Originally Posted by
Badly Ironed Shirt
You could argue that I bought into Tan's vision of the club by not seeking a refund when TLG did. My point, at the time, was that I would rather be inside the ground showing disapproval. The Huddersfield game was one that I didn't enjoy, and I was stuck with a £399 ticket and the option of using it to watch more games (I gave up on hoping for protest as soon as I entered the ground on that Friday evening), or just letting it go to waste. My finances wouldn't allow me to do the latter and, since I am a massive football fan, I attended about 12/13 games that season. After Brighton, I attended just two more.
What Tan did was so unnecessary it was unbelievable. However, his constant gloating, his constant reminding to fans that it was red or dead, the constant threats, the constant belittling of the club's previous achievements, the disregard for the unglamorous history of the club (a history that I read into from the age of 11) were so alien a concept to me that the club Tan was forming bared no resemblance to the club I grew up watching.
Add to that comments from a good many tosser on here, people like Nugent and Croesy and many many others meant that I also shared very little with the club's growing fan base.
Comments like "You'll soon be replaced", "you won't be missed", "don't let the door hit you on the way out" etc etc. It's amusing to see some of the ones who engaged in "banter" like that are also some of the ones expressing disappointment that fans are not coming back now the team is winning again.
The reversal of the rebrand was ALWAYS going to happen. I had no doubt about it. That Tan did it without apology is hilarious. That people here are now claiming he apologised is testament to the old adage "history is written by the victor". Similarly, it is also amusing that Tan's new structure for the club is, essentially, a structure that he demolished with a £100m debt and is trying to rebuild whilst the club is losing money hand over fist. Which, brings me back to say it again "What Tan did was so unnecessary, it is unbelievable".
But, Tan didn't simply change the colours. He changed the year the club won the FA Cup to 1928, he changed supporters into customers, he changed the club's policy from trying to drag people off the streets into the stadium into actually saying that he would be happy to lose 25% of the fans. He rewrote history, who can forget an advert for some reunion (possibly Real Madrid) where the shirt colours were changed to red before quickly being changed back to blue? All the stories I grew up hearing, reading and talking about were being rewritten. And, with the team top of the Championship, people barely gave a f**k.
Tan hasn't apologised for anything, so I won't attend a Cardiff City game until he pisses off. He has made it clear that he is, in fact, the football club. He is unwilling to commit to making the club debt free (like he promised in 2010). He is unwilling to turn debt to equity, despite numerous promises. He is, in short, like numerous other owners the club has had - some were blighted by being skint, some were blighted by being plain hopeless and skint, and one was blighted by being Sam Hammam. Tan beats them all in that he wasted £100m plus to turn Cardiff from a well-supported Championship club battling for promotion, into a less-well supported Championship club battling for promotion. It is an abject failure, even with the impending promotion. Given the amount that has been spent, the club really should not be a division below Bournemouth, Huddersfield, Burnley and Swansea - should they?