3rd Time Unlucky, A Tough Chapter in Bluebirds History
- mattskinneruk
- Jul 8
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 8
For Cardiff City fans, the 2024–25 season will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. After months of struggles, close calls, and fleeting moments of hope, Cardiff City have been relegated to League One.
It's a painful moment — not just for the players and staff, but for the loyal supporters, like myself, who have backed the Bluebirds through every high and low, and that fateful rebrand.
It's also hard to explain to a six-year-old who has just fallen in love with the game and the team why we're going down after beating Hull, Swansea, Plymouth, and Portsmouth at home. If only it were that easy!
Cardiff City is a club rich with history and pride, and all the supporters want to see from the players is passion and fight. Seeing it drop out of the Championship is more than a setback; it's a reminder of how fragile success can be in modern football.
And this isn't the first time we've looked like we were in trouble in the last few seasons.
Manager Merry-go-round - A Brief Lesson
Under Neil Harris in 2020/2021, the club experienced a string of poor results, prompting Vincent Tan to bring in the experienced Mick McCarthy. Rinse and repeat over the next four seasons, and we've finally dropped to the third tier for the first time in 22 years.
Mick McCarthy's time in charge brought some stability at the beginning, but then, and this is where history starts to repeat itself, bad results on the pitch and with the former Eire captain refusing to acknowledge the bluebirds faithful when asked to do the 'Ayatollah', something that has been sinonimous with Cardiff since the early 90's, he lost the suport and his position became untainable. Next up, Steve Morison.
Morison was appointed temporarily and steadied the ship. After three matches, the former Wales and Millwall striker was appointed as the permanent manager. As he prepared to take on the top job, he brought in a familiar face: former Bluebirds captain Mark Hudson, who was recruited as his assistant, who knew the club and, more importantly, the fans. It wasn't long until everything started to unravel for Morison, after bringing in some of the recent best loan signings we'd seen at the Cardiff City Stadium. Players reported disliking his approach to conversations with them, which was backed up by his curt responses to the media when asked fairly simple questions.
After three wins in 10 matches, Mr Tan decided that it was enough for the axe to fall, along with the unrest behind the scenes. Ironically, it came after one of the best displays of the season away to Middlesbrough. Hudson was then tasked with pulling things together, and this is where you can start to see how we have arrived at this point: sack the manager, appoint the cheaper option, go again, sack the manager, appoint the more affordable option, and so on.
Hudson was and always will be a club legend. He was collateral damage for a board that goes missing more often than not. Everything started well, getting a decent result against Burnley, who'd go on to get a record of gaining promotion earlier than anyone else, as well as 11 more points between October and the mid-season break for the Qatar World Cup. Just before the break, Hudson was given the job permanently, and it was at this point that things began to go wrong.
After returning from the World Cup, Hudson only lasted until mid-January 2023, with results and performances worsening, Vincent Tan made the call he had made many times before, sacking the manager without a clear plan.
Up next for the Bluebirds was someone we'd encountered in the opposition dugout: Sabri Lamouchie. The former Nottingham Forest manager was quick to bring in his coaching staff, installing Sol Bamba as his assistant. He followed a similar approach to Morison's by recruiting a former Cardiff captain.
If the 22/23 season wasn't a clear enough warning, we underestimate what the hierarchy knows about football. Reading's points deduction all but confirmed survival; otherwise, this would have been much earlier in the Cardiff timeline.
July 2023 looked like everything from the failures of previous seasons had all been noticed, and some proper planning had been put into place. The appointment of Turkish manager Erol Bulut had everyone wondering what would happen. An unknown manager with experience at Fenerbahçe and Alanyaspor taking over as our manager was surely a mistake.
There was an air of optimism surrounding the stadium, with some impressive moves in the transfer market, most notably Aaron Ramsey's return to the club on a free transfer. Bulut also travelled to bars, pubs, and working men's clubs to meet up with fans, chat, and get to know the place, something not done since Neil Warnock was in charge, which seemed like a lifetime ago.
No threat of relegation coupled with wins over Bristol City home and away, last minute winners against promotion chasing Ipswich and Southampton, and a first home win against Swansea since 2013. Finishing the season in 12th gave us all hope for another push towards stability and trying to make it third time lucky in the Premier League, sadly, we didn't realise what was about to happen.
All Aboard the Bulut Train - A Season of Struggle
From the early fixtures, there were warning signs. A string of inconsistent performances, injuries to key players, and missed opportunities turned what should have been a stable season into a battle for survival. However, it would be entirely the Bluebirds' way to do it when celebrating 125 years as a football club, which almost aligns with our relegation during our 75th and Centenary seasons as well.
