FanView: How Cardiff Can Use Experience to Prepare for Premier League Next Season After Promotion
Cardiff City are back in the Premier League after a four year absence. A 0-0 draw with Reading at the Cardiff City Stadium turned out to be enough for Neil Warnock's men to clinch the second automatic promotion spot after Fulham slipped up at Birmingham.
The Bluebirds will be enthusiastic about playing in the top league again and will want to ensure that their experience in the top flight is better than when they last appeared in the Premier League.
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In 2013, Cardiff returned to the top flight after a 51 year wait. However, apart from a famous 3-2 win against eventual champions Manchester City, the season would turn out to be a largely disappointing one.
There were just as many issues off the pitch as on it for the Bluebirds and they would accumulate just 30 points, finishing rock bottom of the league. Neil Warnock and his team will hope history does not repeat itself for Cardiff in their latest chapter of playing Premier League football.
This time round, Cardiff must get their recruitment right. In their first Premier League campaign they splashed the cash on Gary Medel, Steven Caulker and the big Dane Andreas Cornelius, who only lasted six months in Wales and is regarded as the biggest flop in the club's history.
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Neil Warnock will have to spend wisely as Vincent Tan will be more cautious when providing funds due to the unsuccessful signings of their last top flight campaign.
Warnock will also look to keep the nucleus of the squad together and trust the players who have helped him get that eighth promotion.
Back in 2013, then manager Malky Mackay made the harsh decision to offload long-time servant and fan favourite Kevin McNaughton to Bolton as well as dropping influential leader and captain Mark Hudson, who was key in their previous promotion.
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Cardiff would not show the same togetherness in that season as the one before which was a key factor in their underwhelming campaign.
However, seeing Vincent Tan getting embraced by Cardiff fans after the Reading game would have been seen as an hallucination back in 2013. The Malaysian owner was the pantomime villain in Cardiff's only previous top flight season.
Tan had become an enemy of the Cardiff City fans after rebranding the club to wear red instead of their traditional blue colours due to red being lucky in his culture. He then infamously blackmailed Malky Mackay to 'resign or be sacked' and also booed his own team after they conceded a last minute equaliser against relegation rivals Sunderland.
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The appointment of Ole Gunner Solskjaer did not have the desired impact Tan was looking for either as the club limped to relegation. Hopefully for Cardiff's sake, Tan will have learnt from this experience and stay behind the scenes, rather than be centre of attention in the Bluebirds' latest Premier League adventure.
The club and fans are now singing from the same hymn sheet and Cardiff will finally play Premier League football in their traditional blue colours, which makes this promotion even sweeter.
