Vincent Tan – owner of Cardiff City F.C
Revolutions are always interesting. Whether they are right wing (Reagan and Thatcher) or left wing (Mandela and Ghandi). They offer a stark choice and you can decide which side of history you want to be on.
They are often violent, messy and can go down a wrong path (Hitler and Pot). However, there was always a question which needed to be answered before life could go on.
Which leads us to Cardiff City, Vincent Tan and Malky Mackay. There is no reason for going through the relative personality make up of the characters as it would not serve any purpose. What is the most interesting thing about the dramas in Cardiff is that these successful men where involved in a revolution and Mackay will have been the short term victor by a long way. However, Vincent Tan has started a revolution which he may lose and lose badly.
Vincent Tan has the money, apparently, to absorb that lose and move on. If he wins then he will have been the greatest owner and total shifted the culture of English football forever.
When a owner decide to re-brand a football team, it has usually happened when the team is languishing in the lower leagues and has not got any direction. It has never really happened in the top division. Vincent Tan changed the team colours, logo and is basically creating a Year Zero. He expects the fans to follow his lead and still turn up and support the team whatever happens. This may not be a given in terms of strategy for Vincent Tan.
It has been said that if you want to make a small fortune in football ownership, start off with a large fortune. Owning a football club has always been a vanity project or a boutique business. It is all about glamour and glory. If you make some cash, brilliant! The aim of the game is to be the best football club and win matches. Nothing beat winning matches in football. That is an easy concept to understand and that is why it is popular. Easy to play and easy to understand.
In England, football has almost taken on a religious experience, but the men with money want some of the action and they like to play the way they like to play and not answer to anyone. This can be a problem and several big problems are already brewing in Cardiff.
Malky Mackay has been the most successful manager Cardiff City has had for 50 years. He was even voted manager of the year in 2013 for the lower leagues. Now he is in the big league and Vincent Tan want to be involved in all aspect of the game. Malky Mackay told him to get out of the way when Vincent Tan wanted to get involved with managing the players. Vincent Tan also decided to change the colour of the kit and this has exploded like a nuclear bomb.
The fans are ready to revolt. Malky Mackay has been sacked and the guy has walked away with a load of money and the prospect of an even higher profile job with loads more money as a bonus. Cardiff City under Vincent Tan could lose a load of money, if the fans do not turn up to the match on a regular basis and so far this is the universal thought amongst the fans.
The only way Vincent Tan can stop this is by getting a really good manager in, that will make the fans and the media will say ”WOW”! At the moment it is been rumoured that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is being lined up for the job as manager, but, Jan Aage Fjortoft, who apparently has insight in Solskjaer aims and objectives said that this is not a given and looking at the way Solskjaer career is going, why would he jeopardise it’s path with a very uncertain future at Cardiff City?
Solskjaer is doing very well at the moment. There was talk of him getting the Manchester United job not so long ago, and if things do not work out for David Moyes, Solskjaer contract runs out in July. Hence The Magical Tipster is asking if it was the best bet of the year that you could back Solskjaer at ”better than evens” that he will not go to Cardiff City?
Doubling your money on a near certainty is a must at all time. Even the price of 1/2 is a ‘GIMME’. The Magical Tipster does not always get things like this right. He lost a load on Redknapp going to Portsmouth and another load on Alex McLeish going to Aston Villa. So the impossible can happen but The Magical Tipster cannot see Ole Gunnar Solskjaer being that desperate.
So this weekend should be interesting and hopefully Ole Gunnar Solskjaer does not owe money to characters who will kill him if he does not pay-up in a week or so.
Vincent Tan will then have to survive staying in the Premier League whoever he gets as manager. At the moment Cardiff City are 7/4 to get relegated. This is a very precarious situation and the price reflect that the betting public is not certain that they will get someone like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and if they do they still could go down. Why would Ole Gunnar Solskjaer tarnish his reputation on a 33% chance of relegation and missing out on the Manchester United job or something not too far away from that?
We will see the beginning of the Cardiff City revolt at 17:30 (GMT) on Saturday 28th, 2013.