Cardiff City have finally found their new path - they must now stick to it

Wales Online

4 days ago

Cardiff City have finally found their new path - they must now stick to it
Cardiff City are up and running and their new approach is not before time, too
Cardiff City manager Brian Barry-Murphy applauds the fans
(Image: Steven Paston/PA Wire.)
Whatever happens from here on in, Cardiff City are FINALLY on the right track.
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After years of wasting their best young talent, something I know used to frustrate, dare I say it annoy, Craig Bellamy when he was Academy boss, the Bluebirds have seen the light.
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In Brian Barry-Murphy they have a manager whose mantra is 'If you're good enough, you're old enough.'
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Top marks to BBM for having that attitude, too. It's not before time. Join the Cardiff City breaking news and top stories WhatsApp community.
After the toil of watching so much sideways, backwards, ponderous football from under-performing senior players, it makes such a refreshing change to see a youthful-looking Cardiff team playing with verve, adventure, tempo and no little ability.
Yes it's League One, rather than the Championship. Context is required. There will be tougher tests to come than Peterborough United.
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But this is about mindset, whatever the level of football.
This time last year Erol Bulut named the oldest team in the league, just one player under the age of 26, a midfield trio with a combined age of 93, as his Bluebirds crashed 0-2 in a Cardiff City Stadium opener with Sunderland.
The writing was on the wall. Bulut's default selection was the old guard. Omer Riza was more receptive to picking a few youngsters, but he too had his senior favourites who were automatic picks despite making mistakes.
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Coincidence or not, more often than not Cardiff, lacking pace and slow in mind, tended to lose games.
Barry-Murphy has moved in completely the opposite direction. This is a Cardiff youth revolution on steroids.
I've been calling for that dressing room to be flipped on its head, with the young guns made the new kingpins, but even I didn't anticipate a BBM starting XI with 10 players aged 23 or under.
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Having just turned 28, Ryan Wintle must feel like applying for his pension! I'm no particular fan of Wintle as a player, but he seemed to be energised by the young legs around him, took extra responsibility and had one of his finest games in a Bluebirds shirt. Sign up to our daily Cardiff City newsletter here.
When Cardiff went a goal down it was Wintle who grabbed the ball and ushered his team-mates back to the centre circle as if to say there are 60 minutes left, we'll get back into this. He has been reintegrated into the fold and credit to him, and BBM, for that.
In fact, Barry-Murphy seems to be the right manager at the right time for Cardiff City because his arrival coincides with a generational crop of young talent who he is prepared to build the future around.
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His coaching expertise, honed under Pep Guardiola with Manchester City's finest young talent, will improve these Cardiff teens and early twentysomethings, too.
A large dose of caution. When so many of them are thrown together it will mean inconsistency. That is just the nature of the beast.
As such Cardiff are vulnerable to winning one game well, potentially losing the next badly. We saw it when John Toshack picked a plethora of youngsters with Wales and results were up and down.
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But that Welsh group were always going to come good and so too, given time, belief and a large dose of patience, will these Cardiff young guns.
Don't be surprised to see a host of the Bluebirds' home-grown talent dominating Bellamy's Wales squad when they play the 2028 Euros on home soil. Three years is a huge time to develop in football. By then, Rubin Colwill, Joel Colwill, Dylan Lawlor, Ronan Kpakio, Isaak Davies and Cian Ashford will each fancy their chances of making the cut.
Heck, the way Matthew Turner played upon being handed a shock debut by BBM, don't rule him out either given Bellamy's clear problems in the goalkeeping stakes.
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Of course, this is getting way ahead of ourselves. The point is Cardiff have this hugely exciting crop of under-23s - Yousef Salech, Alex Robertson, Joel Bagan, Will Fish and Ollie Tanner among them - and finally they are utilising them together.
Help is required, experienced leaders need to be signed this summer in defence, midfield and on the wing to guide them through the many troubled times they will face as the going gets tough over the coming nine months.
Yet despite relegation, Cardiff never required a rebuild. What they badly needed was a re-set because there was already an abundance of talent in house.
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That is why I say this summer has been a decent transfer window because for me it was to be defined as much by who left, as who comes in. That would show the direction of travel.
By shifting so many experienced figures out of the door, and by pushing one or two others towards the back of the queue, Cardiff have opened up the pathway for these youngsters to get their chance.
And there's some real talent there too, players who could fetch the club multi-millions in the transfer market in due course. What's the point of investing in a successful Academy under Gavin Chesterfield, and his predecessor James McCarthy, if you're not going to utilise it?
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Kpakio will play at a much higher level than Perry Ng or Andy Rionomohta. At 18, he is being given his head and will need to learn on the job. Like the others he'll be inconsistent, but like them he needs time, patience and understanding.
Rubin Colwill has been handed the keys to No.10, plus the vice-captaincy. He is evidently Barry-Murphy's main man. As a confidence player, that should bring out the best in him. The days of Rubin being in, out, stuck on the wing, substituted, getting a 10-minute cameo here and there, are over, it seems.
Successive Cardiff bosses have refused to build their team around him. Barry-Murphy looks like doing so. Colwill has to repay his manager's belief with more goals, assists and regular man MoM performances. Remain as the main free-kick taker too Rubin, even if Ng returns to the side.
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Within the Wales set-up they talk of 19-year-old Lawlor as a potential Champions League centre-half. Why then was he not afforded a chance in a league defence that conceded a whopping 73 goals last season? I suspect it's a question that perplexes Bellamy who had no hesitation in calling up the 19-year-old defender to his Welsh World Cup qualifying squad.
Joel Colwill brings an energy, effervescence, tenacity and athleticism which I feel has been missing from Cardiff's midfield for far too much time. Watch for Eli King, another home-grown youngster, making his mark in similar fashion as the season goes on too.
Further forward the ability and enthusiasm of Ashford and Davies to run at defenders, something Cardiff badly lacked previously, is obvious. They too need to deliver with goals and assists. I'm sure they will.
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Between them these youngsters bring an ambition, athleticism and no fear approach which will make the football far more easy on the eye. The rip-roaring atmosphere against Peterborough was evidence of fans, who have watched so much ponderous drivel, enjoying seeing their side play with drive and tempo again.
One of the few occasions Cardiff displayed this attitude was when they came from behind to beat Russell Martin's Southampton in a Championship thriller a couple of years back. Surprise surprise, that was led by the youngsters again that day, an injury crisis forcing Bulut's hand.
Sadly, he quickly reverted to type with the old guard. Experienced men Bulut felt he could trust more.
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Barry-Murphy's trust, by contrast, is in youth.
While it would be wonderful to see Cardiff go straight back up, the most important aspect of the season for me is giving these youngsters their chance. It's a learning curve, as such there will be highs and lows, but I have no doubt it is one which will benefit Cardiff in due course.
Wherever they finish in the table, with nine months of regular game-time behind them, these youngsters will be ready to go even harder this time next year. Be that in League One still, or back in the Championship.
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Most of them are more than capable of playing at a higher level. Some may, or may not, have been ready for the rigours of the Championship just yet. If so, perhaps relegation wasn't the worst thing to happen as it affords the opportunity for this change of direction.
In going down to the third tier for the first time in 22 years, the irony is the future at Wales' capital club on the pitch looks brighter than it has done for many a year.
Cardiff have started on this path… they can't stray from it. Even when the short-term pain arrives.