Cardiff owner Vincent Tan has launched a staunch defence of his tenure in south Wales and believes he has been portrayed unfairly as a villain.
Tan's time at the Cardiff City Stadium has been dogged by controversy with the owner changing the club's colours, much to the displeasure of the fans, and dispensing with the services of promotion-winning manager Malky Mackay after rows over transfers.
The Malaysian businessman, however, insists that he retains the backing of the majority of Bluebirds fans and believes he has been given a rough ride by the British press, who he branded “a little bit racist”.
“Do you think that Malky Mackay would have got us promoted without my investment? Without me giving him money? After we got promoted the fans were all very supportive, everybody was appreciative,” he told BBC Sport.
“Overall, even now, I think, I would say even 90 per cent of the fans are supportive, the problem is you have 10 per cent or five per cent or maybe even a few hundred people that are not supportive, who are more vocal.
“And then you have the British press who have has been misled by some people, feeding them wrong information and saying what a terrible person I am and trying to make fun of me and paint me like a villain.
“But my experience is the majority are very supportive. I go to the club, many people come and shake my hand, want to shake hands with me, want my autograph, so generally I think it is not too bad.
“I will say that the British press is unfair and maybe they are unfair because because we didn’t tell our side of the story that well.
“And sometimes the British press (are) maybe a little bit racist and quite unfair.”
Mackay was dismissed in December amid claims from Tan that he vastly overspent in the summer and chief executive Simon Lim recently released a statement criticising the signing of striker Andreas Cornelius who left the club in January after not scoring a goal.
Mackay has since been replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Tan is confident that the Norwegian can keep the club in the Premier League, despite them currently being three points adrift of safety.
“He (Mackay) didn’t do very well at Watford, but somehow our CEO and our chairman hired him and replaced Dave Jones,” Tan said. “Dave Jones actually did much better. So I think Malky got lucky when he came to Cardiff.”
He added: “Although we’re not doing very well now, we are in the relegation zone, I’m convinced and believe that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be able to keep us in the Premier League.”
Despite the criticism, Tan insists he is in it for the long haul at Cardiff and believes that eventually the fans who are against him will be made to eat their words.
“The club would have gone bust many times if I had not been around,” he said. “I came to invest in the club and I just put in some money and I thought that’s about it, actually I didn’t know the club was in such bad shape.
“I made a decision and when I make a decision to do something I want to stick by it and see it through (to) the end and make it a success. And likewise the same for Cardiff.
“We were going through some difficulties, we had the wrong people doing things for us but I think we will get it right.
“And I think when this thing is over, fans will understand and they should regret what they have done to me and maybe some of them should apologise to me.”
