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Not for the first time in recent years, I've struggled to understand the mindset of the fanbase when it comes to the Premier League. There seemed to be a real inferiority complex this season with most fans readily accepting relegation before a ball had been kicked. It was described as 'a bonus season' by some. I didn't get that at all.
The Premier League includes Wolves, Leicester, Watford, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Burnley, Southampton and Brighton. Are any of those eight clubs bigger than Cardiff City in terms of fanbase and potential? Personally, I don't think so. Several are significantly smaller. Nevertheless, there seems to belief among City supporters that it's unrealistic to expect the Bluebirds to achieve what those clubs have. It's strange.
It’s not about the size of the club. The championship has as many clubs bigger than us than the premier league does! Using things like catchment area and history anyway. League 1 has a couple of clubs bigger than us also.
It’s about what happens on the pitch. Every week we play sides who have players in key areas who would massively improve our side and who can hurt us. We don’t have anyone like that who the opposition would be worried about or want from us.
Yup, there was a noticeable inferiority complex amongst many of the fans. It trickled down from Warnock with his constant references to "Little Ol' Us".
I accept that it's sometimes part of a manager's psychology to take the pressure off his team, however, it was bordering on the Slade-esque (Russel Slade would even manage to big-up the likes of Burton Albion before a match).
We had basically a Championship team playing in the Premier League, plus Warnock failed to address the fact that we needed a decent striker pre-season.That was our biggest Achilles heel. Hence, yeah, it was a 'bonus season', especially when you consider where we were when he took us over
But aren't the majority of promoted clubs Championship clubs until at least their second season? Brighton last year finished 15th with the same number of wins we've managed this year, one fewer away win and with a squad you'd describe as Championship. The one difference between our results really, comparing their successful season last year to our limited season this year, is that they beat a "big 6" side twice.
Last year Brighton, Huddersfield and Newcastle were all Championship sides; Burnley, Boro and Hull the year before; Bournemouth and Norwich before that.... Apart from this year where Wolves, in conjunction with a super-agent, and Fulham, moreso a Premier League mess than championship club, I don't think the majority come up ready to compete as a Premier League side.
Yet Leeds, Sheffield United, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, WBA, Derby, Sheff Wed, etc., are all arguably 'bigger' than Cardiff City, yet this season played in a Division below. More than ever, it seems that income from gate receipts is not exclusively influencing squad strength..
Until the club make appointments at board level of serious football people then I think we will continue to make it up as we go along with the consequences we see today.
Tan, Ken and Dalman failed to develop a strategy which would have given us a good chance of establishing ourselves as a Premier League side. We have greater potential than Palace or Burnley or Bournemouth and others but have squandered an opportunity which we may not see again and those crowds of 30k+ will become a distant memory.
The lack of football knowledge at the top has allowed Warnock free reign following his arrival. A Premier League club is a massive internationally known institution generating way over a hundred million pounds of revenue every season. It cannot be healthy to have one man making practically every football decision in such an organisation, particularly one so idiosyncratic as Warnock. As an example, who at the club would have dared question him over the highly surprising inclusion of Rhys Healey, following loan spells at Newport, Torquay and MK Dons, in a Premier League squad? Healey’s agent, James Warnock, must have been as amazed as anyone when he started getting on the pitch ahead of Ł10m signing Bobby Decordova-Reid, a player several classes apart.
I hope the club will reflect on an opportunity lost, learn the lessons and make the big decisions required in the summer. Doing nothing, crossing fingers and hoping Warnock pulls off another miracle in is in my view no way to run our club.
I’d say the main reason fans (myself included), had the “treat it as a bonus attitude”,was that from the outset, there seemed very little enthusiasm, ambition and investment from the board, and it trickled down to the fan base.
I, along with many others on here posted threads before a ball was kicked, that we’d struggle and go straight back down, and were shouted down as being pessimistic, negative and “not real City fans”.
I gave my opinion, then spent the whole season going to as many games home and away, as I could manage, and getting right behind the team, as I have done for the last 40 odd yrs, but never once saw anything to change my mind on what I had said at the start.
I think our fans have been absolutely top drawer this season. We’ve got behind the team every week home and away, which is to be commended when you think of the dross we’ve had to put up with from day 1.
That's sort of what I mean. There appears to be very little dissent these days. It's seems strange to me that fans readily accept failure. Perhaps the club became so damaged during the rebrand era that many supporters are simply content with the current status quo.
I don't know, I'm not really close enough to the club to these days to have a firm opinion of how the fanbase reacts to anything. It just seems to me that most fans were resigned to relegation almost from the moment the club was promoted, and I find that puzzling. The board didn't show much ambition and the manager was talking about relegation from the outset, but it seems that was fine with the vast majority of supporters. The fanbase seems to have become very passive.