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The picture of our fans celebrating with our 3 young players Harris Colwill and Bagan at Forest (of course youve suggested some or all of these are simply not good enough) shows there is a connection with the fans.
Its hard to dispute the football is sh!t but you have a downer on just about everything.
I've given my reasoning behind it.
I don't think an academy that doesn't produce players for the first team suddenly starts doing because those above demand it. That's not how these things work but you obviously disagree. Makes you wonder why we didn't do it sooner if it was that easy.
The football is bad, the owner can't be bothered to turn up and is running us on a shoe string with his people and not a football man in sight and people are now saying survival in the Championship is success a little over two seasons after being in the Premier League. I truly am gobsmacked at those that paint a rosy picture out of that but fair play to them.
I asked in another thread but people chose not to answer. What have we changed in the academy for it to now be producing such a glut of players when for years it produced nothing?
Or is the truth closer to the board saying we have to use the kids because we are not giving you the money for new signings?
If people can work out that academies do not start churning out Championship level players time and again overnight but we're forced to use them anyway then what happens is a gradual fall down the league.
Our manager building up Bournemouth as if Real Madrid had rolled into town may be managing expectations in view of this.
People can believe what they like. Nothing wrong with positivity but blind positivity and not seeing things for what they are is something different. I know what I think is going on.
Academy:
i) Think I'm right in saying this is the group of kids that were very successful at youth level. Others will be able to answer better but didn't we have a youth side competing near the top of their table a few years ago (which we haven't always had) and now we're seeing them come through?
ii) Neil Harris was vocal about creating pathway for youth to first team, Steve Morrison has been a permanent fixture since, the style of play is reportedly now more similar creating and easier transition and 1.5 years later that greater interest in pathway is coming to fruition.
iii) We have a greater interest in youth because a) we need to because of cost cutting and b) it suits our overall vision for the club - younger and more skillful and, presumably, more sustainable without Tan constantly propping us up.
Bournemouth comments:
i) We've got the smallest squad in the division according to Transfer Markt, had played Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday, had at least three first team players out to injuries/covid/need to rest and were playing one of the three sides everyone expects to finish in the top two. Now of course being in that position isn't positive but moaning about an honest comment is boring - it's not unrealistic to identify that it was a tough challenge.
Nothing wrong with negativity but blind negativity and not seeing things for what they are is something different.
Academies rarely produce finished championship level players. Almost all of them need playing time at a good level in order to reach that level. We've thrown in a bunch of inexperienced players in the last 18 months or so and none of them have looked completely out of place. Will they all spend the majority of their career at this level or higher? no probably not - but a couple of them might.
If we hadn't started to introduce them into the team then probably none of them would ever make it at this level.
There are probably young players in previous academy groups that could have made it but never had the opportunity.
Other clubs in this division have had a pathway to the first team for years, we are just putting in place what should always have been there.
Now we can attract good players to the academy, and the intensity in academy games is probably higher as thy know if they perform well there's a chance they'll get into the first team.
Yes we have almost certainly done this out of necessity rather than lofty ambitions, but it is a good thing to be doing so lets see where it goes .
It does feel a little like we are seeing the fruits of years of football corporatism, fans being disregarded and taken for granted, coupled now with a totally disingenuous PR movement within football that doesnt relate or consider fans much, and just leads a bitter taste in the mouth.
I felt it at the Barnsley game; huge queues, my kid being unable to buy a programme with coins, naff atmosphere, all of it. Even not having a paper ticket - i wanted one for me and my kids for the first game after Covid. City means more than going to Primark or Burger King, but we are just treated like someone with an app attached to us. It's hard to put into words, but there is very little soul, although I'm sure thats an age thing too.
After covid, the wages players earn just seem obscene and genuinely offensive in a way they never were before too. Don't get me wrong, footballers deserve to be paid handsomely and I'd rather they pay tax in the UK than in Spain etc, but £500,000 a week? Even shite City players on £20,000 a week. Seriously, piss off.
