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Words: Tierre Miller (@TierreMiller_)

The 2024/25 season saw Cardiff City celebrate 125 years of the football club having been founded in 1899, the highlight of the clubs history so far came in 1927 when the Bluebirds became the first and currently only Welsh club to win the FA Cup.

Ahead of the season the club used phrases like “A very special season ahead of us” and “momentous campaign” during the season ticket campaign and naturally that would get fans excited for August to come around.

In the previous campaign, Erol Bulut led the Bluebirds to a respectable 12th-placed finish in his first season in charge and while many thought performances weren’t great and results dried up towards the end of the campaign many thought he had done enough to earn a contract extension going into 24/25.

This is the first of many examples of poor planning from the board, it took the club until the 4th of June to make any sort of announcement on Bulut’s future when they finally announced he had signed a new two-year deal.

This was something that should’ve and could’ve been sorted much sooner. With Bulut’s future now sorted the club moved onto transfers with; Chris Willock, Calum Chambers, Anwar El-Ghazi joining on free transfers. Striker Wilfred Kanga also joined on loan from Hertha BSC and the club also completed permanent deals for Alex Robertson, Jesper Daland, Will Fish and Roko Simic.

In terms of outgoings Mark McGuinness going to Luton Town for a sizeable fee is the stand out. McGuinness had played 86 times for Cardiff. Ebou Adams also left the club to join Derby County while Eli King, Kieron Evans, Ryan Wintle and new recruit Roko Simic all left on loan.

Many Cardiff fans were happy with the summer business but fans of other clubs weren’t as impressed and they proved to be right. There was also an incoming off the pitch with former Watford coach Omer Riza (who may or may not play a big part in this story) joining the coaching set up.

Quickly touching up on pre-season, Cardiff began with a 1–0 loss to Kidderminster Harriers before beating KV Kortijk 3–1 and Penybont 7–1. The Bluebirds would then jet off to Austria for a training camp where they played three matches beating Hamburg 3–0 and drawing 1–1 to both Mamelodi Sundowns and Hertha BSC.

The Bluebirds then came back to the UK where they beat Reading 2–1 and Bristol Rovers 2–0. A pretty solid pre-season in terms of results and performances so how would that translate to the Championship?

Cardiff began with two defeats, a 2–0 home loss to Sunderland and a 5–0 battering at Turf Moor at the hands of Burnley. Two games in, and the Bluebirds were rooted to the bottom of the table ahead of the South Wales Derby which came early on in this season.

The derby would end 1–1 and Cardiff would remain 24th going into a home match against Middlesbrough before the first international break, Cardiff went on to lose 2–0 making this the worst start in the clubs history but it couldn’t get any worse could it?

Oh it could! Cardiff resumed with a 1–0 defeat to Derby County at Pride Park which was followed up by a 2–0 home defeat to Leeds United. After six games Cardiff sat bottom with just one point and one goal to their name, this proved to be enough for owner Vincent Tan who sacked Erol Bulut the day after the Leeds defeat and just under four months since giving him a new two-year deal.

First team coach Omer Riza was placed in interim charge and failed to make an immediate impact losing 4–1 away at Hull City in his first game so after seven games it was still just one point and now two goals scored.

Finally! A lifeline Cardiff picked up their first win of the season with a 1–0 win over Millwall courtesy of a Perry Ng header under the lights at the Cardiff City Stadium. Cardiff followed this up with a 1–1 draw at Ashton Gate in the Severnside derby, a game which saw Riza criticised for his in game management and many believed that cost Cardiff the win.

Four points from six after just one from 18 prior was a good return though, but going into the international break many expected Cardiff to make a permanent appointment.

That appointment never came and Riza led the club into two crunch games against Plymouth and Portsmouth, who, like Cardiff found themselves at the wrong end of the table.

Cardiff went on to thump Plymouth 5–0 and then follow that up with a 2–0 win over Pompey, with the two games before the break this now made it four unbeaten and many thought the club had finally turned the corner and would kick on. A respectable 0–0 draw at The Hawthorns followed to stretch the run to five undefeated.

Cardiff then went on to beat Norwich in dramatic circumstances thanks to a 89th minute equaliser and a 93rd minute winner, chants of “Omer Riza”s Barmy Army” were heard for the first time.

Following the game match winner Callum O’Dowda said “It would be good to see him take full ownership and take us forward” when asked about still interim manager Omer Riza. Players and fans were in agreement that Riza deserved the job but nothing changed.

Riza, who was still interim led Cardiff to six games unbeaten which seemed unthinkable a few weeks prior but that run soon ended with back-to-back defeats to Luton Town and Blackburn Rovers heading into the final international break of 2024.

Even after a two-week break there was still no indication of what Riza’s future held, the Championship resumed with Cardiff playing out a 1–1 draw at Sheffield Wednesday which was followed up by a poor 2–0 defeat at home to QPR which saw Marti Cifuentes’ men pick up just their second win of the season. Yet another draw followed this time against Coventry City in what was Frank Lampard’s first game in charge of the Sky Blues.

Riza was placed in interim charge on the 22nd of September and it took until the 5th of December for the club to finally confirm he has been given a contract until the season, during a five-game winless run which showed no sign of stopping. A defeat to Preston, draw to Stoke and another defeat to Sheffield United saw the winless run now hit eight games and going into Boxing Day, Cardiff had a huge game at the Kassam Stadium against Oxford United.

