Enthusiasm is a given. You expect that those involved with your football club will be enthusiastic about their task because working in football is the dream for most fans. We would all give anything for a bit of that. The reality though is often very different.
In my experience, sometimes the more you see and the closer you get, the grubbier the industry appears and a healthy distance can instead be beneficial. It maintains the mystique. I can see how the ruthless, sometimes callous nature of football can grind you down.
From Vincent Tan’s perspective, he’s not a football guy, but was seduced by the play-off final against Blackpool. An occasion like that is football in its most heightened form. The week to week, game to game version is a far less glamourous slog. The Championship, Cardiff’s spiritual home, is not as sexy or impressive as the Premier League. On top of that, the club has not exactly spent Tan’s money particularly wisely over the years.
You can understand why interest and motivation can wane at board level, especially after a season of sackings, embargoes and general struggle. They all have other interests competing for their attention too. The feeling of apathy has been shared by fans, players and the board alike. Last season was grim and we were all in need of a lift.
Enter Erol Bulut.
When I spoke to Mehmet Dalman recently, it was at a time when he had a deal in principle, but it still could have gone either way. He was enthused by the prospect though. Bulut was seen as a coup and a sizeable outlay for the club, with the intention to provide him with a squad to match his standard. This goal was echoed at Bulut’s unveiling and the enthusiasm was especially noticeable because it has been lacking for some time.
Sabri Lamouchi was the pick of the applicants at that time, while Mark Hudson and Steve Morison were internal promotions. Mick McCarthy before them was essentially a stop gap and Neil Harris was a calculated risk in promise, so you could argue that Bulut is Cardiff’s boldest hire since Neil Warnock. He was a target they actively pursued, who was in demand from other parties.
Bulut represents a statement of intent, so therefore feels like a big step in the right direction. The club are still under an embargo, but he has already stated a desire for as many as 10 new players. His hands may be tied, but with names like Aaron Ramsey and Nathan Redmond doing the rounds, there is still plenty of scope to be bold in the market.
In fact, Dalman consciously fanned the flames of excitement by claiming that there are signings lined up that would put 4,000 more bums on seats. That is never the wisest of moves because some people have pretty wild ideas in terms of attainable players. It’s always better to surprise than disappoint, but his excitement has proven infectious and season ticket sales are already on the rise.
Cardiff are most pundits’ tip for the drop next season and its easy to understand why, but hopefully we’ll never endure such a disrupted, distorted season ever again. Players have been written off, but I think that’s unfair when they had a new manager every three months. They were less than the sum of their parts and they all deserve a clean slate. Hopefully the disposable nature of sacking so many managers also ends with Bulut and the investment made in him.
Dalman told me that Cardiff were hiring a manager that none of us would have heard of before and he was true to his word. I have no idea what to expect, on or off the field from Bulut, but in some respects adds to the excitement. Ordinarily, a new manager arrives with preconceptions and opinions already attached, but this time, we’re all entering unchartered waters together. I just hope that a role can be found for Sol Bamba in his backroom staff.
Hopefully Tan selling his other club will sharpen and renew his focus on Cardiff. If they also manage to lift the rather petty EFL embargo, maybe he’ll be willing to allow Cardiff to shop in Waitrose rather than Aldi. Who knows what the Cardiff squad will look like six weeks from now when the new season commences, but the renewed sense of enthusiasm may prove more important and transformative than any player.