CARDIFF: THE LATEST CRISIS CLUB

Sunderland have overcome the woes that saw them drop to League One - now it's the Bluebirds' turn to endure life in the third tier

-  Chris Evans

As the full-time whistle blew, the strength of feeling was clear for all to hear.

While players and coaching staff mourned Cardiff City's relegation to League One, the fans voiced their dissatisfaction, with loud chants of “Vincent Tan, get out of our club” reverberating around the stadium.

The Bluebirds' Malaysian owner may have arrived in the Welsh capital in 2010 with big - and occasionally controversial - plans to establish Cardiff as a Premier League club, but those ambitions have looked fanciful for several years.

Now, after finishing rock bottom of the Championship, City are preparing for a season in the third tier for the first time in 22 years. It was the latest big dip in Tan's 15-year ownership, which has resembled a rollercoaster ride laced with tragedy, dissension and glimpses of success.

“The warning signs have been there for a while,” says WalesOnline reporter Glen Williams. “Since they came out of the Premier League [in 2019], they've finished in a lower league position every season bar one and have gone through eight managers, if we include the interims.

“They just seem to be always sticking their fingers in the hole to stop the water coming out. It’s about stopping the immediate problem with no sort of foresight.”

The statistics back that up. Cardiff have won only 41 league matches in the past three campaigns, a run that included a 12th-place finish in 2023-24, achieved with an expected-points tally that would have seen them end up in the bottom three. It's a far cry from the side that won automatic promotion to the Premier League twice in six years during the 2010s.

Last season was a perfect illustration of the various issues. After drawn-out negotiations to extend the contract of incumbent boss Erol Bulut during the summer, the Bluebirds took just one point from their opening seven matches to make their worst ever start.