We Want Lennie Out!

The fans have wanted it since before we won promotion. The sycophantic local press have finally cottoned on. The overwhelming response is “We want Lennie OUT!”

A staggering 92% voted that it was time for Lennie to leave in an online poll conducted by icwales. Fans are voting on the internet and it won’t be long before they are voting with their feet, and more importantly, their pockets in greater numbers than they are already.

Just 12,500 turned up to watch a load of dross against Sunderland last Saturday and Bluebirds.tv commends the die hards who will make the long trek to Yorkshire to watch a likely similar display against Sheffield United this weekend.

This season two managers of relegation threatened teams – Andy Hessenthaler, and today Joe Kinnear, did the decent thing and resigned. They knew, in their heart of hearts, they could do no more while in charge of their clubs and realised an injection of fresh ideas and renewed impetus was required if relegation was to be avoided.

No such luck at Cardiff City.

Fans have been calling for Lennie’s head for almost two years – beginning with our humiliating home defeat against Colchester in our promotion season.

And, bar a few obvious highlights such as the play-off final win and a few scalps against former Premiership giants, City’s results have got steadily worse.

Lennie has always insisted he is the right man for the job, but even he can’t believe that any more.

The right man for his swanky apartment in Cardiff Bay more like.

12 wins in 47 games stretching back to a year ago is not the work of a manager taking this club to bigger and better things.

He doesn’t have a Graeme Souness type mean streak that would strike fear and command respect at the same time, something that’s required when you have average players earning more than their worth and simply not rising to the occasion.

Giving the players a rollocking in the dressing room, a battering on the training field or forcing them to drink cups of piss at half-time if they were losing may have given our pampered players the kick up the arse they so desperately need.

If he had slagged off the players, or the fans, as was Joe Kinnear’s downfall, his position may have become untenable and he would have been forced to leave.

His problem is he is too nice, but as the old saying goes, ‘nice guys finish last’.

And at the moment we are three places and 10 points away from just that.

Lennie has always been diplomatic when interviewed and he knows he is hardly top of the fans Christmas card list, but the vote may have come as a shock as he responded to it in a radio interview with something along the lines of ‘the fans have short memories’, obviously hinting at the play-off win 19 months ago.

Swallows. Summers.

Sam Hammam has taken a familiar stance insisting that Lennie will not be sacked and he will incredibly give him ‘more time’. How many more games does he need to be adequately judged on to prove he can’t do any more for City than he already has?

Sam also argues that there is no point in bringing in a new manager because he will want funds to purchase ‘12 or 15 new players’.

For an intelligent man this is a ridiculous statement. Given the financial state of clubs outside the top flight and City’s well documented debt situation, no prospective manager is going to demand such wholesale changes.

What makes it even more contradictory is Sam claims a transfer warchest of £10 million will be made available when the stadium is given the go ahead.

So what’s to stop him from selling the City manager’s job to the likes of Micky Adams or Gary Megson with something like:

“We have a squad full of international players who are just not doing the business – see what you can do to improve their attitude and on-field performances.

“We have some of the most talented young players in the division in Joe Ledley, Cameron Jerome and Byron Anthony, with many more coming through our academy.

“When work on the new stadium starts in March we will review our league position and I will make funds available, up to £10 million between then and during the summer.”

Not many out-of-work managers would turn their noses up at that.

It beggars belief that City are in this position with seemingly nothing being done about it until it becomes a case of too little too late.

Roll on Saturday.