I was less than impressed when I heard that Sam Hamman is planning a total image revamp for Cardiff City, changing the name, nickname and colour scheme, if he takes over the club. If Hamman thinks he can blot out 73 years of failure in one fell swoop he's mistaken.Not many people realise that when Cardiff City finished runners up to Wolves in what was then the Fourth Division in 1988 they achieved the unique feat of :
No other club can match their
record for being second best. It is this heritage that
we must continue to protect. It must have taken Hamman all of three
or four minutes to come up with the concept of Cardiff Celts but
a little more thought should be expended before people start burning
off their tattoos. The name Cardiff Celts would, I think be a
curse in Europe. After all, the original Cardiff Celts had an
appalling record against European opposition, never really recovering
from defeat against Rome in 55 AD.I'm not totally against the
concept of a name change but I think the new name should reflect
the status of both the City and the club.
Any of these names could easily find support among supporters. The same argument can be applied to the club's new nickname. The Bluebirds are, according to self appointed Club historian Graeme Lloyd, named after a play staged at the New Theatre circa 1910. Lloyd is clearly insane. City could easily have been named after a toffee wrapper found in the street . The truth of the matter is that it doesn't matter.
As Hamman has rightly pointed out, a nickname should reflect the playing style of the team. So, apparently after dismissing such worthy suggestions as The Dead Iguanas, and Poncy Hairdressers, Hamman wisely settled on The Dragons. This name obviously differentiates Cardiff Celts from Barry Town (also known as the Dragons), Glamorgan Cricket Club (also known as the Dragons) and The Cardiff Blue Dragons, a rugby league team based at Ninian Park in the early 80s.
I was disappointed with Hamman's design for the club badge. It seemed to me to fail to capture the essence of the club. Personally, I'm still annoyed that the club did not adopt my own design of a few years back, a police shield divided into quarters, each quarter featuring an emblem. Namely, a bovver boot, half a house brick, a broken window and a baseball bat.