Digging in 31/01/2010
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Cardiff City 2 Doncaster Rovers 1
In the mid of an injury crisis and with the financial off-field turmoil it’s good to see that the team keeps delivering! Yet another injury time winner means Cardiff keep the momentum going after the superb six goal win against Bristol City.
I saw Dave Jones’ post match interview yesterday and the essence of it was that at the moment the players just had to “dig in”. Time will tell if this digging in is enough to get us into the play offs.
A very tough away game awaits on Friday against the leaders Newcastle, and our unbeaten record in 2010 may very well end there. Any other result would come as a nice surprise.
Don’t make promises you can’t keep 29/01/2010
Posted by NB in Cardiff City, season 2009/10.Tags: Peter Risdale
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“We will be bringing in new players this month, I can guarantee that. I would go so far as to say that come January 31, we will be holding a press conference to parade the players we have brought in during the month.“
Peter Risdale, January the 6th 2010
He should have know better than to go public with a statement like that. It reminds me of all those I’ve heard over the years promising to eat their hat, run around naked, cut of their hair or something else stupid if something they view as highly unlikely to happen should happen after all. The odds are they’ll live to regret it. Peter Risdale didn’t have to eat his hat, but he did have to put his tail between his legs and call a press conference to apologize to the supporters (and shareholders). Most expected him to resign.
And then there’s the audacious season ticket campaign in December to bring in cash for squad strengthening… It was a good idea, but it backfired. Like I wrote in this blog post back in December: “If one penny of the money raised through the season ticket campaign is used to pay outstanding tax bills then it’s a disgrace.” And disgrace it is. No matter how good faith Peter Risdale has acted in it’s a disgrace. All the good things Risdale has done since his arrival at the club will be overshadowed by the recent events. Let’s just hope the outstanding tax bill will be paid in time…
If we fail to reach “the promised land” of the Premier League this season the failure to strengthen the squad in the January transfer window will be the main reason. There won’t be much question about where to put the blame, and we’ll count ourselves lucky if Dave Jones stays on as manager of Cardiff City.
I hope the fans get behind the team tomorrow against Doncaster though. The players aren’t to blame for what’s happened and have preformed brilliantly lately. I for one still want as much success as possible this season!
Can we play you every week? 26/01/2010
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Bristol City 0 Cardiff City 6
It’s not often two teams meet three Tuesdays in a row like Cardiff and Bristol City now have, and what a way to finish the series off by Cardiff!
A brilliant scoreline and pleasing to see both Chopra and McCormack getting a brace, Whittingham continuing his scoring spree and Marshall keeping a clean sheet. Being four nill up at half time inevitably reminded everyone of the Peterborough horror in December, but luckily we didn’t see a repeat of that. In stead Cardiff netted two more goals within twelve minutes of the second half to bring the game beyond Bristol City.
Is the promotion race back on? I sure hope so. Particullarly pleasing hat Bristol City was the victims of this thrashing and nice to swap places with Swansea on the table again as well! And last but not least: What a way to make Bristol City debutant Jamal Campbell-Ryce eat his words. “We’ll give Cardiff City a good beating.” Ha. I guess he’ll keep his big mouth shut for the future!
Bjørn Helge Riise 25/01/2010
Posted by NB in season 2009/10.Tags: Riise
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Bjørn Helge Riise is not a Cardiff City player, but he very nearly became one back in January 2003.
Now he’s in the Premier League with Fulham but doesn’t get to play much. VG, a Norwegian newspaper, ran a story this week on how he’s only played 11 minutes in the Premier League since his transfer from Lillestrøm. VG suggested he couldn’t be satisfied with that, but his agent claimed Riise is perfectly happy at Craven Cottage. The article also said that it wasn’t an alternative for Riise to go out on loan according to Fulham’s manager Roy Hodgson, and in saying so it quashed the (far fetched?) rumour I saw somewhere on the internet that Riise was a possible loan signing target for Cardiff.
I remember the on-off transfer saga seven years ago very well. Riise was nineteen at the time and playing for Aalesund. He had nothing to show for in Norwegian football except being the brother of the more famous John Arne Riise. The story of Riises transfer was headline sports news in the Norwegian press and I relished the prospect of seeing the first ever Norwegian sign for Cardiff. Uncertainty about whether the transfer would materialize arose as Aalesund said they wanted to investigate the possibility of claiming compensation from Cardiff as Riise was under 23.
Then former Wimbeldon manager and Norwegian footballing guru Egil “Drillo” Olsen allegedly got a phone call from Sam Hammam asking about Riise, and when “Drillo” couldn’t vouch for Riise Cardiff’s interest turned cold. He never became a Bluebird. The mother of the Riise brothers, Berit Riise, who was also Bjørn Helge’s agent, was angry and claimed that Aalesund tried to stop Riise from going to Cardiff as a part of a vendetta against her family. The story took another twist as Berit Riise claimed to have been sexually harassed by Aalesunds coach, and the transfer soon became secondary for the Norwegian media. Bjørn Helge ended up in Belgian football before returning to Norway and Lillestrøm in 2005. He’s now a regular in the Norwegian national team.
It would have been nice to have a Norwegian Cardiff City player. It would have generated interest for Cardiff City in Norway and a lot more media coverage over here, but in hindsight I’m not all that sorry that Riise’s transfer fell through. He’s a decent player, but he doesn’t come across as very sympathetic and there’s far too much fuss surrounding the Riise family.
