Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan has insisted that the club would not have been promoted to the Premier League without his investment.

Malky Mackay guided the Bluebirds to the top flight last season but was dismissed during the Christmas period, and despite receiving fierce criticism for his departure, Tan believes that it was wrong for him to be portrayed as "a villain".

Tan told BBC Sport: "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.

"Overall, I think that I would say even 90% of the fans are supportive. The problem is that you have 10% or 5% that are not supportive, who are more vocal. And then you have the British press who have 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 that the majority are very supportive. I go to the club, many people come to shake my hand, want to shake hands with me, want my autograph, so generally, I think it is not too bad."

Cardiff are currently three points from safety in the Premier League table.