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It is an impossible question to answer because the rebrand effectively defines Tan's tenure. It's like asking somebody's opinion of Sam Hammam without Black Friday or the Langston affair. The fact that the club still has Tan's little red dragon on its badge speaks volumes. After all, how many other professional football clubs have what is effectively their owner's personal mark on their badges?
It's April 2021 and yet Cardiff City is still apparently entirely dependent upon the continued goodwill and financial support of a rich Malaysian, and that's according to his chairman and those who count themselves as his biggest supporters. To me, that speaks volumes about the way in which the club has been run during the last decade.
I think back to what it felt like when it was learned that a billionaire was going to take over the club and think “is this it then?”, because more than a decade later, we’re slightly worse off in terms of league position, much worse off in terms of quality of football and much worse off in terms of producing our own players.
However, I cannot be anything other than grateful for Vincent Tan’s financial support and the debt and interest payments he has written off (although the amount written off is not as much as was promised a few years ago I believe).
The rebrand was a disaster of Vincent Tan’s own making - in some ways, the club has not recovered from it, but when people say he’s the best owner we’ve ever had, I can understand why they would say that. That said, for me, we could and should have been so much better than we’ve turned out and so I can’t agree with that viewpoint.