Cardiff are now a ticking time bomb & those who wanted rid

Cardiff City are now a ticking time bomb and those who wanted rid of Neil Warnock should be careful what they wish for


By Scott Johnson


Tuesday 21st May 2019



Some people including Nathan Blake thought Neil Warnock should be replaced as Cardiff City manager According to some, Cardiff City are delaying the inevitable by sticking with Neil Warnock.




I’m not sure where to start on this one.

Suffice to say, I disagree with this school of thought ( here’s looking at you Nathan Blake ). It seems to imply that Warnock is standing in the way of some sort of inevitable evolution. Like when he leaves and takes his old school ways with him, Cardiff will open up and start playing free-flowing football. That is fanciful thinking.

When people float this idea, the alternatives they tend to suggest are either the polar opposite of Warnock or someone broadly similar, like Sam Allardyce or Tony Pulis, who are like Warnock without the charisma.

Bear in mind that we are talking about a club that went from the functional Malky Mackay, to the idealist Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, then the firefighter Russell Slade ahead of the deluded Paul Trollope. People should be careful what they wish for.

I do understand where people are coming from with this, I just can’t get on board with it. Warnock is the best thing to happen to Cardiff in a long time. He’s not perfect, but there are not enough Pep Guardiola’s to go round, unfortunately.

Warnock is a conservative manager by nature and that sometimes causes frustration. Cardiff were too timid at times last season and it may have cost them their Premier League status. They were probably not Cardiff enough, but they had no right to be anywhere near the top flight in the first place and that was all thanks to Warnock.

It’s worth remembering the state of the club when he inherited it too. It was flat as a pancake and drifting towards the foot of the Championship table. There was also a full scale identity crisis and widespread division relating to the fall-out from the rebrand. It looked like a long way back, yet Warnock healed the club with the force of his personality. He has done as much for the club off the pitch as he has on it.


Imagine if Cardiff had dismissed Warnock post-relegation, as some have suggested. It would have been a travesty and the fall out would have been widespread. Is that what Cardiff really need right now? It would have set Cardiff back at a time when they should have designs on rebounding.

If Cardiff do desire a complete culture change, then you could argue that now is the right time to do it. They have two years of parachute payments to tide them over and could use that time to work towards a more aesthetically pleasing, Premier League-worthy style of play. If that fails though, its back to cost cutting and a long way back.

All this seems to be based around the idea of a right and wrong way of playing. Cardiff went up with Wolves, who in contrast set the Premier League alight with a bold, attacking approach and ended the season qualifying for Europe. Wolves’ set-up is far more sophisticated than Cardiff’s and do not really offer a masterplan that can be easily adopted.

Leeds also played attractive football this season, overseen by the maverick Marcelo Bielsa, but they’ll still be playing Cardiff next season, so it’s not always the case that success automatically goes hand in hand.

Burnley are often held up as the template for Cardiff and despite their struggles this season, mirrored the success of Wolves the year before by also finishing seventh. They play in a more direct, stripped-back way akin to Cardiff, which just goes to prove that Cardiff didn’t necessarily play the wrong way, they were just not good enough at it.

Burnley are very much a side in the image of their gruff, no frills manager Sean Dyche and were he to depart, chances are that they would struggle with the culture shock that a new manager would bring. That is a major problem for Cardiff too and I think people are underestimating how hard it will be to replace Warnock. The players seem utterly devoted to him, never more so than after such an intense, emotionally charged campaign and he may still be the glue that is holding it all together.

I also suspect this team are more or less playing at the peak of their powers. Warnock kept a group of players acquired from the likes of Walsall, Rochdale, Rotherham and Bristol City competitive amongst the elite, who harvest the finest players in Europe. Could anyone be drafted in and elevate them to greater heights? I’m not convinced.


This is not a case of saying better the devil you know or warning that the grass is not always greener, I just think that familiarity breeds contempt and it is important to appreciate what we have. Yes, it is inevitable that Warnock will soon depart, but how heavily are the criticisms age-related? Were Warnock 20 years younger, would we still be having this conversation or would critics be more content with the status quo?

Chances are that we will talk about Warnock in the past tense next year and I’m not especially looking forward to that. If you believe in a club having a DNA, then I think Warnock pretty much embodies Cardiff City. I’m not sure pretty football is in the club’s genetic make-up.

Were there a vacancy at present, I do not see any ideal, available candidates to step in to Warnock’s shoes because they are very big shoes indeed.

Cardiff are now a ticking time bomb and have two years to plot a return to the promised land. The fact that they already have the right man in charge to undertake that challenge should be one less thing to worry about.

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Says he’s not sure where to start with this one..yes, he should have stopped there.

Got to disagree with all the comments we had no right to play in the top flight, to get promoted we were hardly out of the top 3 all season, we went up on merit. Swansea went up through the back door by only getting into the top 6 on the final game of the season yet managed to establish themselves for 7 seasons in the top flight. We've got to get out of this inferiority complex and start believing in ourselves, a bit more self belief and we would have stayed up.

Got to disagree with all the comments we had no right to play in the top flight, to get promoted we were hardly out of the top 3 all season, we went up on merit. Swansea went up through the back door by only getting into the top 6 on the final game of the season yet managed to establish themselves for 7 seasons in the top flight. We've got to get out of this inferiority complex and start believing in ourselves, a bit more self belief and we would have stayed up.

Totally agree with you

Why are we a ticking time bomb?


I really don’t understand.

What would happen if we don’t go back up within two seasons. We haven’t got a wage bill to cut we haven’t spent stupid money.

