Upcoming Arsenal Opponent News

We're not normally in the business of being Your Source For All The Latest Premier League Information With Traffic And Weather On The 8's - we're an Arsenal site, after all, and therefore tend to focus on Arsenal comings, goings, doings, and dealings.  Today, though, brings a little bit of news that concerns an upcoming Arsenal opponent, so we figured we'd talk about it a bit here, with it being a slow-ish week and all.

We've all heard about the clownshoes ownership shenanigans going on at Cardiff City - for one, the owner, Vincent Tan, a Malaysian deciding to change the team's primary color from blue to red, for reasons.  He also changed the club's crest pretty dramatically, dropping the traditional bluebird for a red dragon, which is ostensibly Welsh, but which still upset the fans greatly.  As an Arsenal fan, of course, I guess I can't really bitch about crest changes too much, but still.

Tan has been very public since the start of the season, and even parts of last season, about his dislike for Malky Mackay and the front office staff at Cardiff - Tan fired Iain Moody, Cardiff's sporting director, earlier this year and ever since then has set his sights on relieving Mackay of his duties. Tan even went so far as to send Mackay an email a couple weeks ago that basically said "quit or get fired".  Mackay, being a smart person who knows contract law and understands what "contract buyout" means, sensibly refused to quit; today, Tan got his way, as he fired Mackay following yesterday's loss to Southampton.

No news has been released about potential successors, other than to say that one will be appointed "in due course".  What this means for Arsenal is...not much, but that Cardiff probably won't have a permanent manager in place by the time Cardiff cross the Severn Bridge and head to London on Wednesday.

I know next to nothing about Cardiff City FC, and also next to nothing about Malky Mackay.  But I do know crazypants when I see it, and Vincent Tan is it.  He admitted he didn't know anything about soccer when he bought the team, and he's running the team as if he either still doesn't know, or knows and doesn't give a damn.

If you ask me, Mackay got the better end of the deal - he probably got a nice contract buyout, and he no longer has to work for the worst owner in sports.  Say what you will about Stan Kroenke, but he at least has the good sense to write the checks and stay the hell out of the way.