Reply With QuoteHe has always came across as a decent bloke, Of course it is easy to knock the manager, we all do it, but he wants to do well in his job
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‘Sometimes I have to stick to my guns and other times accept the advice I’m given’
Russell Slade gives Henry Winter a special insight into life under Vincent Tan, Cardiff City’s controversial Malaysian owner, as the club chase a top-flight return
Russell Slade has just reached the milestone of 750 games as a manager, and the 55-year-old requires all his experience and innate calm as he seeks to rebuild Cardiff City during a testing time of a transfer embargo and demanding fans.
“There’s a huge longing here to be successful,” Slade says over lunch at the training ground. “If the fans see good performances consistently, they’ll come in their droves. They’d be nudging each other in the bars, in the clubs, in the coffee bars and at work, saying: ‘We’ve got to get down there.’ That could happen.”
Three points off the Sky Bet Championship play-offs, Cardiff average about 14,000 in a stadium that can accommodate 33,000. “If we got to Wembley [in the play-offs], we’d sell out the 40,000,” he says. “The city is crying out for Premier League football. The fans are passionate here, the expectations are high, especially having been in the Premier League [in 2013-14]. It’s a Premier League stadium, the training facilities are Premier League although we could do with more grass.
“The fans are always very good to me when I meet them. They are more understanding and positive on the street than on the message boards! It wouldn’t have been love at first sight for the fans or me. I wasn’t their first choice [in 2014]. But it’s a stable relationship now. I had to prove people wrong. I’m a strong enough character to do that. I’m humble enough to know I’m learning all the time. The place has grown on me. I do see huge potential.”
Cardiff have lost their way in recent times. The acrimonious fallout between their owner, Vincent Tan, and the former manager, Malky Mackay, is well chronicled. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer lasted 30 games. “It’s a tough job. When I came there were 38 senior players and 23 under-21s turning up for training,” he says. “A tight squad of 25 is about right plus one or two of the young ones. We had a massive clear-out. We had to get the right type of characters. We can get in the play-offs but we’re doing it against the odds. We have an embargo. More people here are beginning to understand what a tough 18 months it’s been. Vincent said myself and the chief executive Ken Choo had to clear up the mess.”
On arrival, Slade had to knock £12 million off the playing budget, and this window lost two of his main sources of goals in Kenwyne Jones (on loan to Al-Jazira) and Joe Mason (sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers). “It is frustrating. It’s been a difficult period for the club and I’ve been in the middle of that,” he says.
Slade’s experience has helped Cardiff rebuild. “If I’d done only 200 games, I couldn’t have come here and got it to the stage we are now. A lot of it has been built on sand in the past. Now we are getting the solid foundation.”
The Mackay controversy lingered. “It’s fair to say it did. The owner invested heavily in the team and in management teams. He’s openly said he’s made mistakes. Vincent has a real passion for taking the club into the Premier League. We share that ambition. He’s now more aware of what’s necessary in putting bricks in place to get Cardiff there — and then to stay there. That is possible.”
So what’s Tan like? “He’s a character,” Slade says. “He’s very keen to know who’s playing, who’s on the bench. He has all the games streamed in to Malaysia. Then we’ll have a chat. Or he’ll send me a message about what he thinks, wondering why somebody came off. My contract’s up in the summer. I’m sure we will sit down and talk. He knows how I feel. He knows I want to be at the club. There is a good honest understanding between each other.
“I have a good relationship with the owner, chairman [Mehmet Dalman] and Ken Choo. We don’t always agree. It’s a bit like a marriage really, but we’re still together! We come to an understanding. Sometimes I have to stick to my guns and other times accept the advice I’m given.”
The owners ask monks to pray for the team. “They are very, very religious,” Slade says. “I speak to Ken Choo about it and he’s very strong on the prayers, [monks] giving us blessing before a game to give us every chance, to take care of the players to be lucky and be able to win.”
Slade takes a more orthodox approach to players, explaining what is expected of them on and off the pitch. “There was no code of conduct before. There is now.” He shows me the booklet, containing details of fines and philosophy. The cover photo is the historic one of Cardiff players being presented to King George V at the 1927 FA Cup final. The book begins with the poem “The Guy In the Glass”, Dale Wimbrow’s paean to being true to yourself.
Speaking generally about players, Slade said: “You’ve got to question how many are actually in love with the game. I am. That saddens me. Every day you wake up, remember it’s a fantastic life. I say to them, ‘Go and show the quality you’ve got, for goodness sake don’t leave it here in the changing room’.”
He keeps a record of all the two-minute team-talks he delivers just before players step into the tunnel. “I regularly use words like ‘relentless’, ‘determined’, ‘winner’, ‘together’, ‘desire’, ‘belief’ and ‘attitude’. I sometimes start very quietly and then build, more intensely,” he says.
“I’ve looked at a wide variety of motivators like Winston Churchill — ‘we will fight them on the beaches’, all that backs-to-the wall stuff. I look and learn from Arthur Ashe and Muhammad Ali when they were up against it. I use that saying of Napoleon: ‘courage isn’t having the strength to go on. It is going on when you don’t have strength’. I read a lot on Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers — he’d always find a way to win. On holiday, I take biographies to read. Andrew Flintoff, Alex Ferguson, José Mourinho. Ferguson was the first to text me after I left Yeovil [in 2009]. He’s the Godfather of the managers.”
Slade takes Cardiff on the short trip over the Severn Crossing to Bristol City tomorrow. He is fully aware of many Welsh fans’ view of the English. “It’s something that simmers underneath,” he says. “If anything goes wrong, one of their regular chants is, ‘same old English, always cheating’. Sometimes I agree with them!”
He has always came across as a decent bloke, Of course it is easy to knock the manager, we all do it, but he wants to do well in his job
Interesting that Slade is aware of some of what is written about him on here: "(Fans) are more understanding and positive on the street than on the message boards!"
But you wonder sometimes whether the players listen to his team talks before the games: "I regularly use words like ‘relentless’, ‘determined’, ‘winner’, ‘together’, ‘desire’, ‘belief’ and ‘attitude’."
I was just going to say about that, it must be pretty grim reading some of the stuff that has been said about him on here.:(Originally Posted by Cyclops
As a believer in the power of prayer, I loved this bit:
"The owners ask monks to pray for the team. “They are very, very religious,” Slade says. “I speak to Ken Choo about it and he’s very strong on the prayers, [monks] giving us blessing before a game to give us every chance, to take care of the players to be lucky and be able to win.”"
Love the coloured quote - that never happened....:)
A shade of cerisse, perhaps?
Eh? I have no idea what you are talking about.
Try 'Reply With Quote' on your post #4 :)
Interesting that Winter refrained from having a real dig at Slade, or, for that matter, Tan. Makes a change.
So Slade does read message boards. No wonder he is bald with all the stuff that's been said about him on here.
I just did, looks the same as yours :confused:
I'm seeing this:
I don't see anything like that, how weird.I'm seeing this:
Bazaar! :)
(Hope you wasn't thinking neg things about moi, here :D)
Nice to see an article in a newspaper that is not trying to have a go at Tan and the club.The Daily Mail reporter Martin Samuel is always at it.Funny he has not said a word about the Langston outcome or the paying off of the debt by Tan.Seems he is only interest in printing trouble making issues.
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