Back To Earth With A Bump
We are going down. No, we’re staying up. Hang on, we are going down again. After a remarkable win at Wolves it was business as usual last night with an unfortunate, if not predictable, defeat at the mighty Burnley.
Lennie wants to be judged after 12 games because, as he put it, the league begins to take shape and there are no real false positions. City have now played 11 matches and are second from bottom in the league with only a shambolic Rotherham side looking up at them.
Eights points from 11 matches is not what was expected this season and the following doesn’t make comfortable or optimistic reading.
On current form, City will go down. Based on results so far, the Bluebirds can expect to win just six more games this season, earn a further six draws, but lose an astonishing 23 more matche.
The quota of 46 games will yield just 32 points, which is a dismal return by anybody’s standards. That total is just three more points than woeful Wimbledon finished bottom with last season, but four less than second-from bottom Bradford.
Paul Merson’s Walsall went down with 51 points, but managed 13 wins overall, five more than we can expect on current form.
So what is the solution? A change of management perhaps? Further additions to the playing staff? Neither of which Sam Hammam is prepared to consider at present.
Sam has said he “doesn’t do” relegation. Well, he doesn’t seem to ‘do’ a lot of things. Like sell our best players for instance, or bring in ‘three or four’ new faces before the Nottingham Forest game.
Perhaps it is a little unfair to criticise the Chairman, because Sam has done so much for Cardiff City in recent years and at times it is easy to forget that. If there is no money available, he cannot spend what isn’t there, regardless of the £3 million that Robert Earnshaw’s transfer generated.
It may also be unfair to use Lennie Lawrence as a scapegoat, because it isn’t him that crosses the white line every week and does very little to justify an annual salary in excess of £250,000. But ultimately, the buck stops with him.
During the summer months, Bluebirds.tv thought that all the ‘dead wood’ had been shown the door at Ninian Park, but the current playing staff, bar a few exceptions, are just not performing.
How can a side that is by and large the same as last term, who battered teams like Gillingham, Derby, Watford, Sunderland and Stoke at Ninian Park, simply surrender as soon as the referee blows his whistle?
If it is a question of motivation then a change of management is needed and somebody who doesn’t take kindly to prima dona’s brought in. It has worked at Newcastle, where loveable granddad figure Bobby Robson, who couldn’t get a player’s name right for love nor money, was replaced by the no-nonsense Graham Souness.
At Blackburn the fiery Scot was outraged by Dwight Yorke’s lack of effort and routinely took out his frustrations on him in training. The result? Yorke knuckled down and forced his way back into first team contention. Since Souness took over at St James’ Park, the Magpies have won four league and cup games on the bounce.
Coincidence? Bluebirds.tv thinks not.
City can’t afford to have its players suffering from ‘Juan Sebastian Veron Syndrome’, in that the style is turned on for the occasional glamour fixture, namely the 3-2 victory at Wolves, but then be completely anonymous for the bread-and-butter matches that should be won – take your pick from Plymouth, Watford, Derby, Crewe or Burnley.
There are no quick fixes and this season is going to be a long, hard slog. If City are to survive, the team need to buck their ideas up and at least start trying, as a unit, to win games.
Lennie has a final 90 minutes to convince he is the man for the job.