Who Do You Want To Replace Ole?

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Favourite now appears to be Paul Hartley of Dundee.

For me it is still Pulis first choice. When Tan took over the most important aspect for me (and my reason for being more accepting of the rebrand) was financial stability. While we have that on a week to week basis and while we are still spending money like it is going out of fashion the fact is that the debt has increased and talks of converting that debt to equity or floating the club on the stock exchange has come to nothing. Given the fact that it didn't happen last time once we had achieved Premier status or during the season suggests to me we may not see it unless we achieve Prem status again and at least stabilise by staying there more than one season.

I understand Arkay's thoughts of writing this season off and building something different and more positive longer term but i am not sure we have that luxury. Only Tan knows what his exit strategy is and what his immediate plans are for the next 2 to 3 years. Quitting and leaving a debt far bigger than the one he came into is not an impossibility. So if Tan announces tomorrow that the debt has been converted to equity, the club is debt free and he is employing Red as his new manager following glowing reports of his Football Manager exploits then i will be quite happy.

The problem is that while the debt exists i am not sure we can be content with waiting because i don't know that Tan is. Whoever is appointed will come with no guarantees of course but Pulis to me is the best option to achieve those aims that might just be an imperative to Tan and to the financial future of the club. Get promoted and stay there.

Longer term planning and not giving up on those ideals of attractive, attacking football are worthy ideals. However just like last season when the calls for Malky to be replaced by a more attack minded manager was (in my opinion) the wrong choice at the wrong time, it feels equally wrong now.

Stoke moved on from Pulis and i am sure a great number of their fans were glad to see him go. But they are moving forward as an establised Prem club now, better able to cope with and achieve those desires of more attractive football. For myself i will take the short term stability of a manager i believe can take us up and keep us up regardless of the brand of football in order to have a firmer base to launch forward from - and hopefully with a financial future which, for the first time in many, many, years might look a little more secure.

There is a report from the most recent meeting between the Supporters' Trust and Dalman and the new chap on one of the other boards.

In it, it is stated that debt won't be converted to equity until we are back in the PL and additional income streams are available. It goes on that income this year will fall from £80m to £40m, so it is vital that we are promoted back straight away. We will be in trouble if that does not happen.

In the light of what has come out of that meeting, it is understandable why Tan has chosen to move as he has at this point.

It appears that Pulis is not under consideration and that Bellamy has turned down the role with the Club looking for a young coach not a manager.

Well, that does change the complexion of things and I very much take on board Toastie's points on finance.

TDA wrote:There is a report from the most recent meeting between the Supporters' Trust and Dalman and the new chap on one of the other boards.

In it, it is stated that debt won't be converted to equity until we are back in the PL and additional income streams are available.  It goes on that income this year will fall from £80m to £40m, so it is vital that we are promoted back straight away.  We will be in trouble if that does not happen.

In the light of what has come out of that meeting, it is understandable why Tan has chosen to move as he has at this point.

I could go back and find my post where I said that Tan will probably change his mind again, but I really can't be bothered. The man is a pathological liar that moves the goalposts whenever he damn well pleases. Try and tell me that , wen we get back to the premier league, he won't immediately say that he wants to make sure we are viable long term in the league before converting.

Arkay Dubya wrote:Well, that does change the complexion of things and I very much take on board Toastie's points on finance.

It looks like the Pulis argument is academic anyway. Let's hope that whoever takes over the reins can deliver both success and the exciting, attacking football people were expecting under Ole

Toast Boy wrote:

Arkay Dubya wrote:Well, that does change the complexion of things and I very much take on board Toastie's points on finance.

It looks like the Pulis argument is academic anyway. Let's hope that whoever takes over the reins can deliver both success and the exciting, attacking football people were expecting under Ole

Russell Slade of Leyton Orient is now odds on hot favourite after being 33/1

I actually thought that Russell Slade was a joke until I checked for myself. Seems bizarre as Tan is after someone with no track record of failure yet he's under pressure at Leyton Orient. In fairness though he has achieved a 47% win ratio for them over four years and has hardly spent any money in that time. Plus he was the League One manager of the year.