Chelsea 24/01/2010
Posted by NB in Cardiff City, season 2009/10.Tags: FA Cup
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On the one hand drawing Chelsea – the FA Cup holders and arguably the best team in the country at the moment – and even drawing them away, was the toughest draw that could be handed to Cardiff. On the other hand it’s the most exciting opponent among the last sixteen, and what a great chance to cause an upset!
When Cardiff made it to the FA Cup final two seasons ago our semi-final opponent Barnsley had done a great deal of the hard work sending both Liverpool and Chelsea out of the cup. Cardiff had an relative easy way to the final with Middlesbrough the only Premier League being beaten on the way to the final. If Cardiff are to make it to the final again this year it at least no one can say it was done the easy way!
Nice one, Willo! 24/01/2010
Posted by NB in season 2009/10.Tags: Willo Flood
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In one of the few Championship matches being played yesterday I notice that the former Cardiff player Willo Flood equalized for Middlesbrough on his home debut against no other than the Jacks (in a match that ended in a 1-1 draw). Nice one, Willo!
Flood struggled to make it into the team while at Cardiff after coming from Manchester City, and the upswing his career has taken since leaving Cardiff and going up north to join Dundee United on loan back in 2007 is quite remarkable.
He was at Dundee United for to whole seasons, but when his contract was up at Cardiff Floods play in Scotland had impressed the then Celtic manager Gordon Strachan enough to bring him to the scottish giants. When Strachan was then sacked and became manager of Middlesbrough he made sure Flood joined him at the Riverside Stadium not long after. That can only mean that Strachan has great belief in Flood’s abilities even though the Irish midfielder didn’t succeed at Celtic (which is why they let him go I suppose).
Cup joy 24/01/2010
Posted by NB in Cardiff City, season 2009/10.Tags: FA Cup, Jay Bothroyd
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Cardiff City 1 Bristol City 0, FA Cup third round replay
Cardiff City 4 Leicester City 2, FA Cup fourth round
What a great FA Cup week! I honestly didn’t expect Cardiff to beat Bristol City in the third round replay on Tuesday, and before kick off I convinced myself to agree with Jay Bothroyd who said that it’s the League that matters most and that the upcoming League game against Bristol City was more important. That was also my attitude going into the fourth round match against Leicester at Cardiff City Stadium yesterday. On Friday night I was at a party having some banter with a colleague who’s a Leicester City fan and I had to admit to him I wasn’t too optimistic.
It turned out to be an exciting cup match and this time it was Cardiff’s turn to score in injury time – and that even twice! Wonderful stuff and a great way to progress to the next round. When Bothroyd put Cardiff in front in the first half I thought it was going to be the winning goal, as I had dreamt that Cardiff were going to win 1-0. At half time though I was pretty sure we were heading for defeat being 1-2 down and judging from the commentary at Cardiff City Player saying that it was all Leicester. So credit to Dave Jones and the players for turning it around!
I look forward to tonight’s fifth round draw but can’t make my mind up whether I want a plum tie against a Premier League team or a home tie against a more beatable (in theory anyway) team like Southampton. Luckily it’s not up to me to decide, so I’ll just have to take whatever comes out of the hat.
All about the money 19/01/2010
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Without lots of money it’s impossible for any club to achieve success in European football now a days. Promotion for Cardiff from the Championship depends on money and should City go up even more money is needed to stay a Premier League team for more than more than one season.
With this in mind some fresh investment into Cardiff City FC and possibly new ownership by someone willing to spend what’s needed is very welcome. It’s exciting that there now seems to be up to three different parties interested in becoming investors or even buy the club. This is especially good news as the Bluebirds have some heavy debts stemming from the turbulent Sam Hammam era.
I think Tony Clemo was in financial control when I started to support the Bluebirds back in 1989. Other previous owners that spring to mind are Samesh Kumar and Rick Wright. Hopefully we’ll never see another one like the latter at the helm.
Should some new investors come along it’s paramount that they have the club’s best interest at heart and that they have no hidden agenda seeking personal profit and publicity.
The Malaysian fellow, Dato Chan, has already put some money on the table to show he’s serious about his interest in his club and is now a member of the board. I have no doubt that should Chan decide to take his interest in Cardiff a step further he would have no trouble coming up with a considerable amount of money.
Seeing how Manchester United and Liverpool are faring under American ownership I can’t say the thought of Americans coming in (as has been rumored) gives me any good vibes. But it might just be prejudice on my part.
And then you have the millionaire Ben Steele from Guernsey. His intentions might be good, but it seems a bit odd him taking such an interest in Cardiff (but then again many people think it’s odd that I support Cardiff…). Is Cardiff City his new hobby? Hardly. For now I can’t help to suspect him of having the wrong motives.
Still up there 17/01/2010
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Scunthorpe United 1 Cardiff City 1:
Under the current circumstances with all the injuries and illness taking it’s toll, even a draw against a team you would normally expect to beat doesn’t feel that bad.
What hurt the most yesterday was seeing Swansea climb above Cardiff on the table, but having said that it’s pretty amazing that we’re still in fifth place and still play-off contenders.
Josh Magennis 15/01/2010
Posted by NB in Cardiff City.Tags: Josh Magennis
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The “goalkeeper turned striker” story of Josh Magennis is fascinating.
I doubt there are any other players in the UK who have been brought to a professional club as goalkeeper while a youth and then been given a professional contract as a forward. And there probably aren’t many players who have represented their country both as goalkeeper and outfield player either (as Josh Magennis has for Northern Ireland).
Hopefully he’ll recover fine from his broken leg suffered after only 35 minutes in his full debut against Blackpool. I’m sure he’s going to be an excellent player for Cardiff in the years to come.
