Blake points finger at Cardiff board after Bulut exit

Former Cardiff City striker Nathan Blake believes the sacking of manager Erol Bulut has highlighted the failings of the club's hierarchy.

Bulut departed on Sunday, six winless games into the 2024-25 season with one goal and one point at the foot of the Championship table in their worst league start for 94 years.

Blake told BBC Radio Wales: “It’s not just a problem that’s come around now, I’ve been saying it for six or seven years, maybe longer. I don’t look at the hierarchy at Cardiff and think really they know what they’re doing.

"They’ve been in charge 10, 11 maybe 12 seasons now so it’s a massive gamble, you’re gambling with a lot of money, but it seems to be, at the end of the day, one singer, one song, one person makes decisions and those decisions aren’t always to the benefit of the club.”

The search is now on for a fifth new manager in the space of three years, prompting Blake to say: "Whoever takes the job is a brave person."

In December 2020 during a slump under Neil Harris, Blake was "almost sick of his own voice" in urging the club to adopt a philosophy that players, fans and staff could support.

In September 2021 as the end of Mick McCarthy's reign was on the horizon, Blake said: "The decision-making at the top has been pretty woeful."

The sense of a Bluebirds permacrisis remained in early 2023.

Bulut was initially in charge on a one-year deal completed in June 2023. He signed a new two-year contract after protracted negotiations in June this year.

“It seems to be a bit of a merry-go-round for Cardiff when managers do come in," said Blake.

"There seems to be a lot of toing and froing whether he was going to get a new contract and then a few players signed and then it seemed to just fall off the edge of a cliff.

"Why? I don’t know, but once you start the season poorly and you can’t pick up a result and you’re conceding so many goals, that was, I think, a major problem for them, confidence gets knocked."

Blake says the hunt for a 12th permanent manager in Tan's 14-year reign is a "minefield".

Former Wales international Blake added: "You’ve got to get to a point at some point where the owners and the chairman and CEO, they sit and look at themselves and ask the question ‘are we doing this right, is this the right way to go about things?’.

"But it won’t happen, there’s no sort of self-revision of anything or looking at anything they do, it’ll just be the same old, same old. Whoever takes the job is a brave person, that’s all I’d say.

"There’ll always be someone because someone always thinks they can turn it around, ‘I can do better, I can manage this situation’.

"But until you get in the situation that I think the last 12 or 13 managers have found themselves in, you realise it’s not as straightforward as it should be.

"You’ve not got the backing, you’re not making decisions, there’s no sort of philosophy at the club. It runs deep.”