluebirds.tv is delighted he has signed, even if it is only for a month as he will give the team some punch up front in the forthcoming ‘six pointers’ against the Gills, Wolves and Nottingham Forest at Ninian Park.

Harris is seen as something of an icon at the New Den and if he scores the winner against Gillingham tomorrow, he will be equally regarded by the City faithful.

Welcome to Ninian Park.