Kevin Cooper new manager, Scott young as his no 2 Terry Burton back in some capacity, and dave Jones as dof seen that on aamb, I'm gonna Chuck a few quid on coops cos I don't think it's a bad shout,

Can't see Russell Slade doing a job. He has never managed at this level, with this quality of player and the egos that come with them.

Looking further ahead, a problem that Malky had was attracting quality players to the club, something that Ole was able to do with ease, based on his reputation. Whoever becomes manager, there must be a structure in place that makes Cardiff City more attractive to players than it had been pre-OGS.

I'm now very worried that we will have a scenario similar to Leeds, where Tan is going to bring in unknown coaches who don't mind the interference from him.

The likes of Pulis and Lennon are not going to want Tan asking them to play certain players.

I would have liked a Mike Phelan (DoF) and Karl Robinson/Paul Hartley (Head Coach) setup now that I know that's what Tan wants. It seems the latter two are out of the running whilst the former hasn't been in the frame.

Slumdog's Son wrote:I would have liked a Mike Phelan (DoF) and Karl Robinson/Paul Hartley (Head Coach) setup now that I know that's what Tan wants. It seems the latter two are out of the running whilst the former hasn't been in the frame.

I've got deja-vu.

Slumdog's Son™ wrote:I'm now very worried that we will have a scenario similar to Leeds, where Tan is going to bring in unknown coaches who don't mind the interference from him.

The likes of Pulis and Lennon are not going to want Tan asking them to play certain players.

I don't think for one minute Tan is that influencial on team matters.  The overall structure of the management heirarchy, then, yes.  Here is a post by TOBW copied from somewhere else which I think sums up the situation perfectly..........



Try and put yourself in Vincent Tan's shoes. You feel you were let down by the manager who took your team to the Premier League when he spent more of your money on new players than you had given him permission to (revelations of offensive text messages posted by the former manager make you think you were right to sack him as well).

You had a better relationship with the new manager, but results got worse and the team was relegated so you gave him millions to spend in the summer to create a team that would go back up and the bookies had your side as favourites to win the league, but results are still poor and performances poorer.

It is almost certain that your club has to be in the Premier League if you are not to lose the tens of millions of pounds you have invested in it and the signs are it isn't going to happen soon - something has to change.

You decide that you need to be more involved and that a more experienced man should be appointed to act a kind of bridge between the manager and yourself. At around the same time, the current manager leaves the club citing differences in philosophy between the two of you in the way the club should be run.

The field is now open for you to go ahead with the appointment of this more experienced man who will report to you regarding team matters while the manager will be replaced by someone who will be responsible for team preparation, tactics and coaching only.

Now, if you look at things solely from our owner's perspective, all of that seems quite reasonable. However, if you then approach things from the point of view of managers or coaches who have the ability to improve things at Cardiff City , then I daresay most of them would not be rushing to apply for the "head coach" vacancy if the job description really is as it has been set out in the media.

For a start, many of those with the quality needed to get us back to the Premiership would not be interested in the job even if it were more of a traditional manager's job because they would regard it as a downward step. Besides them, I daresay there are a few men who would be happy to come here, but it seems to me that they would want more control than the role, as Mr Tan sees it, would give them.

I'm sure there will be stacks of applicants for the post even if is, to all intents and purposes, just a glorified coaching job, but will they be of sufficient quality to galvanise the players into performing for them? It seems to me the sort of young/unknown person recent reports have stated may be drafted in to work alongside someone like Dave Jones might not be able to do that - after all, from the outside at least, it seemed that someone with a playing CV like Ole was unable to do so.

Even if an "unknown" comes in who has the quality and ability to transform things, it is going to some time before they get the squad believing in them and, even at this early stage of the season, time isn't really something that they we have got.

So, in my opinion, we have decisions being made by Vincent Tan about the club's future direction, which are perfectly reasonable from his perspective, that are going to make it harder for us to get to the place he needs to be to stand a chance of seeing a return on his investment in Cardiff.

By going down the Director of Football/Head Coach route, our owner is making a decision which, effectively, rules out so many of the people who have exactly the sort of qualities we are crying out for - Vincent Tan's desire for more control is understandable from his perspective, but the odds are that it will end up costing him millions and his club a quick return back to the Premier League.