Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan hopes the club is on the brink of something special as the Bluebirds gear up for their 125th anniversary and start of the new 2024-25 Championship campaign.
Bluebirds chief executive Kn Chooe has just spent three weeks with Tan in Malaysia painstakingly planning for the upcoming season and beyond.
And he says: “The message from Vincent is that he’s incredibly excited, committed and passionate about his Cardiff City. He thinks this is going to be a good season, has supported the player transfers this summer and is really looking forward to what’s ahead.
“He was in good form, very enthused about the prospects for the club, really positive about what the future holds.
“Whilst I was there we obviously discussed his other business as well, but Cardiff City is the one that is the most interesting to him and which he wants to talk about the most.”
Tan has been Bluebirds owner for 14 years but appears to have been re-invigorated by a sequence of events which place Wales’ capital city club on a much sounder footing as they approach kick-off against Sunderland on Saturday.
He has released the funds for a summer transfer spree, with striker Wilfried Kanga, talented wide men Anwar El Ghazi and Chris Willock, midfielder Alex Robertson and defender Calum Chambers coming on board to bolster Erol Bulut’s squad.
The return to fitness and form of Aaron Ramsey, Callum Robinson and Callum O’Dowda, each plagued by problems last year, feels like three pedigree new signings in their own right.
On top of that there is a flood of home-grown young talent that has suddenly burst through the academy who have Cardiff’s future in their hands and will start pushing for starting spots. Rubin Colwill is the jewel in the crown, but Cian Ashford, Raheem Conte and Luey Giles have already made their mark in the first team and have rich potential.
Other youngsters like Isaak Davies, Eli King and Joel Colwill are among others also tipped for big things, while there are major expectations for defenders Ronan Kpakio, captain of Wales age-grade teams, and Malachi Fagan-Walcott.
It is hard to recall a time when such a large group of talented teenagers and early twentysomethings came through at the same time with Cardiff. A flood of even younger ones are ready to come off the conveyor belt behind them too, with excellent results having been achieved against major Premier League teams during age-grade level competitions.
The age demographic of the squad Bulut and the management team of Tan, Choo and chairman Mehmet Dalman have put together gives the Bluebirds much stronger foundations to push for the top of the Championship and the Premier League than in the past. Previously, under Malky Mackay, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Neil Warnock, Cardiff were promoted but squandered huge sums of Tan’s money which took years to recover from.
Provided Tan, as the ultimate boss, offers stability and consistency, and Bulut continues to develop the young guns he has spotted the rich potential in, Cardiff can build strongly upon this hugely promising position they have worked so hard to get into in the first place.
The £8million newly-built academy HQ in north-east Cardiff will ensure home-grown talent continues to be developed and pushed into the first team, a state-of-the-art training base in the Vale is being developed, and worrying court cases which cast a shadow over the club for so many years have by and large been dealt with.
Tan settled legal issues with former owner Sam Hammam and ex-director Michael Isaac, while they have already received a significant payout from insurers over Emiliano Sala and are optimistic of winning their battle with Nantes for damages in the French courts.
Crucially that case will be heard by business experts under French law, rather than conventional judges. They will pore over data provided by Cardiff and assess on the balance of probability, rather than legal technicalities, whether Sala’s goals would have kept the Bluebirds in the Premier League. Cardiff finished the 2018-19 season third from bottom, just two points adrift of Brighton.
Having continued to put his hand in his pocket to fund the club despite meagre returns and some questionable football decision making in recent years, Tan is finally seeing some significant light at the end of the tunnel.
“Vincent always wants to be promoted,” smiles Choo when asked what the owner’s expectation is for 2024-25. “But it’s about progress and he’s fully driven by the club’s strategy.
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