Cardiff City. This week, we're all talking about them. A winning Premier League home debut, against the title favourites no less, has introduced Malky Mackay, Fraizer Campbell and Vincent Tan to the competition's global audience.
tribalfootball.com was able to catch up with Michael Morris of the hugely popular cardiffcity-mad.co.uk forum about the Premier League's new-boys and how the fans will be approaching this season's campaign.
The goal for any football club is to play at the highest level it can achieve. Cardiff have waited over 50 years to get their place back in the top division so it means a lot to have finally achieved that status. The constant knocking at the door over the past five years made me feel it would happen eventually. What can you tell us about Vincent Tan and his relationship with Cardiff City fans?
By now everyone knows about the rebrand of the club form Blue to Red. It has split fans and families. But Tan has made a decision and factored in risk of losing some fans knowing that if successful he will gain even more. While there's no real justification for the colour change other than he considers red 'lucky' his decision has paid off as far as the club gaining promotion is concerned. Now there's still plenty of anger towards Tan from the fans but their voices are only heard on internet forums. When you visit the stadium everyone is there to support Cardiff City FC. With Tan spending figures on players beyond any numbers we've seen before and donating £1m to charity the more general fanbase are very grateful for his intervention. What type of football does Malky Mackay's Cardiff play?
Malky's sides tend to be efficient. Powerful in the first half of games. We play with a lone striker supported by a midfield with options wide and through the middle. We usually take a lead and then work hard to keep it. Last year they were all round too good for any other team in the division. In the Premier League with a higher quality of player I'm not sure exactly what we are going to see. What can Premier League fans expect from Cardiff and their supporters this season?
Any fans coming to Cardiff can expect a superb welcoming City and I would recommend they try to make a weekend of it. Cardiff City fans visiting away grounds will be noisy, edgy, passionate and will enhance every game we play. How big is the derby against Swansea City?
The rivalry has been simmering. With Swansea in the Premier League, Cardiff fans haven't been making too much noise about Swansea but now the teams will face each other again the build up to the derby games will be massive. Neither side has ever done the league double over the other. It will be a huge occasion, whipped up by the media and by the fans online taunting each other. The atmosphere at CCS will be electric. What have you made of Cardiff's summer market?
Incredible. At the time of writing Cardiff have broken their transfer record three times. We have signed a striker, Andrea Cornelius, who was the highest scorer in Denmark last season. Steven Caulker has joined from Tottenham. He played and scored for England inside the last 12 months. And the latest addition is Gary Medel. 'El Pitbull' from Sevilla. He is going to be one of our more talked about players. Also a new keeper, Simon Moore, and full back John Brayford. Where do you think Cardiff still need strengthening
I think we need some more pace and strength in the wide areas. Cardiff are making a big push into Malaysia, why should any Malaysian Premier League fan make the Bluebirds their second - or even first - team this season?
I'm not sure they will. For years clubs like Man Utd and Liverpool have been the top supported Premier League sides. I guess the owner wants to make inroads into the Malaysian support but I don't think too many backed QPR last season who are owned by Malaysian Tony Fernandes. Where Cardiff might make a difference is that the club are launching new ventures in Malaysia, so the profile may well be higher. We have had Malaysian fans visiting Cardiff and no doubt when the Malaysians, and all Far Eastern Premier League supporters see the passion that Cardiff will bring to their TV screens they might take more of an interest.
