Cardiff City have finally got their man – now their next objective really begins

The protracted Cardiff City saga of the last few months — Erol Bulut's contract negotiations — was all-consuming. Now that's sorted, though, the club have a clear run and a full summer in order to ready the club for a tilt at the top six next season.

Cardiff were never really equipped to challenge for promotion last season and the fact they saw themselves in the dizzying heights of fifth when they beat Bristol City back in October was perhaps a false dawn. After two years of battling relegation and a summer transfer window under a partial embargo, it would have taken some effort for Cardiff to maintain that run.

But there is no reason why next term the Bluebirds cannot be more consistently competitive in that top half of the table. They have their man in Bulut at the helm and there is a hope that there will be a continuation of the upward curve of winning football matches that we saw last season.

So, what are the questions which still need answering in the coming months ahead of the 2024/25 Championship campaign kicking off? Let's take a look...

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Pre-season plans

While Bulut's situation remained up in the air, so did the club's pre-season plans. Thankfully, that's all being tied up.

The players are due back in on June 24 to begin their pre-season in earnest, while the club are in the process of finalising their European training camp for next month.

Last year the players enjoyed a week in the Algarve, their first foreign pre-season trip in years, and are set to jet abroad for a similar trip this time around, with opposition still being finalised before plans can be revealed.

Bolster coaching staff

One of Bulut's pre-requisites before committing to two more years at the club was to bolster his coaching staff.

Cardiff have Nikolaos Karydas, Mario Galinovic, Nadir Sonmez and Tom Ramasut on the staff, but Bulut wants at least one more body in to help improve the team tactically and also to personally develop individual players, too.

One person we understood to be in the mix is former first-team coach James Rowberry, which you can read more about here. The hope is that appointing another coach, preferably with Championship knowledge, will really help to stop the rot when those runs of unfavourable results, which we saw last year, begin to stretch.

For the likes of Bulut, Karydas, Galinovic and Sonmez, they are still learning the Championship, having had only one season in the UK so far. They will be all the better for it, but having more tactical nous pertaining to British football, particularly in the Championship, can only be viewed as a positive.

Bulk out recruitment

Bulut gave a considered answer when asked about the club's recruitment department last season. Speaking after the appointment of Andrii Fedchenkov as lead scout back in January, Bulut said: "I think we need more quality scouts like him, to work all over and to watch all over. I cannot follow it as manager, I have to prepare training sessions and focus on my team.

"We have got in one quality, good guy. He was in PAOK before, Shakhtar (Donetsk) too. I think he will be helpful for us, what he knows. He has data he can show us and bring us players to watch and to say if they are good for us.

"On this, we have to work a lot. Not only on this, we have to work on many small details inside the club to get a better level, to get the club to a better a level. We need a better structure. We cannot hope, or just say it's luck, no, it's not like that that. It's not about luck. We have to build. We have to build."

The people making these decisions and identifying the talent are a hugely important cog in the wheel and Cardiff cannot overlook the need to inject more quality into their recruitment department.

Sources at Cardiff have indicated that the club's recruitment department needs revamping in order to improve their hit-rate when it comes to incomings and the Bluebirds are working to address that particular area this summer. That, like the coaching staff, was high on Bulut's agenda.

Since Kevin Beadell left a year ago — he went on to work wonders at Sheffield Wednesday in order to help keep them up — Paddy Deboys has been tasked with heading up player recruitment. But, being a rookie in that role, he likely needs help and that makes the need to recruit good people around him of the utmost importance this summer.

New training ground

A longer-term plan, but still a huge part of Cardiff City's future and an important summer for the club with regards to getting their own training facility.

The club needed to break down on the new training ground by the end of May to comply with agreed planning conditions and it's understood that has happened.

When the club's accounts were released earlier this year, chairman Mehmet Dalman confirmed that an agreement was imminent and talks were at an "advanced stage" over securing a 150-year lease on the land a short distance away from their current Vale of Glamorgan base to build the facilities.

At the moment, the facility is shared by the FAW and it has long been an ambition for the club to break away from that site and have their own place.

The club hope to open the facility in time for use in 2026 and this all now seems to be moving on swiftly. Funding for the facility is being explored, with owner Vincent Tan, sponsorship, naming rights and possibly even retail bonds all on the table.

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Adding goals and developing playing style

Pre-season is useful for really drilling down and nailing playing style. It was one consistent criticism throughout the whole of last year and something the coaching staff must get right this summer.

Cardiff's early-season promise and attacking football quickly subsided at an alarming rate last season — granted injuries had a part to play in that, too — but one would like to think that Bulut will know what he wants to do and how to implement it next season.

Attack-wise, City's ability to score goals was substandard. When questions were asked over how they were trying to score, there was an emphasis on getting crosses into the box, but Cardiff were one of the worst teams at producing accurate crosses, instead they opted to shuffle inside and crowded the middle of the pitch.

With target-men strikers in Kion Etete, Yakou Meite and Famara Diedhiou, it just didn't add up. Either the game plan wasn't being carried out properly or the game plan was wrong. That has to change, because set-pieces aren't always going to be able to bail Cardiff out of sticky situations.

Fans will expect quicker, more exciting football next season, with far more attacking gusto at home, in particular, for sure.

Nail transfer strategy

A continuation on the above theme, Cardiff's transfer strategy has to be solid this summer.

Like much of what has been discussed, Bulut is understood to have been crystal clear on what his plans were for the squad for next season before he signed on the dotted line. Sign up to our Cardiff City newsletter here.

On the premise that he was happy with the promises made to him, that should excite City fans. Bulut had a number of exciting attacking players in mind last year, but for one reason or another, couldn't get them over the line. The likes of Kieffer Moore, Anastasios Bakasetas and Umut Nayir were just a few of the international-quality players on the radar. Those three alone scored 19 goals after making mid-season moves to Ipswich Town, Panathinaikos and Pendikspor respectively, so he has an eye for a goalscorer.

Cardiff had to rip up their transfer plans in the final three days of the January window and scrambled to get bodies in amid a worsening injury crisis. It wasn't perfect, and they didn't sign enough goalscoring prowess, but they got fit players in, which was the bare minimum.

That mistake cannot — and hopefully will not — happen again this summer. Two goalscoring strikers have to be somewhere near the very top of the priority list. The likes of a winger, centre-back and left-back come not long after on that list, mind you.