Cardiff City and their "philosophy".

[Pedro de la Rosa]

If it is true that Mick McCarthy is only coming here for six months then that makes things different (that's why I took care to mention a long contract in the OP), but I'd still think that the Board would take the easy way out and offer him a longer deal if the six months goes moderately well.

One other thing, I had a look at an Ipswich forum earlier and they were saying on there that McCarthy didn't really rate Keiffer Moore that much when he played for them.

MM properly rates Moore now though, he did a few of our games on Sky and praised him throughout.

[A Quiet Monkfish]

Much talk on here and in various media outlets over the past few years about how City needed to get themselves an identity, a philosophy in the manner of those big clubs in the Premier League and many of our rivals in the Championship. However, those of us who indulged in such talk were taken as mugs because, if we really do appoint Mick McCarthy as our manager on a long contract then the club are only confirming what should have been clear to all of us for ages - Cardiff City already have a philosophy/identity, okay, it might be a profoundly embarrassing one, but it is one all the same.

Cardiff City are a club that plays stone age football, they are a club that seeks to play in a manner which sets technical ability as a, very, low priority, they are a club that are far happier to see the ball played in the air, they are a club which relies on brawn almost to the exclusion of the brain, they are a club that signs a player like Harry Wilson for reasons I cannot begin to fathom because they are clueless as to how to get the best out of him, they are a club that, despite some half hearted attempts to encourage youth, seem unable to fully trust players that have not yet reached their mid twenties and they are a club who are, apparently, happy to potter on with an amateurish set up that has no one with the sort of football knowledge that would take us out of our twentieth century approach to recruitment, football administration and youth development - I would say we're the modern day equivalent of late twentieth century Wimbledon, but we're nowhere near as good as they were, so we're Wimbledon wannabees, there's an identity for you!

Just to finish, I hope Jon1959 won't mind me borrowing something he said, because it coincides exactly with my feelings about the man who, it seems, is going to be our next manager;-

"I have always liked Mick McCarthy - very strong personality, grounded and funny. I just don’t want him as the manager of my football club."

Not much I'd disagree with, though our promotion/PL seasons with Warnock wasn't quite the stone age football that we are experiencing at the moment. But City are in free fall. A couple of defeats and we are among the bottom 4 or 5 - sides, some of whom we've lost to already this season. If we go down there's no way this squad will bounce back. We'll be stuck there like Ipswich, Portsmouth, Sunderland. Assuming the appointment is short term I think it's less a reflection of the club's philosophy, more to do with staying up and halving the value of the club at a stroke. The longer term intentions of the Club will be clearer in May/June.

[City123]

If it is true that Mick McCarthy is only coming here for six months then that makes things different (that's why I took care to mention a long contract in the OP), but I'd still think that the Board would take the easy way out and offer him a longer deal if the six months goes moderately well.

One other thing, I had a look at an Ipswich forum earlier and they were saying on there that McCarthy didn't really rate Keiffer Moore that much when he played for them.

I think the Moore of today is a completely different proposition to the Moore of a few years ago

[WJ99mobile]

Much talk on here and in various media outlets over the past few years about how City needed to get themselves an identity, a philosophy in the manner of those big clubs in the Premier League and many of our rivals in the Championship. However, those of us who indulged in such talk were taken as mugs because, if we really do appoint Mick McCarthy as our manager on a long contract then the club are only confirming what should have been clear to all of us for ages - Cardiff City already have a philosophy/identity, okay, it might be a profoundly embarrassing one, but it is one all the same.

Cardiff City are a club that plays stone age football, they are a club that seeks to play in a manner which sets technical ability as a, very, low priority, they are a club that are far happier to see the ball played in the air, they are a club which relies on brawn almost to the exclusion of the brain, they are a club that signs a player like Harry Wilson for reasons I cannot begin to fathom because they are clueless as to how to get the best out of him, they are a club that, despite some half hearted attempts to encourage youth, seem unable to fully trust players that have not yet reached their mid twenties and they are a club who are, apparently, happy to potter on with an amateurish set up that has no one with the sort of football knowledge that would take us out of our twentieth century approach to recruitment, football administration and youth development - I would say we're the modern day equivalent of late twentieth century Wimbledon, but we're nowhere near as good as they were, so we're Wimbledon wannabees, there's an identity for you!

Just to finish, I hope Jon1959 won't mind me borrowing something he said, because it coincides exactly with my feelings about the man who, it seems, is going to be our next manager;-

"I have always liked Mick McCarthy - very strong personality, grounded and funny. I just don’t want him as the manager of my football club."

I have no issue with us being a hoofball stone age club, but the players we have signed just no longer fit in that category. We are a muddle of players that are trying to play both route one and passing, and our side is experts at neither.

I can count on 1 finger the amount of players that are fast, strong, tall and powerful in the side.

HOWEVER! If this is a transitionary year, it was always going to happen as there's no way we could have gotten rid of all the redundant players in one go but what that means is, Warnock shouldn't have been given the cash to spend in the first place, he should have gone earlier.