“He’s going to offer a lot to the club” – Cardiff City fan pundit reacts to Sabri Lamouchi appointment | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Cardiff City, for the third time in over a year, have ushered in a new era with the appointment of Sabri Lamouchi as their new manager.

The Bluebirds have had a turbulent time of things recently when it comes to who is in the dugout, with Steve Morison replacing Mick McCarthy in October 2021 – initially on a temporary basis – and when Morison himself was dispensed of last September, it was the turn of Mark Hudson to have a go in the hot-seat.

The ex-Cardiff defender only lasted four months though, with a downturn in results leading to his sacking by owner Vincent Tan.

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And he has now been replaced by a man of experience in the form of Lamouchi, with the 51-year-old’s only stint in English football being at Nottingham Forest, where he spent over a year in charge.

The Frenchman has also brought in club icon Sol Bamba as his assistant, having managed the former centre-back when the head coach of the Ivory Coast national side, and supporters are hoping that the duo can lead a turn-around of their fortunes this season.

It is an appointment that has been approved by FLW’s Bluebirds fan pundit Ben Johnsey, who believes appointing someone with the experience of Lamouchi can only be a good thing for the club’s survival battle.

“I’m really happy with the appointment of Sabri Lamouchi,” Ben said.

“I think he’s going to offer a lot to the club, he did well at Forest and was unlucky to not get into the play-offs with them, and when a manager leaves a club after being sacked and still has praise like he does from Forest fans that Cardiff fans have seen on social media, it really shows the type of man we’re bringing in.

“To see a club legend like Sol Bamba come back as well, it is really nice to see with a long-term manager, and for me I think it’s a lot better than a lot of the options we had.

“We heard about the likes of Neil Warnock with Bamba as his number two – my worry for that would have been that Bamba would be thrown in at the deep end when Warnock would’ve left at the end of the season.

“Lamouchi himself I’m very excited to see how he does at the club, the players he brings in towards the end of the transfer window and I think he really could be the man to keep Cardiff City in the league.”

The Verdict

Cardiff have hired a manager who got Nottingham Forest very close to the Championship play-offs in his one and only full season in charge of English football, so it has to be considered a coup.

He is by no means a young up-and-comer like Morison or Hudson before him, but Cardiff clearly needed a change of direction to what they’d experienced since Mick McCarthy left well over a year ago.

And bringing Bamba in as his right-hand man will only help endear the Frenchman to the fanbase from the get-go, as the towering Ivorian is a very popular figure amongst supporters.

The signs are positive but the time to really judge will be when Lamouchi gets to manage the club for the very first time, and looking at their squad they should have enough to put a run together and move away from the drop zone.