Riza’s men were 3–0 down after 57 minutes and chants of “we want Riza out” and “get out of our club” could be heard from the away end and for the first time the match going fans had fully turned. Two late goals made the game look closer than it was ending 3–2 but it was impossible to see how Riza could survive that, especially with the threat of relegation and all that comes with it.

As always with the Christmas period the games came thick and fast and Cardiff travelled to Watford three days later and Riza was still in charge. Cardiff were winless away and Watford were unbeaten at home going into this game so this was a home banker right? Wrong Cardiff went on to win 2–1 and with a draw to Coventry on New Years Day that was four points from a possible six.

Draws to Middlesbrough and Watford followed to make it four league games unbeaten and next on the agenda was a South Wales Derby.

The build up to this game was made difficult for manager Omer Riza with the news of his dads passing coming out just days before the game, Riza would’ve been forgiven for wanting a break but he was determined to keep going something which can never be looked down upon. Everyone put their thoughts of Riza from a football POV to one side and everyone was behind the team going into this game and Cardiff came out comfortable 3–0 winners. Chants of “Omer Riza that ones for your dad” could be heard and it felt like everyone was united on what was no doubt an emotional afternoon for Riza.

Three new faces arrived during the January window with Sivert Mannsverk joining on loan from Ajax, Will Alves coming in on loan from Leicester City and the stand out being Yousef Salech joining on a permanent from Swedish side Sirius.

Cardiff followed that derby win up with a draw at Millwall and a vital 2–1 win at home to Derby County which now made it seven unbeaten but recent form would be put to the test with a trip to Elland Road up next…

Leeds romped to a 7–0 win and all the good work in the last few weeks came crashing down with this result. This was no doubt a turning point, defeat to Portsmouth followed and with that being Cardiff’s 31st game of the season there were only 15 to go and relegation was getting more realistic by the week.

Draws to Bristol City and Plymouth Argyle added points to Cardiff’s tally but didn’t do much in terms of pulling them away from the dreaded bottom three. A key 1–0 win over Hull City at home reignited some optimism but three consecutive 2–1 defeats against Burnley, Sunderland and most costly Luton Town left Cardiff right in trouble.

Many thought that Luton game would be the end of Riza but just like in December he stayed and also like December he followed up a poor defeat with a 2–1 away win this time coming at Blackburn Rovers just before the final international break of the season.

Coming back from the March international break there were just eight games left for Cardiff to save themselves. Three consecutive draws followed coming against Sheffield Wednesday, QPR and Preston.

Due to Derby’s up turn in form Cardiff dropped back into the bottom three. Then a damming defeat at home to Stoke City seeing the Potters leave the Welsh capital with a 1–0 win thanks to a 85th minute own goal from Cardiff’s Will Fish. For the fans who hadn’t already accepted it this felt like the moment relegation felt like fate for Cardiff City.

Cardiff had the task of a trip to Bramall Lane up next but in the build up Riza called for everyone to be united and stick together but in his pre-match press conference days later he came out and called the fans clueless, “I read all the comments from people, fans, a lot of them and unfortunately a lot of them are clueless”.

A few hours before the game in Sheffield the club put out a message from Riza apologising for the comment but the damage was already done. Cardiff went on to lose 2–0 and the following day it was announced Riza had been relieved of his duties with just three games to go.

Aaron Ramsey was placed in interim charge for the final three games with Chirs Gunter, Joe Ralls, Tom Hutton, Matthew Bloxham and Gavin Ward assisting him. A wonder strike from Oxford’s Cameron Brannagan was enough to secure a 1–1 draw for the U’s and plunge Cardiff ever closer to the third tier.

A 0–0 draw at home to West Brom was it, Cardiff were relegated and will play in Sky Bet League One next season. Despite being relegated Cardiff still had one more game to play which ended up being a 4–2 loss to Norwich City which saw former Arsenal teammates Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey go head to head on the touchline.

So there we have it a season that was meant to be a celebration has ended up being one of the worst in modern history. Worst ever start, three managers, underperforming players, protests against the board, a 24th-placed finish and relegation.

This season will certainly be remembered but not in the way people hoped and expected. For the first time in 22 years Cardiff will be in the third tier and now also have the Vertu Trophy and FA Cup first round to look forward to.

Following relegation the board put out a statement saying “we hear you” that was in April, we are now in June and nothing has happened. No manager, no retained list, very little detail on pre-season and obviously no incomings.

At the time of writing it is expected Aaron Ramsey will take on the role full-time following a failed attempt to get Nathan Jones with Jones signing a new five-year deal to keep him at Charlton.

Des Buckingham, Ian Evatt and Brian Barry-Murphy have all been linked to the role in recent weeks but all signs are leading to Aaron Ramsey being the man to try and get Cardiff out of League One.

Promotion has to be the aim and expectation but we have seen many clubs just as big or even bigger struggle in League One, it certainly won’t be a walk in the park and a lot of sides in the division are very hard to play against.

One thing that won’t help Cardiff is the amount of time it’s taken to sort a manager out and with Blackpool and Huddersfield both making some good moves in the window so far Cardiff have a lot of work to do between now and August to have any chance of bouncing back.

Keeping hold of Yousef Salech would go a long way in mounting a promotion challenge but without additions in key areas Salech won’t be able to lead the Bluebirds back to the Championship alone.