Cardiff City's reset in League One has some fans saying relegation has been a "blessing" - but one ex-captain warns the same problems remain.
A first season in English football's third tier for more than two decades might not be an obvious catalyst for fans to rekindle their love for a club that was in the Premier League less than seven years ago.
After all, nobody wants to get relegated once, never mind twice. But for Cardiff City, dropping down to League One has been a chance to reset.
The Bluebirds had been treading water in the Championship, with supporters lurching between apathy and anger before relegation eventually came last year.
An exodus of senior players, constant managerial upheaval and an unpopular owner all contributed to relatively modest expectations at the start of this season, even in League One.
Losing had become a habit, the style of play was somewhere between tedious and unwatchable, and some supporters had come to view attending games as a chore – if they went at all.
Six months into the campaign, however, and Cardiff are reborn. They are top of the table and playing exciting football with a core of young Welsh players, who are blossoming under the guidance of new head coach Brian Barry-Murphy.
The Bluebirds have not known joy like this for an age, but it comes with a warning.
Some believe Cardiff simply stumbled upon this transformation, a happy accident brought about by relegation - a rare triumph for owner Vincent Tan, whose dysfunctional running of the club had led to fan protests just a few months ago.
For the time being, though, supporters seem happy to put those concerns to one side and savour this success.
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'Relegation has been a blessing in a way'
Speaking to fans outside Cardiff City Stadium this season, it is hard to believe that, less than a year ago, some of the same people were here staging furious demonstrations.
Now, the blue smoke from flares, the placards and the "Tan out" chants have been replaced with contentment and a newfound confidence.
"We're going to win this league easily," says Richie from Blaenau. "The togetherness means it's different and we're starting to fall back in love with the club after a difficult season last year. I think we're going right to the top.
"It's class to see the young players. They're doing well, enjoying their football and they'll have a go, and that's all we want to see. I think relegation has been a blessing in a way."
Kyle, 60, is of the same opinion. "It's great fun this year, much better than last year, more exciting and we're winning games," he says. "It's the only positive of relegation.
"I drag my grandkids here and they're excited because games are being won. They don't really understand where they are and in what league, but they will be future fans."
As chair of Cardiff City Supporters' Trust and a retired chartered accountant, Keith Morgan has a broader understanding than most about the pitfalls of relegation.
"As a fan, relegation hurts. I'm nearly 69 but football still hurts you," he says.
"If we'd stayed up last season, I don't think Vincent Tan could have been convinced to give Barry-Murphy the job, and it would have been another season of struggle.
"There was a young lad behind me at one game last season, kicking my chair as he was bored. The man next to him warned him: 'If you don't stop that, I'll bring you to the next game!'
"We lost a lot of fans and it's hard to get them back. But as well as getting a lot of old fans back, we've got youngsters who want to go to watch games now."
Given his professional background, Morgan knows not to get carried away.
"Financially, it's never good to get relegated," he adds. "It cost Cardiff around £10m from a loss of TV revenue and solidarity payments from the Premier League, so that forced the club to think about how it could save money.
"A lot of that was saved by not renewing the contracts of players, as well as some relegation clauses in other players' contracts."
With 12 senior players leaving in the summer – and more departing on loan since then – Cardiff started this season as something of an unknown quantity.
For the opening fixture against Peterborough United, Barry-Murphy picked the youngest Cardiff line-up for a league game this century, with 10 academy products in the matchday squad.
They repaid his faith with a win and, 28 games later, the Bluebirds are two points clear at the top of League One and eight ahead of the chasing pack outside the automatic promotion places.
"I've covered Cardiff City for BBC Radio Wales for well over 20 years now and this is the most enjoyable season, and that includes the promotions under Neil Warnock and Malky Mackay," says former captain Jason Perry.
"This is the first time I can truly see the identity of Cardiff City because there's no coincidence that gates are up, people are smiling and enjoying it because we're seeing a side now that presses with intensity, dominates possession, continues to look forward and use the ball so it's not passing for passing's sake.
"It's an absolute pleasure to watch them play."
'The problem will always be the owner'
As much as the mood has undoubtedly improved this season, the root causes of Cardiff's recent troubles have not simply disappeared.
Tan remains a divisive figure, as do chairman Mehmet Dalman and chief executive Ken Choo.
They were the target of numerous protests last season, some of which saw hordes of supporters marching to Cardiff City Stadium, holding banners and singing songs demanding that Tan and his fellow board members leave.
Some of the ill feeling can be traced back to Tan's highly controversial rebranding of the club's colours from red to blue in 2012, even though he reversed the decision three years later.
More recently, the anger relates to his perceived lack of interest, with Tan having not attended a home game for more than two years.
Then, perhaps most damningly, there is the way he, Dalman and Choo have run the club.
Fans, former players and pundits have all highlighted the startling lack of football knowledge at board level, with no layer of expertise between Tan and the many managers he has hired and fired.
Cardiff at least tried a new method in their appointment of Barry-Murphy, forming a one-off sub-committee which included the club's academy manager Gavin Chesterfield, former Swansea City sporting director Mark Allen and members of the Wasserman agency. However, the final decision still belonged to Tan.
"They didn't plan to get relegated," says Perry. "And in hiring Barry-Murphy, is it really a thorough process that we've got to the outcome of getting him? I don't think so.
"It's a filtering system, a few people narrowing it down to five choices, and those five choices go then to the owner.
"The problem will always be the owner, simply because he hasn't got that knowledge to pick out of those five. Nathan Jones was in there [on the shortlist], there were others who weren't similar to Barry-Murphy.
"I'll only start calling it a process if Barry-Murphy goes and the next appointment is very similar. Then it becomes a process, get another coach who puts a team out that we can identify with as supporters and is also successful.
"But you must have knowledge of what you're looking for. The same problems are here at this club, and they need to change for us to have success continuously."
Given how well the Barry-Murphy appointment has gone so far, then, might Tan be convinced to use a director of football or similar on a permanent basis?
"The total opposite," Perry says. "I think he'll get carried away, so much so that it will reinforce his own opinion of himself, that he is the right man because of what we're seeing now.
"He will not look at the process and put his hands up and go, 'possibly we're fortunate here because it wasn't our first choice'.
"You have to be honest, reflection is a key part of football or any big business, but when you reflect you have to be honest and you have to look at your skillset. Then you have to either improve that skillset or you bring somebody in that has those skills. Unfortunately, at City we don't have that and that is my concern."
There is no guarantee of an instant return to the Championship. It took Cardiff 18 years to get back to that level when they were last relegated to the third tier in 1985.
Of the 30 teams to have been in the Premier League and relegated to League One, six have never made it back to the Championship.
Given how Cardiff are going this season, they should not add to that number.
Promotion will not fix everything, though.
"I came into this season determined to enjoy it," says Perry.
"We're doing well, playing a brand that we identify with and everybody's happy.
"But you've only got to look around the football club and I still see the same mistakes."
Category: General Sports
