January
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There is a couple of interesting articles in the Western Mail this morning regarding Franks departure. The first report contains the views of curent City player Mike Ford and the second includes interesting comments from former City players Derek Tapscott and Don Murray.

From TotalWales.
CARDIFF CITY captain Mike Ford believes the players were partly to blame for manager Frank Burrows leaving the club, writes Karl Woodward.

“We have let the gaffer down,” said Ford. “He brought most of us here, paid our wages and gave us a chance.

“We haven’t really repaid him for that. We shouldn’t be in the position we are with the players we have got.

“The manager carries the can and it’s easy for us to hide behind him. I don’t think we should.

“We must accept our share of the blame for not getting the points.”

The players want Burrows’s assistant Billy Ayre to be given a fair crack of the whip.

“The lads have great respect for Billy. He’s had a couple of health problems lately but came back today like he’d never been away.

“If he got the job I know the players would give him 100 per cent.

“But if I was putting £2.5m in the club I would want to say who would be running the team.

“If the main new investor has someone in mind he needs to come in quickly and be given the money for team strengthening, even if it means one or two of us leaving.

“We need someone like Billy with experience of success at this level

“It’s a shame Frank has gone. He came here to do a job (take the club to the First Division) and is probably thinking he hasn’t fulfilled it.

“He wasn’t given enough time. I know Frank left by mutual consent, but he was probably pushed rather than jumped.

“I’m sure he’s very disappointed and would wish us to get on with proving we are too good to go down.

“I think the problem was that he gained success so quickly in his first full season. People expected the band wagon to carry on.”

West Ham manager Harry Redknapp, who let Burrows leave his coaching post at Upton Park to manage City, said it was “an absolute joke” for the club to let him leave.

“Frank is one of the best operators in the business. I’m sure he’ll soon be back in work.” With West Ham again, possibly.

From TotalWales.
FRANK BURROW’S body language last Sunday said it all.

As most Cardiff City supporters will testify, when Burrows’s team plays badly the no-nonsense Scot often throws his flat cap to the ground or puts his hands on his head in dismay.

But as the Bluebirds trailed Luton Town 3-0 in front of a stunned Ninian Park crowd, Burrows stood motionless on the touchline, his hands inside the pockets of his three-quarter length coat.

It was as if Burrows knew it was the end, that this embarrassing defeat by Luton - a useful but hardly formidable side - spelt the end of his second stint at the club.

Eight months after winning promotion from Division Three, the Bluebirds are in real danger of returning to the dreaded basement. Four go down - and City are joint fourth-bottom with Oxford United.

“Relegation would be a disaster, and Swansea winning promotion would make it even worse,” says former Arsenal, Cardiff City and Wales striker Derek Tapscott.

“I feel sorry for Frank. I know him personally and he lived and breathed Cardiff City. I feel sorry for him because he did a good job with no money. He got them promoted last year at the first time of asking so he can’t be a bad manager.

“When you come up to a division like this one you’ve got to start spending £500,000 on players. The wages are going to be higher as well. Frank never had that sort of money to spend.

“He’s got a good record and I don’t think it will be long before he’s fixed up with another club. I wish him all the best. He doesn’t deserve to be out of football.”

But Tapscott, who lives in Cardiff and is a regular visitor at Ninian Park, says there are clearly problems with the current team.

“The goalkeeper frightens me when he comes off his line. There’s nobody solid in defence and the forwards are too far apart from each other,” explains “Tappy,” who won 14 Welsh caps in the Fifties and early Sixties.

“The last game I saw was the 1-1 draw against Oxford at Ninian Park nearly three weeks ago. When your strikers get two shots at goal in 90 minutes you’ve got no chance.

“The forwards don’t want to get hurt inside the six-yard box and nobody has been getting into the danger areas. There’s no understanding between the Cardiff forwards either.”

A shortage of goals has been the biggest problem facing the Bluebirds this season and it was a problem Burrows failed to solve.

The need for a prolific striker - a Jimmy Gilligan, Carl Dale or Phil Stant - was obvious well before the end of last season when City scored only five goals in their last eight Division Three games.

City have one of the worst goalscoring records in the Football League (in only four league games have they scored more than one goal) and attempts to sign quality strikers like Preston’s Kurt Nogan and Swindon’s Iffy Onuora appeared to fizzle out.

“I don’t understand why Andy Legg is playing as a wing-back. I can never understand that,” adds Tapscott. “He can go down that left side and get crosses in. Legg is a great crosser of the ball and wasted as a defender.”

Without doubt, several of Burrows’s summer signings have disappointed. Matt Brazier, a £100,000 buy from Fulham, has rarely featured at wing-back.

The there is midfielder Willie Boland, who arrived from Premier-ship club Coventry City. Earning a reputed £2,000-a-week, he is the highest paid player in the club’s history but he has failed to make any sort of impact.

After a bright start Winston Faerber, another wing-back signed from Dutch second division club Den Haag, is now a regular on the bench. So too is the giant German defender cum-midfielder Jorn Schwinkendorf, a £110,000 purchase from SC Freiburg.

The latter has not impressed Tap-scott. “He’s been one of Frank’s bad ones. He looks like a basketball player. He’s 6ft 5in but he can’t jump. I know he’s new to this football, but football is football wherever you are.”

City have some daunting fixtures in February and the general consensus is that this is the month which could make or break their season.

There are five league games and three of them - Brentford (home), Gillingham (away) and Notts County (away) - are against sides pushing for a play-off place.

Don Murray, City’s inspirational captain during the successful Jimmy Scoular era and another regular face at Ninian Park, believes the players are responsible for the club’s predicament.

“Without doubt Frank brought in better quality players after winning promotion but they’ve not gelled. Frank has got to take the blame at the end but some of the players ought to look at themselves and see what part they’ve played in his downfall,” says Murray.

“The results have not been good enough and the players have not been good enough. That’s the bottom line. The players have got the ability to play but that’s no good if you’re not prepared to roll up your sleeves.

“Some of the defending has been appalling, we’ve not been able to score goals and nothing has come

from the midfield players. You should expect six to eight goals from midfielders in a season.

Murray, who made 532 appearances in his 13 years at Ninian Park, continues, “There has been a lack of consistency. Cardiff have been unable to string two or three results together. The lack of goals has been the main problem.

“The team needs strengthening. I’d look at the backbone of the side - goalkeeper, centre of defence, centre midfield and the strikers. Five or six new players are needed, and I hope the money is made available.

“I think it would be a disaster if City went down but they need results and quickly. It often happens that results pick up with a new manager.

“Frank must be hugely disappointed and I’m disappointed for him. He’s a good pro and I don’t think he got the backing from the players.”