Cardiff City Blog
Arsenal are closing in on the signing of Algeria forward Yacine Brahimi according to reports from England.
Portuguese tabloid A Bola reveals that the Gunners have beating competition from Turkish trio Fenerbahce, Besiktas and Galatasaray for the player. Brahimi has been linked with a move to the Premier League for a long time and it looks like he could make his long-awaited move this summer.
Cardiff City suffered a tragedy in January when record signing Emiliano Sala boarded an ill fated plane that crashed on its way across the English channel leading to the death of the player and the pilot.
Bournemouth midfielder Harry Arter who is currently on loan at Cardiff City has appeared as potential target for Watford following his heroics for the Bluebirds so far this season.
However, according to reports, the Irish midfielder will continue to represent Cardiff for the rest of his loan spell amid interest from Premier League outfit Watford.
English Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers travel to Cardiff City on Friday night in the Premier League and are in urgent need of a reaction.
A train stop in the Premier League after pipping more than 18 teams in the Championship to gain that train-ride, deserves plenty of accolades and soaring cheers.
Ahead of their visit to Brentford tomorrow night Cardiff City are just three points behind league leaders Wolves. They are already racing against time in a bid to get the promotion spot despite the huge odds against at the beginning of the season. Manager Neil Warnock has been responsible for the promotion drive of seven teams already and there are signs that he would pull off another with Cardiff.
Warnock is the joint record holder in English football regarding number of teams he has helped get promoted. He holds the record alongside Dave Bassett, Graham Taylor and Jim Smith. With his work on Cardiff, he stands to the chance of resetting that record. The manager did it through the old fashioned way with established values and a capable team.
Warnock links the success on the pitch to managing his dressing room. He ensures the players bond, care and remain committed to each other and it translates on the pitch. He led Scarborough into the professional Football League for the first time back in 1986/87. After the re-election system was abolished, he led the team to win the title and get promoted from the Football Conference to the Fourth Division.
Three years later, Warnock helped Notts County from the Third Division to the playoffs. The following year he took them from the Second Division to the top flight. In 1994/95, Warnock, who was now with Huddersfield, helped the team from the Second Division to the playoffs. The following year, it was with Plymouth from the Third Division to the playoffs.
In 2005/06, he helped Sheffield United to the top flight after a second place finish in the English Championship. In 2010/11 it was Queen Park Rangers turn as they finished winners in the Championship and made it to the Premier League. Maybe it’s Cardiff turn.
The Norwegian former manager of Cardiff City, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked from his managerial position at the English club after the squad suffered relegation from the Premier League and things did not improve as they continued struggling in the 2nd tier English League at the Championship League.
It hasn’t been until recently that a new manager has been appointed as it was made announced to the public on October 6 that Russell Slade was the man selected.
The Malaysian businessman and owner of Cardiff City, Vincent Tan made it official to the media that Russell Slade was selected as the new coach after he had asked people around and everyone gave a positive evaluation concerning Russell Slade.
‘’I’m delighted to appoint Russell Slade as the Manager of Cardiff City. I have personally offered Russell this opportunity after giving much thought to the needs of the Club at this point in time and firmly believe that he is the right person for the job. I have spoken to many knowledgeable people in the game about Russell, and the feedback has been extremely positive’’
Slade was actually working with Cardiff City within the internal staff of the club as a consultant ever since he departed from coaching his former club Leyton Orient.
Vincent Tan is hoping that Russell Slade will remain at the head coach of Cardiff City for the upcoming 18 years and hopefully stay even longer in charge of the Championship League club than Arsene Wenger with Arsenal.
The former manager of Yeovil Town, Russell Slade displayed his appreciation towards the new role that he has at Cardiff City as the Englishman said that Cardiff City has a fantastic squad but all that is left to do now is start establishing a relationship with the players and that’s what he will try to achieve in every training session and every match.
Cardiff City manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says that he will be ready to sign players on transfer deadline day if a fantastic opportunity arose. Cardiff have already been one of the two clubs in the summer. Aided by the parachute payments that they will receive from the Premier League for the next four years, they have been able to sign the likes of Anthony Pilkington and Sean Morrison. They are expected to be a major part of the club’s bid for returning back to the top flight. After starting the season well, Cardiff failed to take three points against fellow relegated team Fulham.
The 1-1 draw means that Cardiff now have to make up five points towards table leaders Nottingham Forest. Since only five matches have taken place in the championship, Solskjaer will be aware that there is a lot of time to make up, but the squad needs to be in excellent condition. The former Manchester United striker has not ruled out signing players on transfer deadline day, which is something that some clubs tend to avoid as it is viewed as panic buying. The manager spoke in praise of the midfield at Cardiff. There is intense competition in the midfield between the youngster Mats Daehli and veteran Scott Parker.
“I am happy with the squad and if Tuesday comes and we haven’t added another player that will be fine. But if something comes up that’s spectacular and we have to move fast then we will be ready. We will see what the situation is on Tuesday morning. They are two different types of players, but it was a good battle between them. I’ve always been a Scott Parker fan and every footballer can learn from a player of that quality,” said the Cardiff manager, whose team take on Norwich next weekend.
Blackburn manager Gary Bowyer was on cloud nine after his team manager a 2-0 win over promotion chasing QPR in order to keep their own hopes of finishing in the top six alive. Blackburn Rovers have been looking to get back to the Premier league ever since being relegated two years ago.
However, it looked as they would miss out on promotion yet again after remaining outside the top six with just a handful of matches remaining. They have, however, given themselves a great opportunity be getting a 2-0 win over QPR.
The manager of Cardiff City, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has said that the draw against the West Bromwich Albion the other day would make his team believe that preventing the relegation is still possible for them.
Cardiff had looked like losing that match, but, in the injury time, they somehow managed to level the proceedings to earn one point.
Solskjaer reckons if the team had gone down in that game, the morale of the players would have taken a real beating and they probably would have given up on their attempts of staying in the league, but, now, after putting up a good performance in such a tight game, they would start believing that they can actually get themselves out of the relegation zone.
Talking to the reporters, the Cardiff boss said, “Defeat in that game would have been devastating for us. It would have demoralized the boys and they perhaps would not have been able to recover completely from that, but, now after that leveller, things are different. The spirit in the camp has gone high and everyone is feeling good about himself.”
Cardiff presently stands at no. 18 in the league points table. They have lost 18 out of their 32 games and have got only 26 points. They would ideally like to take that number to 40 to ensure that they don’t end up in bottom 3.
Most of the teams whom Cardiff will face in their remaining games are not that strong. Only their last game against Chelsea will be a tough one, but, in the rest five they should back themselves to do well.
Cardiff’s next match is scheduled to be played on the upcoming Saturday. That’s against Crystal palace and will take place at their home ground i.e. Cardiff City Stadium.