Warnock can deliver Premier return –Tan
CARDIFF CITY owner Vincent Tan believes the Bluebirds can march to promotion again – and this time stay in the Premier League because of the Neil Warnock factor.
Tan made a rare appearance at Cardiff City Stadium to watch Warnock’s men thump promotion favourites Aston Villa 3-0 and put down an early Championship marker of their own.
He took the opportunity to reconnect with the fan base, emphasise he has no intention of acitvely selling the club – and have another pop at previous manager Malky Mackay for wasting money on Danish flop Andreas Cornelius.
Tan has much more confidence in Warnock dealing with the pressures of the Premier League, should the Bluebirds upset the applecart and emerge as promotion pace-setters in 2017-18.
The Malaysian said: “We have good chances because we have a good manager, he has made some good transfers.
“We supported him with the transfers but I think we have paid good value for money, not like the way we paid £10.5m for Andreas Cornelius .... Oh, I can never forget that.
“We have paid good value for these transfers and Neil has done a great job. They are reasonable transfers with support. Neil is sensible, knows the problems we had and the mistakes we have made before.
“Of course, for each of us the goal is to get us back to the Premier League. It was unfortunate that we only stayed in the Premier for one season.
“I always say, and I have told chairman Mehmet Dalman the same, the reason we didn’t stay in the Premier League is that we spent a lot of money there – I think it was £50m.
“What did we get? We paid £10.5m for Cornelius, who didn’t even play 45 minutes, and then the manager said he was a project.
“I think we have a very good chance to get promotion again. We have got Neil, we are happy and if we get promoted I think we have a good chance of staying if we do things sensibly.”
Asked about selling the Bluebirds, Tan replied: “I have many businesses. You don’t fall in love with your businesses. If somebody offers the right price, yeah, we’ll sell.
“If people approach us and we have a look, we talk. But that doesn’t mean we’re selling.
“If the right offer comes, an offer we can’t refuse, sure we’ll sell. It’s business.”
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