Cardiff City transfer state of play as big summer of business begins tomorrow

The transfer window opens tomorrow and expect the doors of Cardiff City Stadium to be swinging frequently this summer – both in terms of welcoming in new faces and ushering others on to pastures new.

It's Erol Bulut's first real crack, unshackled by a ban on paying fees, at shaping the squad he wants and feels is capable of competing in the top half of the table – or higher.

Cardiff finished 12th last season. At points it felt like it was going to be a better campaign than that, but at times it felt a whole lot worse, too. So mid-table — and bang in the middle of the table, too, for that matter — was about right.

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So, how do Cardiff get higher in the standings next season? Bulut made clear his mission statement towards the end of last term. He will not be satisfied with mediocrity next season and while he has improved the club in terms of results, he knows there is work to do.

"The first step has to be the signing of new players," he said when asked how he would get the Bluebirds up towards the play-offs next term.

"Of course for this, budget is important. When we want to go to the next level, we have to focus on this and go in that direction. Not only me, everyone at the club.

"I think I put a bit of the winning mentality into the club and into the team, because it was lost here for the last years. I am expecting everyone to have that winning mentality. Not just the player on the field, the secretary here has to think like this. If we can manage to have that winning mentality then we are two steps ahead of some other clubs and towards the level where we want to be."

There are areas of the squad which need real surgery. At the very top of Bulut's wish list is a goalscoring striker. That's been Cardiff's white whale for a number of seasons now, aside from Kieffer Moore and Sory Kaba providing some light relief in patches.

It's understood the club would preferably want a striker with a record of scoring goals in this division and that could form the primary criterion for their chief striker target. However, the notion of two strikers coming in has certainly not been dismissed – and Bulut could dig into his contacts on the continent if that eventuality transpires.

We are also told at least one winger is high on the priority list, too, while areas such as centre-back and full-back — depending on outgoings — have also been discussed. City have relative rookies in Cian Ashford and Ollie Tanner, while Callum O'Dowda has had his injury concerns and Yakou Meite and Callum Robinson have both had their struggles.

Bulut wants to add goals into the squad and striker and winger are key positions for that. He didn't get enough goal output from either of those positions last term. He tried to address the lack of goals with the signing of David Turnbull in January, but the Scot, while showing some signs of quality, didn't hit the ground running with regards to hitting the back of the net.

The big one is central midfield. That is the first area Bulut identified when he came into the club as a position that needs strengthening and he couldn't quite nail it in the two tricky window he navigated in his first term in charge. Sign up to our Cardiff City newsletter here.

The trouble is, Cardiff are stacked in that area. Romaine Sawyers has just departed, but there is Manolis Siopis, Joe Ralls, Ryan WIntle, Ebou Adams, Andy Rinomhota, Eli King and Joel Colwill all bidding for game-time already in the centre of the park. Is it unrealistic to expect four of them to leave, be it permanently or on loan, in the coming months? Not if Cardiff are looking to add a commanding, physical presence in there, which is a player profile which is understood to be desirable to Bulut.

The truth is, Cardiff have 33 players on their books, which could even rise to 37 if others sign new deals, following the confirmation of their retained list. That is far too many and needs slashing this summer.

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We are told Cardiff are going to take a pragmatic approach when it comes to player sales this summer. The likes of Isaak Davies, Rubin Colwill, Mark McGuinness and Perry Ng all have their admirers but could also be crucial to Bulut's plans. Others like Adams, Rinomhota, Mahlon Romeo and Robinson are all in contract but head back for pre-season with question marks hanging over them pertaining to their futures at the club.

But Cardiff, for the first time in a long time, are in a position of strength and for that the club must be praised. They locked in so many players last year that it drove the squad value up and means they can enter the negotiating table with other clubs, when it comes to sales, and demand decent fees. It's something Cardiff have rightly been criticised for in recent years.

The club needs to drum up cash this summer, though, whichever way you square it. Profit and sustainability rules — something Cardiff are lobbying hard against in order to get them relaxed — is tightening the belt for Championship teams and for the club to be afforded more headroom, player sales look inevitable.

Cardiff also had a whopping 16 players out on loan last season – another thing viewed as a real positive within the club. While the players had varying degrees of both success and game-time, it is thought that youngsters and fringe players training regularly with senior stars will only aid their development. Expect more of the same this summer.

“We’ve had a lot of loans go out this year, probably more than we’ve ever had at any given time and that created an added workload, but we feel that we’ve got players coming back to us now that are far more ready for First Team football and closer than they were previously,” academy manager Gavin Chesterfield said today.

“We think that the boys have had good experiences and exposure to the levels that they’ve been playing in. We consider each player’s needs and their style when we send them out on loan. It always comes down to what is best for each player and I think this year, we’ve had a lot of good fits between our players and their loan clubs. We’ve done some decent work in that area and we’re making coordinated decisions for our players.”