The fat lady is gargling...

It's been a tumultuous year or so for Cardiff City. After then new owner Vincent Tan apparently "saved" the club with his cash injection, we were on a high. Then he unilaterally changed the kit from blue to red. We were devastated. Then he changed the badge to something akin to a beer  mat. We were even more devastated. Some supporters gave up the ghost vowing never to return until the club was restored to it's "pre-Tan" state. Others, were unhappy at the changes but vowed to keep supporting the club. Other, newer supports joined the ranks, and didn't care too much either way, and a few embraced the changes.

I made a point earlier this season about new supporters, and I want to clarify one thing. Sure, some jumped on board because of the Premier League bandwagon, and if that's the way they roll, fine. They'll probably fall off when we go back to the Championship. Other though are just new supporters. There's churn in supporters every year - fact. So it's unfair to supporters who have only known red (albeit they may be very young in the main) with "supporting" VT's changes - they're not. They're supporting Cardiff City.

Anyway, with that off my chest....

Then (in lucky red) we got promotion to the PL. Obviously we wouldn't have done wearing blue chuckled Vinnie to himself. And we started the PL on...well if not a roll, then with some encouragement. That huge win against Manchester City, a point off United, the fantastic win against Jacks. But somewhere along the way, the wheels started falling off. Ian Moody, head of recruitment went, to be replaced by a painter. The rift between VT & Malky who most though to the one of the best managers City had ever had widened to breaking point. VT even managed to boo the team after a match. What sort of an owner does that - in public? The points dried up and the inevitable happened when Malky was given his P45.

The circumstances will probably never be fully know to anyone apart from a few select people. VT, Malky, Mehmet Dalman and probably Simon Lim. Us mere mortals will never know, or at best sometime long in the future when autobiographies get published, we will hear only one side of the story.

All I know, is that there's rarely smoke without fire, and something very fishy has happened somewhere. The Cornelius signing is being cited as the catalyst, but again, we'll probably never know.

So, in comes Ole, and bang, we win in his first match ,an FA Cup win over Newcastle, and all's rosy again. But it's the FA Cup, not the Holy Grail of the League, where we still can't get any points, perhaps expectedly given our January fixture list, although the showing v the Hammers was woeful.

But new signings have come in, and player have gone out. Odemwingie's fleeting, and largely unsuccessful dalliance has ended. Hands up, I though he was a decent signing, but he just didn't perform, The bizarre saga of Cornelius has ended with him going back from whence he came - at a huge cost to the Bluebirds. I don't think he deserves the flack - he's young, and was injured, but whether he was worth £8m?

And so, to the moment. A huge game against fellow strugglers Norwich. New signings on board and available. 3 points would be absolutely massive. A draw or loss, hard to deal with. Can we do it? We can only wait and find out. Do I think we have enough to stay up? No. I think the fat lady is gargling, and it won't be too log before she starts warbling.

It's hard to admit that I think we'll be back in the Championship next year, but unless something dramatic happens in the next couple of months, that's where we'll be. I wonder what Vinnie will be saying then? Lucky red? He'll probably blame it on the times we wore blue. Or Malky. Or Cornelius. Or Moody. Or someone else.

Someone once said to me a long, long time ago. "Never trust a man who wears his trousers above his belly button".

Update
The Bluebirds took all three points in a gritty encounter. After falling behind on 5 minutes, two goals in a minutes early in the second half swung the game dramatically. City held off an onslaught by Norwich late on to grab the spoils. It wasn't pretty, but who cares.