League One next season. What is the future for Cardiff City & Vincent Tan?

• Cardiff City were relegated to League One after finishing bottom of the Championship.
• It’s set to be their first time in the third tier since the 2002-03 season.
• Fans have expressed unhappiness with the way owner Vincent Tan and chairman Mehmet Dalman have been running the club. 
• Players like Ethan Horvath and Yousef Salech could be in line to leave the club.

On April 26, just under six years after they were relegated from the Premier League, Cardiff City went down from the Championship this season and are set to play in the third tier for the first time in over 20 years. 

The Bluebirds will be playing in League One for the 2025-26 season after they finished bottom of the Championship, marking a new low point in a gradual decline that was only temporarily halted with a 12th-place finish the season before. So, what’s next for the Welsh team as they find themselves in uncertain territory?

Slow decline and fan unhappiness

The club has had a sometimes turbulent time under owner Vincent Tan, who took control in 2010. Two years later, he changed their home kit colours from blue, white and yellow to red and black and changed the club crest too, causing outrage among fans, and it was only in 2015 that the club brought the blue home kit back. 

A year later, however, Cardiff won the Championship title and enjoyed their maiden Premier League season, which ended with relegation. Another solitary top-flight season followed in 2018-19, but relegation was overshadowed by the sad death of Argentine striker Emiliano Sala, who died on board an aircraft that crashed while he was on his way to join the club from Nantes in January 2019.  

Since that season, they have finished fifth, eighth, 18th, 21st, only surviving due to a points deduction affecting Reading and then 12th, before finishing 24th this campaign. Manager Erol Bulut, who only signed a two-year contract extension last June, was sacked in September after getting just one point from the first six league games. First-team coach Omer Riza stepped up as interim manager before being given the job permanently until the end of the season in December, but he was then sacked himself in April, with Cardiff player Aaron Ramsey taking over for the rest of the campaign. 

Tan and chairman Mehmet Dalman, who has been at Cardiff since 2012, are controversial figures with the club’s supporters, bringing Premier League football to the city twice, but overseeing a steady decline. That Riza was given the managerial role rather than more experienced Championship specialists annoyed some fans, while the club colours debacle still rankles with many, and, simply, the squad has gradually become worse in quality over the years. 

But could it get worse before it gets better? While a change in ownership would likely be good for the club, who would take them on? Tan continues to support the club, and it owes him about £68 million in loans, which will be written off or converted to equity, with interest waived. 

Unless Tan and Dalman can find a prospective buyer who is happy to match their valuation, they’ll be staying at the club. 

Managerial uncertainty and squad changes

We don’t yet know who Cardiff’s new manager will be, either. Aaron Ramsey was the bookmaker's favourite to take the role; he is a Cardiff and Wales legend, but he’s very young and inexperienced. It matters not as the former Arsenal & Juventus midfielder has elected to continue his playing career with 7 time Mexican champions Club Universidad Nacional. Who saw that coming? Charlton Athletic’s Nathan Jones was also mentioned, but the Welshman has just opted not to drop a division to move back closer to home & instead signed a new 5 year deal with Charlton. 

Des Buckingham, most recently at Oxford United, is another name mooted, as are Leicester City coach Brian Barry-Murphy and former Bolton Wanderers boss Ian Evatt. 

As for the players, Cardiff’s squad for League One is a bit of an unknown. The club hasn’t published this year’s retained and released list, though the likes of Anwar El Ghazi, Yakou Méïté, Andy Rinomhota and Ramsey himself all have contracts expiring at the end of this month. 

Goalkeeper Ethan Horvath, defenders Perry Ng, midfielder Callum O’Dowda and young forward Yousef Salech could be among those most likely to leave, probably to teams still in the Championship, and it’s debatable whether the quality is there throughout the rest of the squad to fire Cardiff back to the Championship at the first attempt. 

They’ll likely need to develop a new core, while it could be a big season for some of the team’s younger players, defender Luey Giles, Ronan Kpakio and Dylan Lawlor, forwards Cian Ashford and Tanatswa Nyakuhwa most notably and midfielder Alex Robertson, who’s slightly older at 22. 

A competitive league

There are some strong teams to contend with, too. League One could be more competitive this season with Birmingham City’s 111-point season unlikely to be replicated, but the other two teams relegated from the Championship, Luton Town and Plymouth Argyle, could both be in contention for quick returns. 

Huddersfield Town, after a disappointing season last time out, could put up more of a challenge this year, while Bolton Wanderers, Stockport County, Wycombe Wanderers and Leyton Orient could all be in with a chance of going up. 

Make no mistake, Cardiff have players capable of winning promotion from League One, but the issues they face off the field with fan discontentment and Tan’s ownership could prove a distraction. Fresh owners, in the long term, would probably be the best thing for the Bluebirds, as even if they do get promoted a year from now, it would only be papering over the cracks. But until prospective owners put in a sufficient offer, nothing is likely to change.

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