"Ridiculous" - Vincent Tan claim made amid Cardiff City disconnect | OneFootball

The Bluebirds owner has been a controversial figure during his time in charge of the Welsh side

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Cardiff City have a battle on their hands between now and the end of the season to maintain their Championship status, with the relegation zone too close for comfort with eight games left.

The Welsh side sit just a point above the bottom three as action resumes after the international break, with the aura of negativity continuing to be prominent at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Erol Bulut’s departure last year has done nothing to help stabilise the club, with Omer Riza’s bright start in the dugout slowly petering out, with the Bluebirds facing a fight to the end to stay in the second tier for the next campaign.

With that in mind, we spoke to Football League World’s City fan pundit Matt Hall about the biggest weakness at the club right now, and what can be done to resolve it.

Vincent Tan lambasted as Cardiff City face relegation battle

It was just six years ago that Cardiff City were a Premier League side, and now they are struggling to keep their heads above water in the top rung of the EFL.

The feeling around the club has been miserable for some time, with the relationship between the supporters and Vincent Tan seemingly at an all-time low as the club continue to circle the drain in the Championship.

The controversial businessman has been public enemy number one ever since he changed the club’s kit from blue to red back in 2012 - before changing back again in 2015 - and a number of decisions since have left the feeling towards him at an all-time low, according to Hall.

When asked about the issues at the club, the Bluebirds fan said: “The club’s biggest weakness right now is its ownership. There is a ridiculous disconnect between the ownership and the fans, and has been for a very long time.

“Some would even go back and say that as soon as Vincent Tan turned us red fans walked away, and those fans haven’t come back, which is evident in the numbers that you see.

“We got relegated from the Premier League when we were red, and got a new stand built at the same time full of red seats, and every week they are empty, and now the blue seats are empty as well.

“Every week you can see the negative impact they have had and the disconnect they have had, and even when supposedly good things happen, there is always a twinge of negativity, and that is purely because of the ownership that we have got.”

Erol Bulut, Cardiff City situation blamed on Vincent Tan

After battling relegation once again in the 22/23 campaign, Tan looked to have turned a corner with the fanbase after appointing Erol Bulut as manager the following summer, with the Turk [pictured] leading the Bluebirds to a comfortable mid-table finish in the previous campaign.

With plenty of promising signs to build upon, there may have even been a sense of excitement among the fanbase as the current campaign got underway, only for it all to fall apart with two months of the season beginning.

No win in the first six league matches of the season was enough for Tan to wield the axe on the man in the dugout, just three months after extending his contract in the Welsh capital.

Since then, it has been a constant slog under Riza - who has only been appointed until the end of the season - with Hall running out of patience with the man in charge of the club he follows.

He continued: “It feels like no matter what happens, there will never be a purely positive year. Even Erol Bulut’s year was seen as a generally positive first year. However, despite all the charade of bringing him here, he was on a one-year deal with the option of an extra two.

“For whatever reason, everything fell to pieces in December. They didn’t know what they wanted to do in January, they weren’t funding anything, they messed around with his contract, and it was just a shambles.

“Even when things were going well, they ended up going badly because of those owners, and if you changed the ownership with our club, you might get a completely different feeling. Like Birmingham to a lesser extent, the fans would come back, the positivity would come back, and it is a big problem with us now.”