Swift action could prevent Bluebirds sinking without trace
THE worst thing you can say about the Paul Trollope era as Cardiff City manager is that he almost made Russell Slade look like Jose Mourinho!
That, of course, is a gross exaggeration. Just ask Charlton fans, who supposedly let out ironic ‘Slade for England’ chants as the Sam Allardyce news broke the other week and their struggling team were locked in a dour draw with Oldham.
But the fact is that aside from one or two players such as David Marshall and Fabio, Trollope had at his disposal the same personnel who finished eighth last season with Slade’s dreary brand of football.
Just 59 days into this campaign, with Cardiff languishing down in 23rd position, in danger of relegation and having produced some truly abject performances, Trollope was shown the door.
It was an accident waiting to happen, although the haste of Cardiff’s decision yesterday lunchtime caught most unawares.
In the end, it was the decisiveness of clubs such as near neighbours Swansea City and Aston Villa which persuaded the Bluebirds’ hierarchy to act so swiftly.
The Swans are in a different league, of course, but Villa aren’t. An earlyseason managerial merry-go-round had begun on Monday morning and Cardiff felt they couldn’t wait any more.
Trollope was always likely to go this week, but initially it seemed Thursday or Friday would be the chosen day. However, once chief executive Ken Choo met a couple of fans on Monday night to express his personal concerns, and those views made their way onto social media, Trollope knew his goose was cooked.
With attendances likely to fall and apathy grow amongst the fan base, Cardiff are to be commended for their own decisive action. The bigger question is what they do next - ie, who comes in as manager? More of that in a moment. With regards Trollope, it’s unfortunate that just 11 games into the season he has lost his job.
Yet I still don’t find myself having the same sense of injustice for him that I do for Francesco Guidolin, who had performed a more-than-capable job a few miles down the M4 at the Liberty Stadium.
Whereas it’s the belief of many that Guidolin would have got Swansea out of trouble, the same cannot be said for Trollope and Cardiff.
There have been grumblings behind the scenes amongst the Bluebirds hierarchy for the past few weeks, concerns which stretched thousands of miles away to Vincent Tan out in Malaysia.
There are claims amongst some fans that Tan has lost interest in Cardiff City, but he has multi-millions tied up in the club and it is in his own interests that the team don’t suddenly plummet into League One.
I’m told that after the 2-0 home loss to Leeds, Cardiff’s powers-that-be went down into the dressing room to address Trollope and the players.
It wasn’t a reading of the riot act, more an offering of words of encouragement about how to get out of this mess. However, it was noticeable how Cardiff heads dropped when Leeds went one up and Trollope was told that was an issue he needed to address with immediate effect.
As fans’ discontent began to grow, and as has been well documented, Trollope was to be given ‘a fair’ amount of time to turn things around.
Realistically, that meant one of two things. The three matches leading up to the October international break, or a slightly extended stay of execution heading into the November internationals.
Either way, he was in effect on trial for his job. Tan wanted to see instant improvement and while a win over abject Rotherham momentarily papered over the cracks, 2-0 losses to managerless Derby and new boys Burton was the real Cardiff under Trollope.
After Leeds, Cardiff’s bosses felt there was still hope because the players were fully supportive of their manager’s methods. After Burton, rightly or wrongly they sensed the dressing room was more split.
Top-level talks took place as the options were weighed up. There was still the possibility Trollope would be given five more matches up to when Wales play Serbia in November. But those fixtures are against Bristol City, Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest, Wigan and Newcastle – and further losses could have left Cardiff cut hopelessly adrift.
Swift action had to be taken and it was, particularly after the lead was set by other clubs ruthlessly ditching their managers 24 hours earlier.
It is ironic that Trollope should go during the international break because his cause probably wasn’t helped by Wales’ stunning success in Euro 2016, where he worked as Chris Coleman’s coach.