Despite glimpses of quality — some hard-fought wins and moments of genuine brilliance — they were too few and far between.
Managerial changes were necessary, but after enduring our worst start to a season in over 90 years, where would we turn? Of course, we looked to Assistant Omer Riza to 'Steady the Ship'.
Whilst there was a brief upturn in results, and performances did start to improve, fans could also see that we needed someone with experience; noticeable mistakes with substitutions seemed to plague Riza throughout his tenure as manager, something that should never have been confirmed. Even the names that were mentioned in the press were just that, the plan was always to go for the cheap option of recruiting from within due to Bulut only just signing a two year contract, Tan was not happy about another managerial pay out and was highly unlikely to pay for another manager to come in, Dalman had properly burnt his fingers pushing for that contract.
Constant tactical tweaks and late-game rallies weren't enough. Given how much everything changed from one game to the next, we would never know who was in line to start or even be on the bench. As mentioned earlier, we saw glimpses of what this Cardiff squad could do, but other clubs found more consistent form when it mattered most; unfortunately, Cardiff was unable to do so.
Omer Riza Key Moments
Bristol City Away - October 6th 2024
Probably the most significant and earliest warning signs that Riza may struggle tactically with making some pretty bizarre changes when Cardiff were on top. Sixty minutes into the game, Cardiff played some good football and were in control. Perhaps it was naivety or a slight concern about losing, but once he took Callum Robinson and Anwar El Ghazi off, the game completely changed, and Bristol City took control.
Oxford United Away - December 26th
Sixteen days after Riza was confirmed as the man to guide them to safety, we witnessed one of the worst 45 minutes of football this season.
Leeds United Away - February 1st 2025
Coming off the back of six unbeaten games, three of them won against Watford, Swansea, and Derby, you could say we were confident of getting something out of this game. Even though Leeds were playing well and were at the top of the Championship, we always seemed to get something against them. That didn't happen this time, as they put seven past us, undoing all the hard work to pull the goal difference back in 90 minutes.
Portsmouth Away - February 11th
It was a must-win game, maybe in February, but so was the Oxford game on Boxing Day, and we got just about everything wrong. Substitutions again are a problem when all that happened were like-for-like changes,
Luton Town Home - March 11th
This was the game that told me we were going down, and as soon as Aaron Ramsey went off injured, that just added to the trouble we were in! Taking the lead with a goal from Chambers, only to have Jordan Clark equalise with a thunderbolt just outside the penalty area, with Thelo Aasgaard to finish after sloppy defending. We might have had the chances, hitting the bar and another couple of opportunities, but we were just not good enough again. This had been the story through the majority of Riza's stewardship.
Statical Overview
Final League Position: 24th (Bottom of the Championship)
Total Points: 42 from 46 matches
Record: 9 Wins, 15 Draws, 22 Losses
Goals Scored: 46 (1.00 per game)
Goals Conceded: 72 (1.57 per game)
Goal Difference: -26
Expected Goals (xG): Approximately 46.3
Expected Goals Against (xGA): Approximately 72.4
Top Scorer: Callum Robinson (12 goals)
Average Attendance: 19,344
Largest Victory: 5–0 vs. Plymouth Argyle (October 19th 2024)
Heaviest Defeat: 0–7 vs. Leeds United (February 1st 2025)
What Comes Next?
Relegation always feels like a complete stop, but it can also be the start of a new sentence. Clubs like Luton, Southampton, and Sunderland have shown that a drop to League One doesn't have to be the end of the story — it can be the beginning of a revival.
For Cardiff, this summer will be critical. Hard decisions must be made: retaining core players, rebuilding confidence, reconnecting with the fans, and reestablishing an identity that reflects the club's proud traditions.
There's work to be done, no question. But there's also a deep well of spirit in this club — a fighting heart that has weathered storms before.
Sticking Together
Now, more than ever, Cardiff City needs its supporters, but the supporters also need something from the Owner, CEO, chairman and other board members. The journey back won't be easy, and there will be more hard days ahead. There must be at least a plan in place, something that has been lacking previously.
You can be sure that more protests will be planned regarding the current management of the club. You can't fault those fans who are trying to at least gather some momentum by making the hierarchy know that they are not happy with the current situation, and haven't been for a long time, you can trace it all the back to the rebrand in 2012, a monumental mistake that was only corrected by Mr Tan taking advice from his mother.
But together, players, staff, and fans can write a new chapter — one built on resilience, pride, and belief.
The road to redemption starts now.
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