Drink it in, fill your nostrils and luxuriate in what has been a perfect week for Cardiff City FC. It doesn’t happen very often, as we all know far too well, so take it all in and enjoy every minute of it.
Ordinarily, the build-up to derby week is accompanied by a knot in the stomach and a familiar sense of warranted dread. Then the game happens and it was far worse than anyone had expected, as Cardiff conspire to lose in new, more humiliating ways.
Not this time though and not this Cardiff.
The week started with the excellent news that both Rubin and Joel Colwill had agreed new terms with the club, signing on for three and four more years respectively. The club have embraced a more proactive outlook this summer, tying down all the notable players heading into the final year of their contracts. Its smart, leaves everyone knowing where they stand and avoids the sort of situations they’ve had in the past, where players understandably start to lose interest and focus.
Oli McBurnie then got sent off for Sheffield United earlier in the day for, well being a bit too Oli McBurnie and that felt like a good omen. Both teams were perilously close to the foot of the table and Michael Duff was doing his best to endear himself to Cardiff fans, rather than his own supporters. Then the game happened and it wasn’t like all the others.
Without wanting to take away from Cardiff’s fine performance, this was not the Swansea we’ve become accustomed to. This was not the side that hogged the ball, pulled Cardiff all over the park and picked them off at will. They were just ordinary, like any other side. Cardiff beat Swansea, but it wasn’t Swansea really. Whether that is squarely down to Duff, as most Swansea fans like to think, or something more seismic, only time will tell, but Cardiff met them at the right time and showed them no mercy.
Dropping Alex Runnarsson in favour of Jak Alnwick was a bold call, but Erol Bulut has already shown he’s not adverse to those. Switching back and forth between the two for the third successive game may have made him look indecisive had Cardiff lost, but I think it was the right call, in every sense and so it proved. Alnwick has had to bide his time, but he’s had a lot to celebrate this week. A clean sheet in the derby, which he enjoyed by celebrating in front of the away supporters, back to wins and also another recipient of a new deal.
The Swansea game has already been dissected in forensic detail and suffice to say that everyone excelled, but I did want to reserve a special mention for Manolis Siopis. His impact has been breathtaking and I don’t think anyone since Sol Bamba has had such an instant, transformative effect on the team. He looks like he’s 100-years-old, but plays with the enthusiasm and purpose of an academy graduate.
Siopis is like football Tippex, hiding all the mistakes and his display against Swansea was a masterclass in a soft approach to the dark arts. He tripped, pulled shirts, tugged shorts, encouraged contact and took tumbles. It was the perfect derby performance. Calming Cardiff and riling Swansea. Against Coventry in midweek, Siopis ran 50 yards at full pelt to close down a back pass, deep into injury time. What a signing he has proved to be.
The performance on Tuesday may have been even better, against a higher calibre of opposition. Cardiff were comfortable in possession, pressed and there were evident patterns of play. All the qualities that tend to go out the window when Cardiff struggle. You can see how well they’re being coached and they’re creating lots of presentable chances. With Josh Bowler and Callum O’Dowda to return and Aaron Ramsey’s late withdrawal against Swansea seemingly no more than hard-earned fatigue, their future attacking prospects look secure.
The only wrinkle at the moment is the continued injury concerns of Callum Robinson. Used only sparingly at the moment, he looks no closer to full fitness and does not appear to be moving at all freely. Cardiff currently occupy a spot in the top 10 and are doing perfectly well without him, but a fit and firing Robinson will elevate this Cardiff side and Bulut has yet to see the best of him.
During the Coventry game, it occurred to me that Cardiff are once more made up of mostly free transfers and loan signings, admittedly with some hefty salaries on their books. Only the signings of Perry Ng and Ollie Tanner involved an outlay, about the same as a terraced house in Roath and a new Tesla respectively. Compared to Coventry, who spent £25m over the summer, albeit after making £5m in sales, it showed what Cardiff are up against most weeks, but this also feels more like Cardiff’s natural state. With the odds stacked against them and punching above their weight.
When you also factor in the opening of Cardiff’s new academy base in Llanrumney, which is massive for both the club and the local community, it has been a week for the ages. It’s been pretty much a year since Cardiff fired Steve Morison, so if you bookend that 12 months with the Swansea win, it has been a wild year and they’ve certainly packed a lot in. Lots of bad and plenty of good, mostly packed into the last few months. Cardiff suddenly feel shiny and new, and not before time. With Swansea vanquished, for now at least, anything feels possible again.