Cardiff owner gives bizarre pep talk to players

London - Cardiff City's Malaysian owner Vincent Tan has tried to fire up his struggling players with a bizarre pep talk urging them to be more like ugly men walking round with beautiful wives.

Tan had grown frustrated by Cardiff's lack of goal power during a difficult season in England's second tier and decided to take matters into his own hands with a training ground tirade this week.

"I gave them a pep talk and said they have got to start shooting. Have you seen ugly men walking around with a very beautiful wife? Well that's because they've asked 30, 40, 50 times before getting a yes," Tan was quoted by local media as telling his players.

"On the other hand, you'll see a handsome man ask once, get a 'no' in response and that's it.

"So the more you try, the more success you'll have. We need a lot more goal attempts, we'll score more and win games. Not only that, the fans will love it, too."

The latest outburst of the controversial Tan's turbulent reign in south Wales was hardly a vote of confidence for under pressure Cardiff manager Russell Slade.

But, with Cardiff sitting ninth in the Championship table and five points adrift of the play-off places, the 63-year-old billionaire fears his side will miss out on a lucrative promotion to the Premier League unless they heed his words.

"Don't respond by saying I know nothing about football. I've learned an awful lot, I see players regularly scoring in the Premier League from distance and we have to do that," Tan said.

"In every match I want to see 30 or 40 attempts on goal. Just shoot from 25, 30 yards.

"What's the point of passing, passing, passing. Unless you're Lionel Messi looking for a tap in, it's not going to work.

"If you shoot 30 times you'll get three goals, 40 times will be four goals, 50 times and you'll get five goals."