Barry-Murphy told to take Cardiff straight back up

BBC News

6 hours ago

New Cardiff City head coach Brian Barry-Murphy has been told to make an immediate return to the Championship by Bluebirds owner Vincent Tan.Irishman Barry-Murphy, 46, has joined the League One side on a three-year-deal following their relegation from the second tier last season.The former Manchester City youth coach says he's excited by the "potential" of joining "the biggest club in Wales" and has been left with no doubt about Tan's desire for a swift Championship return."Absolutely. Vincent was very clear about where he sees the club going and how quickly he wants to see that," said Barry-Murphy."My conversation with him was really positive and I told him I have a real deep belief in how to do that."For everybody on the outside, including Vincent, the objective is to get to the Championship and beyond as soon as possible."There's a potential to achieve something that could be really special and that's the thing that probably excited me the most in the recent period."There's no pressure to sell any player in the squad and anything we can improve in the club, I have the absolute support from the people at the top of the club to do that and that's going to be the mantra as we move through pre-season and beyond".
Guardiola influence
Barry-Murphy joins the Welsh club having worked as youth coach at City alongside legendary boss Pep Guardiola.He will be assisted by former City colleague Lee Riley, who also worked with him at Rochdale - Barry-Murphy's only other senior managerial role.Citing the influence of Guardiola, who he describes as "the best manager in the world", Barry-Murphy wants to bring an "aggressive" style of play to the Cardiff City Stadium."His influence on everybody he comes into contact with is huge," added Barry-Murphy."More than anything he spoke to me about being myself and remembering who you are, what you want the people you work with to look like, and that I have to remember where I came from."I know I'm in the capital of Wales with the biggest club in the country and my job is to represent what those people want to see on the weekend and it's a very exciting thing to try and put into practice."I love having possession of the ball with the clear idea that we want to be as aggressive as possible and to create an excitement for the supporters so that they genuinely are looking forward to coming to the stadium every game."My journey has evolved to have a real understanding about how to be the most effective and efficient team that I believe the supporters want to see and that takes time."
Cardiff 'hotseat'
Barry-Murphy becomes Cardiff's 14th full-time boss in 14 years under Vincent Tan, with nine of those not lasting a year in the job.But when asked about the revolving 'hot seat', Barry-Murphy took a philosophical view:"It doesn't feel that hot at the moment. The conversation with Vincent was really positive and he told me exactly what he likes to see in football and I said luckily for him I know how to supply that."All the responsibility is on me to liberate the players and set them free."I lost one of my best friends last month, Joe Thompson (former Rochdale team mate), he died of cancer."Before he died, one of the biggest things he said was, 'we don't have time to hang around or look back. It's just a waste of our time."All of our lives we prove people wrong. We have a vision to do something completely different and a large part of the reason I'm here is to try and push to do extraordinary things and that's what he would've wanted".