In recent times players have been suddenly loaned out for what we have been told are business reasons while other players have departed permanently to reduce the wage bill.
We fully appreciate the need for the club to operate on a more sustainable footing in the future following heavy investment by the owner, Vincent Tan, in recent years.
But, as fans we deserve a detailed explanation on the way forward for our club – a vision on where Cardiff City will be in a year, three years and five years. The club needs to be open and state clearly what its ideas are for rebuilding. Are there plans, for instance, to dispose of more of our more high profile players in the run-up to the new season?
We fear that without a blueprint for the future loyal fans, many of whom have been season ticket holders for years, will just stop coming to games and attendances will dwindle further next season. Fans have told us they are concerned about the quality of football this season.
Cardiff City has to become a club where everyone is pulling together – and fans need to have hope that things will get better sooner rather than later.
The club has started a process of re-engagement with fans after the rebranding and we acknowledge the return to blue and the development of a new badge. But it is our belief that the owner and senior executives need to go much further and quicken the pace.
We are disappointed at the lack of promised fans’ forums and Russell Slade’s apparent reluctance to meet with the fans. There also still seems no date when the club’s enormous debt will be converted into equity and members are asking us what has happened to the money from the Premier League season and parachute payments.
The re-engagement with fans should include having an elected supporter director on the board, to act as a powerful voice for ordinary fans, as soon as possible. This must not be allowed to drift if fans are not to be disillusioned further with a continuance of what some see as a separation between the club and its supporters.
Without supporters once again feeling that Cardiff City is their club, we fear, as stated, that many fans will just stay away.
Therefore, we invite the club to keep its supporters and the Trust fully informed of its plans and to take every opportunity to make constructive use of the goodwill and the desire to help which undoubtedly exists.