Huw Davies runs the rule over a harsh debut season in the Premier League for the men from South Wales...
The lowdown
Was it worth it? That’s probably the question reverberating around Cardiff City Football Club; for owner Vincent Tan, having spent nearly £40 million on transfers to no avail; for the sections of support who swallowed the unpopular colour change in return for Premier League football, only to find it shortlived; and for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, having thrown away a burgeoning reputation as a talented young pretender overseas.
Often when a team is relegated from the top flight after just one season, fans can at least look back on some memorable moments and the team having ‘given it a go’ – think Blackpool in 2010/11 (having beaten Cardiff at Wembley to get there). But for the vast majority of Bluebirds followers, the happiest memories from 2013/14 – beating Manchester City, winning a South Wales derby, scoring a dramatic last-minute equaliser against Manchester United – have been tainted by what followed.
Malky Mackay’s unpopular sacking, a major decline in results and the often-baffling club statements (from hanging out specific signings to dry, to accusing other clubs of spying), made Cardiff the butt of many a joke. The campaign wasn’t all bad – but it wasn’t far off.
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Would they have taken this in August?
Relegation? Probably not, no.
Would they have taken this in January?
Seeing as Cardiff only entered the drop zone after would-be saviour Solskjaer’s first match in charge at the start of January, never to emerge – no, they wouldn’t have done.
High point
Without a doubt, the highly dramatic, totally unexpected and never-to-be-forgotten 3-2 win over Manchester City in Cardiff’s first-ever Premier League home game. The good times came too early.
Low point
Take your pick. The 3-0 loss to struggling rivals Swansea? The pair of end-season capitulations to North-East duo Sunderland and Newcastle? Or the 4-0 home defeat to Hull? We’ll move away from on-pitch matters and go with the dismissal of Mackay, handled in a desperately unprofessional manner.
Hero of the season
Despite everything, there were positive shoots from Cardiff’s mire of a season. Steven Caulker and particularly Gary Medel proved astute signings. Meanwhile there’s a lot to come from Mats Daehli and Declan John, both teenagers, while the unexpected breakthrough of barrelling 22-year-old Jordon Mutch was a pleasant surprise. But the real hero of a doomed campaign may not be at the club by autumn: David Marshall, whose series of ridiculous saves kept the Welsh side in the league longer than their performances merited and may yet see him move to a bigger team (i.e. one that wasn’t relegated).
Villain of the season
A villain, you say? Perhaps one charged with destroying the heritage of a club while blaming everyone else and wearing what looks like a Bond baddie’s get-up? Sorry, we can’t think of anyone.
The season in microcosm
Cardiff conceded late goals almost for fun throughout the season, but the one that hurt most was the 2-2 draw with Sunderland in late December. Leading 2-0 with less than 10 minutes to go, it seemed as though the then-managerless team might still have a bright future – until they let the Black Cats into the game, Jack Colback scoring the equaliser after a needlessly panicked clearance. Even though they were 16th at the time, exactly halfway through the campaign, it seemed inevitable that the four-point swing would cost Cardiff come the end of the season.
FFT grade
E. A couple of memorable wins and the emergence of a few exciting young players lifting it up from an F.
Huw was on the FourFourTwo staff from 2009 to 2015, ultimately as the magazine's Managing Editor, before becoming a freelancer and moving to Wales. As a writer, editor and tragic statto, he still contributes regularly to FFT in print and online, though as a match-going #WalesAway fan, he left a small chunk of his brain on one of many bus journeys across France in 2016.
