The Safest Job In Football?

It sounds too good to be true - like heaven, almost.

Would you believe Bluebirds.tv if it could tell you of a job where:

• it didn’t matter how bad your performance was?
• or how dismal you were at reaching your targets?
• you can set a performance appraisal deadline but can conveniently forget about it if results did not improve?
• you could ignore a decrease in customer sales of 25% in just a matter of weeks?
• you could fail time and time again on the most basic tasks but nonchalantly claim you will get it right, even though the facts suggest otherwise?
• public and unjust criticism of your competitors goes unpunished even though it has detrimental effects on your company’s own position in the market?

Such a job exists – the manager’s position at Ninian Park, quite possibly the safest job in football or any other sector. Ever.

It beggars belief that in football, the most results-dominated industry of them all, a manager can keep his job after just five wins in 23 games, or 12 wins in 47 games stretching back to this time last year?

City endured their eighth game at Ninian Park on Saturday without scoring a goal

“They can shoot and we can’t” was Lennie’s assessment of another dire performance in which just 12,500 masochists turned up, around 5,000 less than anticipated.

He has a point to some extent but the problem does not begin and end in the six yard box. City have proved so far this season they cannot compete at this level for a sustained period and no amount of extra shooting practice is going to change that.

Sunderland were no great shakes and it is remarkable how such an unimaginative side, lacking in any real class can be knocking on the Premiership’s door – so what does that say about us?

City undoubtedly has, man-for-man, one of the better squads in this division and one that is packed with players experienced on the international stage.

This is largely the same squad that finished comfortably in mid-table last season and one which sat in eighth position with 35 points this time last year.

So why is it that whenever the team now takes to the field they look uninterested, lack ideas and show no desire to win, let alone be able to string a few passes together in order to ‘have a shot’ if Lennie believes that is indeed what the problem is?

It has to be a question of motivation and desire. A problem that lies squarely with the manager and the manager alone. The results over the past 12 months suggest Lennie is unable to man-manage his squad effectively to gain the results demanded of them.

Even Bluebirds.tv’s own Jobi McAnuff is fast becoming a member of ‘City Anonymous’ after exploding onto the scene following his switch from West Ham and looked superb even when his useless team mates were getting thumped 3-0 at home to Watford.

Before the season started Lennie claimed City’s bunch of underachievers was the best squad of players he had ever worked with and that the play-offs were a realistic target.

If that is the case, and after 20-odd years in management and some 1000-odd games in charge, it is unlikely that Lennie is a bad judge of character – it is more likely he has just outlived his usefulness at Ninian Park.

The financial constraints at the club may be the stumbling block in showing Lennie the door and bringing in a dynamic replacement (Micky Adams, anyone?) to shake up our ‘stars’ who are happy in their own little comfort zones and have been for far too long.

But the question to Sam Hammam is, can Cardiff City afford not to sack Mr Lawrence if poor results stretch into the New Year and the club slips further into relegation trouble?