Good riddance to a difficult season for Cardiff City and the reasons for optimism and concern
It has been an emotional and mentally-sapping campaign for Cardiff City and the break this summer will do them - and supporters - good
By Scott Johnson
Thursday 13th May 2021
The 2020/21 season is finally over. Farewell and good riddance, I say.
It’s been a strange one, even by Cardiff City's standards. First and foremost, there has been the complete absence of fans throughout. An affliction for most of Europe that will hopefully prove a one-off.
We’re all used to it by now, but it will never feel right. Watching games in this environment still makes for a slightly hollow, insignificant experience. The return of supporters will be an assault on the senses and will help make football feel whole again.
Then there was the disappointing end to the tenure of Neil Harris.
Having finished last season so strongly, expectations were understandably high ahead of this campaign. Harris was backed in the transfer market and set out to at least replicate last year’s top-six finish. Yet something was off, from the off. Cardiff were proving inconsistent, individual errors were on the rise and standards had slipped. At a loss to provide a solution, despite a continued show of faith, Harris was dismissed as Cardiff tumbled down the table.
Cardiff only got 159 minutes out of Lee Tomlin all season and despite the presence of Harry Wilson, he was still sorely missed. The plan appeared to be to pair them behind Kiefer Moore and that was a tantalising idea, but Tomlin’s fitness prevented that from ever becoming a reality.
Tomlin is the only player who can lay claim to be the equal of Wilson in terms of natural talent, but just could not get fit and never convinced McCarthy to play him.
There was also Sol Bamba’s cancer diagnosis and Joe Bennett’s serious knee injury. Big setbacks for big players. The return of Bamba for the final game was the undoubted highlight of the season.
There were absolute horror shows at Coventry, Wycombe and Sheffield Wednesday. Even a late season revival was undermined by a lack of steam in the final stretch, or a regression to the mean, depending on your viewpoint.
That’s just one side of the coin though.
Mick McCarthy’s arrival quickly restored Cardiff’s core values and provided an instant upturn in fortunes. They stumbled upon a shape that provided structure and stability at the back, plus fluidity and cutting edge in attack. It was notable that players became quick to praise the upturn in mood at this time too.
There are whole other conversations to be had about why only grizzled, veteran managers seem to succeed at Cardiff and how only clearly-defined, elementary tactics ever seem to stick, but Cardiff are back in a comfortable place and that can only be a good thing.
Moore proved to be the most predictable signing of the summer and a far better player than any of us had realised. We knew that he was a grafter and a formidable target man, but there is so much more to him than that. He has good feet, great awareness and can defend as well as he attacks.
Moore and Wilson may not have become the dynamic duo that we were all hoping they might, but like Tomlin before him, Moore quickly became the nucleus of the team and after endlessly searching for their perfect striker, he ended up falling into their lap.
There were thumping wins too, over Luton, Huddersfield, Preston, Derby and Birmingham. When this Cardiff side do bare their teeth, they show no mercy. The 3-0 win over Barnsley was probably Cardiff’s best performance of the season.
Not only were they comprehensive victors over the season’s surprise package, but it was also the manner of the win. This was Cardiff at their swaggering best and it briefly felt like Cardiff had turned the corner under Harris. Unfortunately, they soon turned another corner and ended up back where they started.
The emergence of Cardiff’s youngsters was probably the most unexpected and welcome development this year. Tom Sang, Mark Harris, Ciaron Brown and Joel Bagan all firmly entrenched themselves in the first-team picture, while the January arrivals of Perry Ng and Max Watters also helped significantly bring down the average age of the squad.
Cardiff supporters have been crying out for academy graduates to start filtering through and it looks like they now have a crop worthy and capable of making the breakthrough. The pathway became blocked during Neil Warnock’s time in charge, but Harris took steps to integrate the cream of Cardiff’s academy crop and McCarthy has no hesitation in picking them, if they deserve it. There are no longer any excuses and Cardiff are already reaping the benefits.
The incredible, selfless community work of Will Vaulks should not go without mention either. One of the real good guys, his efforts were recently rewarded with him being named PFA’s Championship Player in the Community award for 2021 and he is a credit to the club.
It should not be forgotten that Cardiff, like their peers, have just played two gruelling seasons, pretty much back-to-back, with this campaign condensed after an abridged summer break. When you factor in that period also contained hangovers from both Premier League relegation and losing in the play-offs, plus three different managers, the players must be physically and mentally spent.
In terms of next season, there are both reasons for optimism and cause for concern. The squad is taking shape, looking leaner and meaner than it has in a while, but parachute payments have ended and a period of cost cutting is likely to follow. In the current climate, there is very little spending money in general, but Cardiff are vulnerable to predators and Moore may provide big game hunting.
A few players are heading out of contract next month and a lot more will follow suit next summer, so contract renegotiations are a pressing concern and those not staying may need to be cashed in upon.
I’m not sorry to see the back of such a difficult season and I think we will all benefit from the break because absence makes the heart grow fonder. By August, we’ll all be raring to go again and hopefully able to watch from our old seats at the stadium.
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