The Circus Show In Cardiff - Enough Is Enough!

For once, I've given myself a bit of time before typing this article. However, I'm still pretty brassed off, so there wasn't really any point in sleeping on it.

I honestly don't know where to start with this. There is nothing short of a circus show going on in Cardiff right now and the ring leader (sadly) is Paul Ragan. I'm amazed Brent Pope hasn't got him a hat for the role. Sheffield fans will know this guy though, he temporarily owned the club before Tony Smith took over. Thank Christ he did too. Cheers Tony!

I said a while ago that I felt sorry for Cardiff fans for having a team still owned by Paul Ragan. This is a guy who took hold of a microphone after the Steelers last won the league and talked for what seemed like an eternity. Nobody wanted to hear his voice, nobody cared what he thought. There were shoutings of "shut up" and "someone take that mic off him" at the arena that night. The only people we wanted to hear from were the team. Not to mention, the guy didn't seem to really get to know who some of his clubs sponsors were and how to treat them. He seemingly had someone else in charge of doing that. I forget her name but a woman came to visit us (the family business) soon after the end of the season to talk about next seasons sponsorship. We'd been paying about £1000 plus VAT for the corporate package. When the woman came along she brought with her a rather nice looking sponsorship brochure and stuff. Looked rather good...but then we saw the price for near enough the identical package that we had had for several seasons before hand under Bob Phillips. It had gone up, slightly, to the sum of about £5000 plus VAT. Yes, you read that right. We were gobsmacked. Not only that, we'd also been providing the club with a car for one of the players to use. We even insured the car for the player and his partner to use as well as obviously paying the finance costs for the car. All the club/player had to worry about was the fuel. Not that much of a cost for a car with a 1 litre engine. Yet this woman sat there and said the club had no benefit from such an arrangement. I'm sorry, but how can you possibly say that when you have had ZERO previous involvement with the club? To say the least we were staggered. We were left insulted and promptly decided not to do business with the club. It just smacked of being hungry for money. Ever since then, I've not liked Paul Ragan one bit or the way in which he does business. I've actually thought of him as a poison to the league. That's my honest opinion.

Thankfully in the Summer, Tony Smith took over the club. He came and saw us personally, snapped up our sponsorship there and then. A proper owner and a proper businessman. For the record, he did that within 48 hours of taking control of the club and pretty much within 24 hours of me contacting him.

However, with all of that being said, I never in a million years expected anything like the events of this season to transpire in Cardiff under Ragan's ownership, even if I did fear the worst may one day happen.

Firstly there has been the very public shafting of player/coach Gerad Adams. The guy lived and breathed the Cardiff Devils. He was able to get good performances out of his club over the course of a season, over the years, especially when it mattered the most. He may not have won any titles there, but under his watch the Devils went on a record breaking winning streak a few years ago and have also been the only team in EIHL history to be in the final four at the showpiece of the EIHL season, the playoff weekend.

He started the season as player/coach, then at one point he was just a coach, then back to player/coach it seemed and also had a stint where he was the "head of player development"...what the hell sort of job title is that? Eventually enough was enough and Gerad and the Devils parted ways.

Fantastic treatment of such a loyal servant to a historic club in his testimonial year, right? No. Not by a long shot.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it would appear that Brent Pope was seemingly digging the knife into the back of Adams, as he soon took over Adams role behind the bench, much to the dismay of some of the Devils fan base, as well as league wide.

The sad thing is, we're not done there either.

We've seen Brent Pope have arguments on Twitter with a Devils fan. It even got discussed on Cats Whiskers TV on YouTube. You simply cannot and should not argue with the people that essentially put their money into the club that they passionately support and the club you work for. It's just ridiculous and is also far from professional.

Having said that, I'm not surprised by Pope's actions in this instance. I vividly remember back when I was a kid, then supporting the London Knights, an incident I had with Brent Pope during warm-up before a game.