Biggest load of old rubbish I've ever read , even from Wales Onlne.

Biggest load of old rubbish I've ever read , even from Wales Onlne.

it is rubbish...but biggest ever ? you haven't read enough WOL articles can be the only conclusion.

Scott Johnson should come on here, and explain why he’s talking imbecilic bollox..

Dont exactly see what hes said that's wrong here.
He makes a point that as a fan base we are leaning towards change which is not really understandable at this stage. We have a manager that has saved us from relegation, taken us to the premier league and then ended with our highest ever finish in the premier league. All the while spending far less than those around us. While I agree Warnock will eventually go and we need to make plans to bring in that no era, I'm not sure why anyone wants to speed that process up any faster than we need to. Each year the club gets stronger, our facilities hmget better, our team becomes more stable and perhaps most importantly our balance sheet improves. A can anyone on here let me know why they want to change, I'm genuinely curious?

Thing is, say what you like about tactics, playing style and lack of possession-based football, the fact is Warnock and Co were one result away from Premier League solvency. He did this on the smallest budget by sticking to his guns, keeping the philosophy he clearly believes in and had us believing and fighting until the last two fixtures of the Prem year. Whatever I may think, that record deserves a massive amount of respect! Just imagine if the January tradegy hadn’t of happened, I truly think the Sala deal would have seen us safe...
I am happy he’s staying, I hope he is backed financially and faces facts even when it means upsetting his stalwarts. I hope he finds a manager to groom and I even hope he’s kept on after next season as a director of football for us.

Haven't heard from Scott Johnson for a long time. Hope we don't hear from him for even longer in the future. Probably the worst journalist in the world.

Hi, Scott Johnson here. Bollocks-talking worst journalist in the world.

Some people seem to have their knickers in a twist about the headline for this one, which I don’t choose. I did say Cardiff are a ticking time bomb because they are. All relegated sides are because they only have two years of parachute payments. It’s not the main point though, which is that I think Cardiff have the best manager for them already in place, and that should be seen as a good thing. I think that anyone that read the whole thing would realise that.

When the whole article is read and taken in context it does make a lot sense. NW got us promoted against the odds and then came within one win of keeping us in the PL. Post MM it took 4 attempts to find a functioning manager who could work within the constraints of this club.

Replacing NW now would mean starting the whole merry go round again and cause damage on and off the pitch.

Whilst the Championship is the most unpredictable of any league the one guarantee is a NW team will be competitive and challenging at the right end of the table.

Got to disagree with all the comments we had no right to play in the top flight, to get promoted we were hardly out of the top 3 all season, we went up on merit. Swansea went up through the back door by only getting into the top 6 on the final game of the season yet managed to establish themselves for 7 seasons in the top flight. We've got to get out of this inferiority complex and start believing in ourselves, a bit more self belief and we would have stayed up.

Your taking his comment literally rather than in context. I read 'the no right to play in the top flight' comment as meaning with the squad we had and the money spent we had no right to be challenging big spending Aston Villa and Fulham, but we did.

Hi, Scott Johnson here. Bollocks-talking worst journalist in the world.

Some people seem to have their knickers in a twist about the headline for this one, which I don’t choose. I did say Cardiff are a ticking time bomb because they are. All relegated sides are because they only have two years of parachute payments. It’s not the main point though, which is that I think Cardiff have the best manager for them already in place, and that should be seen as a good thing. I think that anyone that read the whole thing would realise that.

nice of you to pop on here....
anyway the ticking time bomb line which was then used as the headline unfortunately detracts from your other points.
especially when financially we are probably less of a time bomb than any club relegated in the last 10 years or so.
i do agree Warnock is our best bet going forward..personally i read far far worse every day..

I think that's a decent enough article which lets face it advocates the need to keep NW as our manager and for me it offers a better argument for NW staying than the NB article saying he should go.

Over the last 3 years only 1 team, Newcastle Utd, have been promoted back to the PL after one season in the Championship, and if you look at what they did in keeping their manager, keeping the majority of their team and doing good business in the transfer market, surely that's the template we need to copy..

IF Cardiff City are a ticking time bomb let's face it there are loads of clubs with less time left "ON THE CLOCK" and they don't have Neil Warnock.

Wouldnt want any other manager if we are in the Champ, if we get promoted again then, we can worry about it then. Just thinking how better the club has been with NW at the helm.

I remember Slade and Trollope days made me regret being season ticket holder

Got to disagree with all the comments we had no right to play in the top flight, to get promoted we were hardly out of the top 3 all season, we went up on merit. Swansea went up through the back door by only getting into the top 6 on the final game of the season yet managed to establish themselves for 7 seasons in the top flight. We've got to get out of this inferiority complex and start believing in ourselves, a bit more self belief and we would have stayed up.

Agree with you completely

We had every 'right' and the team worked hard to achieve it over 21 other teams!

Got to disagree with all the comments we had no right to play in the top flight, to get promoted we were hardly out of the top 3 all season, we went up on merit. Swansea went up through the back door by only getting into the top 6 on the final game of the season yet managed to establish themselves for 7 seasons in the top flight. We've got to get out of this inferiority complex and start believing in ourselves, a bit more self belief and we would have stayed up.

Your taking his comment literally rather than in context. I read 'the no right to play in the top flight' comment as meaning with the squad we had and the money spent we had no right to be challenging big spending Aston Villa and Fulham, but we did.

same here , we defo earned the right but it certainly was against all predictions which were based around the quality { or lack of } within our squad..
as for the self belief thing ..the self belief is most likely why we had 34 points not 4 ..