What's in a re-brand?

 
There's still a lot of useless anger and discontent being spread around by some of my fellow Bluebirds supporters about this whole blue-to-red kit change debacle. So, obviously, it's my duty to put their mind at ease and let them know that they're being a bunch of sooky bitches.

For those of you who don't know, a few months ago plans were leaked that Cardiff City FC were going to re-brand from its traditional blue kit to a red kit for home games. Also, the badge was to change to incorporate a big ass welsh dragon. This would come with a much needed 100 million pound investment (more on that later). There was a big uproar amongst fans and the plan was scrapped by the Malaysian owners and the investment was said to be all but dropped as well.

This led to a cooling amongst the fans. Many of us obviously thought about it and realized it wasn't that big of a deal and the idea was brought back into play and ultimately implemented.

Now, Cardiff a few years back were in bad shape. I mean, real bad shape. They were apparently hours away from going into administration and needed a massive cash boost, stat. A huge debt to the Langston Corporation is most of the reason why. Around 20-30 million pounds at the time, now it's believed to be lower, around 10-15 million.

Then my boys Tan Sri Vincent Tan and Dato Chan Tien Ghee turned up and, to quote Cameron Poe, saved the fuckin' day.

So, cut to 2012 and this big 100 million pound cash investment is to pay off that debt, enhance the club's training facilities and buy more players. Because we have like... 22. Of which, 11 are worthy of being in the first team. All we have to do is swallow some pride and play in red. Which is apparently a big fuckin' deal.

I say, why is it?

I mean, we aren't the first club to re-brand when in dire straights.

I can feel a collective turn of heads at that statement. It's true.

Let's rewind back to 1961, Leeds United were in financial trouble and were one loss away from relegation into the old Division 3 (in modern standards, essentially League One). Along comes a manager by the name of Don Revie. Guess what the first thing he does is? Change the kit from a blue and yellow number to an all white strip, inspired by the great Real Madrid.

"Though (Revie's) decision effectively jettisoned forty years of United's history, astonishingly little was made of it at the time. The replacement colours were to be all white, in quite deliberate imitation of the famous all white of the finest team in the world, Real Madrid. To re-profile a club so efficiently on such a whim demonstrated the man's flair and vision, drawing a line under the failures of the past."
- Bagchi and Rogerson.

Don Revie's Leeds United went on to win two League Championships, two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups (a precursor to the UEFA Cup/Europa League), one Division Two Championship, one FA Cup, one League Cup and one Charity Shield in his 13 year reign as manager.

  
Let's go back even further. 1902. A club in heavy debt by the name of Newton Heath LYR Football Club are served a winding up order. Four men, found by the team captain Harry Stafford, agreed to invest 500 pounds each to save the club. Under the new ownership something happened. They changed their hit from green and yellow to a lovely red shirt with white shorts and black socks and on April 24, 1902, Manchester United was born. One of the most successful clubs in the world.

1903. Italy. Juventus changed from wearing pink to black and white after receiving a delivery of Notts County shirts by mistake. They became the famous bianconeri, and won their first title within two years.

 Juventus are the most successful Italian club of all time, winning 52 official titles since.

Established in 1886, Arsenal FC
played in a burgundy shirt.
In 1933, however, Arsenal went from playing in burgundy to the red with white sleeves kit we know today. They have won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups.

So, as you can see, some of the most successful teams in history have gone through what Cardiff City are going through now. Oh, wait, I forgot one.

1899. A club was formed and named Riverside FC. In 1907, they changed their name to Cardiff City FC and adopted a blue and white kit. They became the mighty Bluebirds. Boom.

As for that pesky badge change? Get over it. Badges change. Here's some examples.

Arsenal FC

Stoke City

  Everton

Ajax

Real Madrid

Chelsea

In summary, there's no reason why Cardiff City fans should be up in arms about the kit change. Some of the most successful teams in the sports history have done it and gone onto achieve all their legendary achievements. Why don't we all try to look on the more positive side of this instead of being whiney little shits? The club is still the club. Walk into its HQ and all the same achievements will be there. The 1927 FA Cup win, beating Real Madrid at Ninian Park in 1971, the 2008 FA Cup final and last years great, great Carling Cup run to the final, not to mention the final itself, where we took Liverpool to penalties and showed the world who we really are. We displayed so much passion and heart and true determination. That's us. Cardiff. Wales.

So please, for the love of Christ -

New Duds...

 Does anyone else hate Black Canary's new kit? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but sky blue with robot arms is NOT the first thing that pops into mind when one thinks of Dinah Lance, right?

There's more like it. The girl's angry. And sexy. Not from the 31st century, DC. 

This movie is going to be THE movie of the year, if not the decade, if not all time. It screams too much of awesomeness for it not to be.

HOWEVER.

I would like to see something different for the next set of films. Why not pick up a few years into the man's career? Why not introduce a Robin or two?  Shit, why not have the whole Bat-family up and running?

Point is, after all this realism, I'd love to really see this -

Yeah.

I also got ideas for how DC can top The Avengers. But I'm not willing to share them here... yet.

That's all for tonight! Hopefully my next post will be more in-depth. I'm working on some stuff, for example, a write up on why all these Cardiff City fans having sooks over the kit change are just being bitches and other things to various other degrees of... stuff.

