Everything Vincent Tan has said about Erol Bulut as Cardiff City deal reaches crunch point
Cardiff fans rarely get to hear from the Bluebirds owner
By Glen Williams
Monday 14th May 2024
It's not often Cardiff City fans get to hear from their owner, Vincent Tan, so when they do, his words carry weight.
He is the one man behind the biggest decision currently facing the club right now, whether to pursue a future with Erol Bulut as manager or whether the Bluebirds will, again, turn in another direction.
Cardiff hired Bulut on a one-year deal with an option for two further years in the club's favour if certain criteria were met. That has not transpired and we are now in a period of limbo, similar to the situation when Sabri Lamouchi finished the season as Bluebirds boss last year.
So what did Vincent Tan say on June 4th 2023
“I would like to welcome Erol Bulut a manager with experience across Europe and, having taken our time
with the process, I'm extremely confident that we have chosen the best candidate to
take us forward.”
"Erol has vast experience both as a player and as a manager, having played Champions League football and managed
European sides across 200 league games to date. This level of experience is needed at
this time and I think will prove invaluable to the squad.”
"Erol's enthusiasm and hunger for success impresses me greatly. When we spoke, it became clear that his intensity and hard work ethic matched the core cultural traits that I want our club to return to.”
"His excellent record in European football represents a standard of managerial experience that we have not had at Cardiff
City before. His experience in this field, I hope, will allow us to attract a higher profile
and standard of player in the coming years."
Clearly, Tan's words there indicate a direction of travel for more than 12 months, particularly that last sentence. There
appeared to be a real appetite for driving the club forward together and an excitement
over transfer windows and improving the base level of the squad.
Cardiff's football last season wasn't always high octane or exhilarating, but after two
very difficult transfer windows , which Cardiff did well in considering the tough circumstances both of them threw up.
Bulut improved Cardiff's league position for the first time in five seasons. Considerably,
the club to 12th, their highest for years.
Play-off talk always seemed too lofty for this squad, particularly given the midfield balance never quite seemed right and the glaring lack of a goalscoring threat up front.
But the top six was never the ambition at the start of the campaign. You do wonder if all the talk of play-offs after such a positive start to the season might have caused more harm than good. But at the very least, this season should have served as an ideal foundation on which to mount a more sustained attack on those top-six places.
How much direct contract Bulut has actually had with Tan throughout the course of the season is unknown, with the manager dealing largely with chairman Mehmet Dalman, but he did say, when asked about his conversations with the owner: "We have had some calls on the phone. We generally speak about the games. I think you [press] know Vincent better than me, because you have been here longer than me, you know his character.
"One characteristic which is good is that he doesn't like to lose, like my character, I don't like to lose also. But in life sometimes you have to accept it, you can't win every time! You have to see what you have in your hand and what you can do, that's also a point."
Bulut took over after Lamouchi's contract wasn't renewed last summer. A lack of chemistry between the Frenchman and Tan was cited as one of the primary reasons Lamouchi was allowed to leave. However Bulut shrugged off any notion that his relationship with the owner was in any way strained.
"We haven't had fights or anything like that!" he laughed when asked last month. "We have had many talks. I can also not say it is a perfect relationship."
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