More to life than football.

How on earth do you start to write about the tragic events of the past week? As I sit down to compose this blog entry, it is 6 days since the light aircraft carrying our new Argentinian striker Emiliano Sala and pilot Dave Ibbotson went missing over the English Channel en route between Nantes and Cardiff. The main search was called off last week when the authorities confirmed that there was no sign of the aircraft or any chance of survival in the January sea temperatures in the English Channel. A public GoFundMe page has raised money for the search to be privately funded and restarted this week, but this is likely to be only a task which may eventually (hopefully) give closure to his family and friends.

I'm not going to speculate here on the causes and events leading up to the disappearance of the plane, or try to apportion blame. There will be time for that in the weeks and months (or even years) to come. Suffice to say that a young life has been lost at the peak of his career and abilities, having just signed the biggest deal of his career only 2 days previously.

Emiliano Sala signs for Cardiff City.

The club finds itself the centre of World football attention. The club management, particularly the Chief Executive Ken Choo and Chairman Mehmet Dalman, have dealt with the situation impeccably in the circumstances. The club supporters have also played their part in tributes to a player who they never met and will never see play. However, he is already considered as "one of our own" and will never be forgotten. The supporters of his previous club Nantes  are also grieving for a player they knew well.

The first team return to football this week but it seems a little unimportant at times like this. I'll resume my match reports soon. In the meantime, let's hope that Emiliano Sala is able to Rest in Peace.

Fan tributes outside the Cardiff City Stadium.

Hang on in there!

The busy Christmas period has been and gone, and as we approach the middle of January we are still outside the relegation places, albeit by one point. There have been some good performances and some indifferent performances, but we still mange to keep getting towards the total of  points we need. I'm pretty sure 35 points will be enough to keep us up this season - that means 16 points from 16 games - but 4 of those games are against the Big 6 teams, so effectively that means 16points  from 12 games. Surely that's possible? 

Yet again, scoring goals has been a problem. But, looking on the bright side, we have kept a clean sheet in 3 of our last 4 games, so we are half way there!

Results since last blog entry:-

CARDIFF 1 SOUTHAMPTON 0

WATFORD 3 CARDIFF 2

CARDIFF 1 MANCHESTER UNITED 5

CRYSTAL PALACE 0 CARDIFF 0

LEICESTER 0 CARDIFF 1

CARDIFF 0 SPURS 3

GILLINGHAM 1 CARDIFF 0 (FA Cup)

CARDIFF 0 HUDDERSFIELD 0

We seem to have a run of playing teams who have recently had a crisis in the week before their visit to the Cardiff City Stadium. Southampton sacked their manager Mark Hughes in the week prior to the relegation zone fixture against us back at the beginning of December. Their new manager, Ralph Hassenhuttl , was taking charge of his first game. A hard working performance against a newly revitalised Southampton saw Calum Paterson score the only goal in a valuable 3 points for the Bluebirds. Southampton appear a better team under their new manager, and so this appears to be a very important win.

Callum Paterson cooly slots home the winner against Southampton

The away game at Watford was notable for 4 absolutely top class goals. Unfortunately, the first 3 of those were scored by Watford! We didn't start to play until we were 3-0 behind, but the pundits suggest we deserved at least a draw from the game.

Junior Hoilett lines up his stunning first goal at Watford.

Manchester United came to Cardiff just before Christmas. Yet again, we were playing a team who had replaced their manager in the week before the game. Ironically, their new manager was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who had seen Cardiff relegated from the Premier League 5 years ago. An unfortunate early goal from a free kick made it very difficult for Cardiff, followed by a goal from a wicked deflection. It is always going to be difficult for us to get anything from the top 6 clubs in the league, but this was a particularly poor capitulation by Cardiff against a newly rejuvenated Manchester United team celebrating the departure of Jose Mourhino.

Given our performance last Christmas when we lost all four games over the festive period, fans could be understood to have quite a high level of trepidation approaching the next two away games. But these games turned out to be a positive experience. A dour 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace on Boxing Day was followed with a late Victor Camarasa winner at Leicester 4 days later! Our first away win of the season! 4 very welcome away points over the festive appearance.

Victor Camarasa scores the stoppage time winner against Leicester - our first away win of the season!

On New Years Day, we faced another top 6 side in Tottenham Hotspur. Unfortunately, this was another early capitulation by Cardiff who were 3-0 down after only 20 minutes of the game. It is rather a bizarre statistic that we haven't been ahead at half time in any game this season. I'm not sure if this was as a result of the away fixtures during the previous week, but this was a rather lacklustre performance.

The first Saturday in January was always looked forward to as the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. However, since the commencement of the Premier League and all of the promised riches that brings, the FA Cup has lost importance. Thus, Cardiff put out a much weakened team at League one Gillingham and managed to lose 1-0. Many of the most important players were rested. At one time, this would have been seen as a major embarrassment for the team. but in these more pragmatic days where the league is so important, this was seen as a 'blessing in disguise' by most fans. It is noticeable that many of the teams near the bottom of the Premier League and the top of the Championship managed to lose against lower quality opposition in the third round of the FA Cup, thus giving them more time to concentrate on the league.

Last Saturday saw another bottom of the table "6 pointer" against one of our relegation rivals Huddersfield Town - a team who find it even harder to score goals than we do! Therefore, it was no surprise that the match ended in a 0-0 draw. This point was of more use to us than it was to Huddersfield, who at the moment are 8 points away from safety. that single point keeps us out of the bottom 3 before another "6 pointer" away to Newcastle, the team immediately below us in the table.

STOP PRESS

It appears that we have signed Everton's Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse on loan until the end of the season - a definite upgrade on the striking options available to the team at present. 

The club is still rumoured to be pursuing Argentine striker Emiliano Sala from Ligue 1 club Nantes, but at present that deal is not near completion. It will be interesting to see by my next update whether these deals will have come off!

8pm Thursday 17th January 2019