Take it easy!

GREAT DANES!

Ok, so my first post was pretty negative, so I figure I'll kick off with a bit of positivity today.

So I woke up this morning to find that Denmark beat the Netherlands in their first game at the Euros. Seeing as my beloved Wales never make it into a tournament, Denmark has become the team that I support in these things. So that was awesome to find out first thing in the AM. Good from the lads.

Also, way to go Sampdoria for getting promotion back to Serie A on first attempt. They should never have really sunk that low after getting Champions League football two seasons back. But there you go. Good to see my boy Nicola Pozzi scoring the goal to send them back too.

 Andy Dunn is a twat. This is what he had to say about my Bluebirds' new badge in his column over at mirror.co.uk - "Seemingly designed on the back of a fag packet, the only passion it is likely to evoke is hatred. And fire is what should be taken to it." Fuck off, idiot. There's a reason you're not in the badge designing business. Stick to what you know. Which apparently isn't football either seeing as you think Joe Hart is arguably the best keeper at the Euros. I can list eight better right now off the top of my head. Watch.
1. Iker Casillas - Spain
2. Igor Akinfeev - Russia
3. Petr Cech - Czech Republic
4. Manuel Neuer - Germany
5. Victor Valdes - Spain
6. Pepe Reina - Spain
7. Gianluigi Buffon - Italy
8. Hugo Lloris - France
See?

If you're in the Sydney area this coming weekend, be sure to check out the Supernova Pop Culture Expo. Doc Brown will be there! That's right, THE Doc Brown. I'm pumped.

Well, that's about all today boys and girls. Lots of football today, might be for a little while too if them Danes keep winning.

Ayatollah!

Sam

Welcome to my View from the Bottom

Hola folks!

This is my first time trying anything like this, a lady at work suggested it to me and I thought I'd give it a try. WHY I decided to give it a try whilst in the midst of unpacking my shit into a new apartment and nursing a mild hangover is beyond me. But fuck it, I'm here. Deal with it.

Basically I have opinions and I want them to be heard. Read. Whatever. There's not gonna be a specific theme to anything I write, I'm just gonna ramble on about stuff and hopefully people start reading and maybe laugh a little. Little bit of forewarning, any insults or derogatory remarks are directed at those responsible for the blatant stupidity I'm talking about at any given point, not at you, dear reader/readerette.

There's kinda heaps happening at the moment so I'm gonna start with the most generally popular thing I can think of - TV.

Specifically that new Arrow show that's coming to the CW soon. I just watched the trailer for it over at ign.com (legendary site by the way. Fucking amazing.) and I mean, Christ, REALLY?! CW, you are so far off the mark with this thing, I swear to Christ it's literally killing me.

Forget the shitty acting for a second. For the benefit of the CW, let's just go through the list of what this trailer presented us:

1. Oliver Queen gets stranded on an island for x amount of time and whoops some drug dealers' asses. So far that's 50% right. Not bad.

2. He returns to his home Starling City. WRONG. It's Star City, Dickwads. I can understand why you extended it to Starling, for the whole 'realism' bit. But I mean, fuck, the greatest stories this character has ever had were set in Seatle, otherwise known to the rest of the world as a REAL FUCKING CITY.

3. He has parents and a family? WRONG. They died way back in the day. A hunting accident or something. Read the fucking comics CW.

4. You don't know it from the trailer but the broad he's saying he's sorry to, the love interest, is supposed to be Dinah Lance aka Black Canary. FUCK OFF! They never met until well AFTER he became a vigilante, something she's supposed to be as well. Also, don't give a playboy a fucking love interest, play it Bond style. Part of what makes Oliver Queen such an awesome character is the fact that despite his life altering stay on that island, he's still a deeply flawed character. He still bangs everything with two tits and a heart beat. To the point where he has not one but TWO bastard sons to TWO separate women. The island didn't change him into a good person, it just gave him skills and altered his life priorities.

5. He's killing people. Willingly. Which is just WRONG. Read The Longbow Hunters. He killed his first bad guy in that story and it tore him up inside. He's not a killer. He's not The Punisher.

6. A black outfit and just 'Arrow' as his vigilante name? For fuck sake, CW. The guy is the GREEN FUCKING ARROW! Put him in a green hoody and some green pants.

Characters aren't open to interpretation, CW. They can evolve like people can, but you can't go and mess with the basic fundamentals of what makes a certain character who they are. Would you give Batman back his parents? No. Would you make James Bond a shy, mumbling loser? No. It just wouldn't work. And that's why it won't work with Arrow.

If any of you at home reading this want to know more about Green Arrow and see where the CW are getting it all wrong for yourselves, I recommend you go down to your local comic book shop (or Amazon) and buy the following Green Arrow books-
-The Longbow Hunters
-Year One
-The Wonder Year
-Quiver
-The Sounds of Violence
-All of the Judd Winnick run.

I'm a big Cardiff City FC fan. Love 'em to bits. We just rebranded to a new crest (see above) and a red kit. This is after 102 years of wearing blue and having that little Bluebird up there as our main feature on the badge. Massive, massive uproar back home over it. BUT, I'm down with it. So long as chief executive Alan Whiteley makes sure that this isn't the beginning of some larger identity rape from the Malaysian owners.

And to the fans I say this -

Peace and Love

Sam