The game before the one with the incident, I'd done the fairly universal hand gesture at the plexi glass during warm-up to indicate that I'd like a puck. During the warm-up Brent skated past, nodded in my direction and mouthed "end of warm-up". The end of warm-up came and he skated over, puck in hand and gently threw it over to the plexi to me. However, the next week, there was a younger lad stood next to me with his father. He wanted a puck, but I could tell they were newbies. I told them what to do hand gesture wise, but it wasn't really working. So I joined in, in the hope that a player would chuck a puck over and if I got it, I could then pass it on to the lad. Brent Pope see's what I'm doing, smacks the plexi with his stick as he skates past, and turns and shouts at me "you've already f****** got one!"

Not exactly what you'd call appropriate behaviour from a professional athlete and someone that should also be a role model.

For the record, the young kid eventually got a puck from a different player.

What has really set all of this off though in the last 24-48 hours is the removal of long term back up netminder Joe Myers. Cardiff born and bred and another guy that lives and breathes the Devils colours with a massive amount of pride. He even went on record earlier on saying that playing for the Devils had been a dream of his since he was a kid...and now this is how the club and ownership repays him? It's just not on. It's really not. Goodness knows what his brother (a current Devils player himself) thinks of all of this. I wouldn't be surprised if Matt left the club after the season finishes and goes back to Nottingham.

It also says a lot as well that former Devils players have expressed their dismay at what is going on with the club over social media. Mike Prpich has at some point in time described Brent Pope as a snake, while Devin Didiomete took to Facebook and made a comment on a status, saying "I feel bad for the people of Cardiff and the players being put through this horrific year".

Fans of the Devils are now also considering boycotting their home games as a silent protest. I can't say I'm really that surprised and to be honest, I actually support them with it.

I've publicly said on social media myself that I hope the Devils fail to qualify for the quarter final stages of the Playoffs. That's nothing against the fans or the players. I know some good people in Cardiff and whenever I've been to the BBT they are extremely passionate fans as well. I love that in a hockey fan. Passionate fans are an asset to any club and if you do something they feel is wrong, they will damn well let you know about it. I also have a great deal of time and respect for players as well, especially ones that are trying to play through massive off-ice adversity

I just want to see them fail to qualify because of their owner and their coach, who talking of which is going off to Sochi soon for the Winter Olympics with seemingly no-one left in charge of the team bench at the moment. I wouldn't be surprised if Max Birbraer was a temporary player/coach in Pope's absence.

The whole situation is quite frankly a mess. It's a joke. It's a circus show. Fans league wide, not just in Cardiff, are getting more and more sickened with what is taking place in the bay.

I encourage fans from around the league to continue to support the Devils fan base and it's players, especially those that have been cut/removed/left the club. Let's not forget two other longtime servants to the club. Neil Francis (who walked after the way the ownership treated Gerad Adams) and Phill Hill (who was seemingly made a bit of a scapegoat for Cardiff's early season failures on the ice) have been caught up in all of this too. It really isn't an easy time for those fans right now and it certainly cannot be an easy time skating on that ice amid such turmoil.

Hockey fans are one big hockey family no matter what jersey somebody wears. Not just in this country, but worldwide. When clubs are under threat or players get treated the way in which some of the Devils players have been this season, they become a big part of the family as well. We stand united as one. If you mess with one of us, you mess with us all.

As for Paul Ragan, to be honest, nobody really likes you any more. Nobody wants you here. It's glaringly obvious now. You are killing a club with a massive amount of history. You are ruining your fans passion for the game. You are continually driving them away. You have successfully got yourself league wide hatred.

Do the right thing and just sod off. Leave the club. Actually, go one further and leave the sport entirely. Never come back. Never show your face in a hockey rink again. Your actions as owner of the Devils have brought shame upon the club and upon the league itself. It is people like you that make your club and this league look like a joke and are holding them back from growing and moving forward and becoming better.

Oh, and while you're at it, take that Heisenberg wannabe Brent Pope and his hat collection with you as well.

Enough is enough.

Thank you for reading folks. You know the drill.

@IAmMcCausland
@TomWalkeden
@AwkwardGinge
@FrozenSteelBlog

Cheers!

Alan
@AwkwardGinge