Thing is those dismissing these posts as just moaning is the exact reason fans walk away from the game.
A decent club sees the increasing moans and tries to address them.
Your club who is not in touch with the fans, like City are currently, carries on and alienates people more and more.
If your customers are unhappy with the product (leaving the football out of it for a second) then you listen or pay the price of not doing so.
tbf, I acknowledged it may be an age thing. My little kids think it's magic.
Nonetheless, if the club just treat me as a customer., as someone that comes with a phone and an app, and I feel exploited then I won't go. Or i wont go as much.
The irony is, not only are we treated like customers, but in many cases we are treated worse than almost any other customer experience.
Asda's cafe provides meals for £1 for the kids. Cardiff ring as much out of a pint as they can.
The glimmer of hope for better days came towards the end on the Bournemouth match when Bagan and Colwill's interplay showed that we can string a few passes together and pose a threat. This season was always going to be one of transition as younger players are grafted onto an older team. That doesn't excuse poor customer service and "hoof it to Kieffer" one track approach to the way we play. Right now, it's a case of going through the motions to attend matches. No excitement leads to lack of motivation. For the first time in a long time, there were empty seats by us in the Canton 104. Seats that are always occupied. And that does not bode well. Lack of communicated ambition (if there is any) and direction, from the club management, adds to the "why bother going" feeling. That said, Blackburn awaits. Some of us are daft enough to turn up come what may.
Cardiff City have ALWAYS been crap at engaging with the fans , it's appalling and I can't see that changing
The move to the new ground hasn't improved things
However our fans have also MOANED for Wales since I have watched them
The team is crap , they moan , they moan , the team is still crap
It's our club and we all love ccfc in our own ways but it's always struggled for support , it's always been financially on the ropes and when we did have chops , boothroyd etc playing good football we were spending money we didn't have to keep them here , on huge wages
I think we are cursed myself
However our fans moan about the club even when we are winning !
It's highly amusing sometimes
From the joy of seeing all those city fans going mad with the young players at forest ........to suicidal despair a week later
This is Cardiff City
Not sure "Knicker Wetting" is an acceptable term in the 21st century.
I don't think people are talking solely about the football. More the whole game day product package.
i don't know why the board don't paint some fake piss marks down the cladding or recreate a plastic version of The Corp or something....authentic old school matchday experience.
Grow a pair of bollocks
Derby County and Forest are on their arses
They are bigger clubs than us
We are 9th and a couple of wins from the play offs
The fact is this
A lot of people have been wanting MM to fail even before he managed a game for us and now they can say see , told you so
I think it's infantile and the man needs to be given a chance
If anyone thinks this football club could deal with relegation .....and regroup with a new footballing ethos .......they need a good psychiatrist
I think difference between what your talking about and what the OP is talking about though is the difference between "giving stick" and being disenchanted.
I think that is in part due to a "flatpack" generic stadium ; However shit and unfit for modern football NP was , I think we can ALL agree it had bags more life and character to it than the CCS. I think that is a given.
On top of that, the people who run the club have no real desire to understand its' history or its' supporters. They only want to sell their brand and become successful business people.
The football being shit is by the by.
Why don't you grow a pair of bollocks and stop pointing to the basket cases of the footballing world. Forest and Derby are on their arses. Some football clubs are actually in decent shape. You always give examples of the crap end of football.
You think it's infantile. I think it is idiotic to think this board and manager is going to achieve anything.
Happy clappers like you watching $hite football and telling us it is OK and it could be worse are the same big girls blouses that will see the relegation that you speak of.
The tune will change then though. Be something along the lines of 'We're in League One. We used to be the old fourth division. You don't know you're born'.
Why don't you grow a set of bollocks and take your rose tinted specs off while you're at it.
We'll end up in League 1 a lot quicker with happy clappers like Sludge excusing the crap football and the decision makers at this club than with people who are actually concerned about things that aren't right at the club.