New Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut reveals ‘exciting’ plans as he gives his first interview since being appointed at the club.
The 48 year old is said to be looking at bringing in around 10 new signings to transform the team which ended the 2022/23 season in 21st place.
He has signed a one-year deal with an option to trigger a further two if they do well and certain criteria is met.
He has since given his first interview, which you can watch, or read below…
“I saw two games, so from there I already thought in my head that I had a system I wanted to play with the team. We have to discuss about that, but already I have in my head the players I want already,” Bulut said as per WalesOnline.
“We need in every department. Offensive department, Cardiff last season scored only 41 goals. Second bottom scorers.
“In attacking, we have to invest, in my opinion. Also in the midfield. Attacking is not only wingers, strikers, No.10. This will start from the back, from the goalkeeper.
“We have some players in our hand (to bring in). We will have to discuss about that. Some players we will have to search and make a start. I think from the club, their contracts are finished, seven of them.
“I have to see the players in training for the first 10 days to decide if they are players we will keep. I think around eight to 10 players can be possible.
“It will be a mix (of players from Britain and Europe), because the last few years it was British. So, not on the European market. In the European market there are good players, so we will search from them and bring that kind of players in to have that kind of success.
“My style, my favourite, is 4-2-3-1, sometimes 4-3-3. We can speak a lot about systems, 2-5-2, 4-4-2.
“But in the game, all my players should know what we have to do within the game. Sometimes it’s three at the back in a different system. At the start, it could look like a 4-2-3-1 but it could change, depending on what we have to do.
“My message to the fans is that we need them. For every game. We need that support from the fans. The players can put maybe 10 or 20 percent more on the performance on the field (because of it),” he added with around 12,000 season tickets sold so far with it claimed it is expected to reach around 18,000 based on further announcements which ‘should get fans happy’.
“Patience is needed. Everything is new. In two or three weeks we cannot say we will win everything. We have to work on it. We have to take steps one by one. Not quickly. Step by step. We need the supporters to be strong.”
Mehmet Dalman hopes the former Turkish under-21 international can bring stability to the Bluebirds ⚽#BBCFootball
— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) June 5, 2023
The 48 year old is said to have “stuck out” as the candidate to succeed Sabri Lamouchi as boss, according to chairman Mehmet Dalman who also said to BBC Radio Wales that he thought Lamouchi “did a great job” as he guided the Bluebirds to Championship survival but “the chemistry between him and the other members of the Cardiff hierarchy just didn’t seem to click.”
“At the end, we felt he [Bulut] was the best choice for us,” added Dalman.
Ex-Fenerbahce boss Bulut was officially unveiled on Monday having agreed to become the Bluebirds’ fourth manager in the space of nine months, after the likes of Lamouchi, Mark Hudson and Steve Morison.
Cardiff voided the Championship relegation zone by just one place last season having also struggled in 2021-22.
Dalman added: “We interviewed quite a few people, and out of the bunch – and there were some really good applicants; some of the names, it was really impressive that they even considered us.
“He sort of stuck out, really, in terms of his optimism, his vision and pure commitment.
“So at the end, we felt he was the best choice for us. Not the easiest choice because when we decided that’s the manager we wanted, at that point my first comment ‘everybody was going to say ‘who?’ because he’s never really been heard of before’. So fingers crossed.
“I certainly don’t want to go through another year like last year, that wasn’t very pleasant.
“We need stability in the club. I hope he will give us this stability. He is very good at working with young football players and we’re hoping he will help with our academy and bring some younger blood through.
“I hope for stability and better performance all around.”
Dalman adds that the boss knows all about the transfer restrictions following the death of Emiliano Sala with club under a transfer embargo with the English Football League over the issue and will be unable pay transfer fees for players until May 2024 – the EFL ruling is currently being challenged by Cardiff.
Dalman adds: “This is something we discussed with every manager we interviewed – ‘you know, if you do take this job, we’ve got these embargoes to deal with’. So they know what they need to do.
“We have been holding back recruitment because we really didn’t want to bring players in without the manager in first.
“The manager has his own ideas and his own potential targets and we have a recruitment team which has targets and names for him to consider, so we will get on with that as quickly as possible.”
Dalman feels Bulut believes “the core” of the Cardiff team “is good”.
“He feels he can get up and running pretty quickly with the targets he has in mind. But we’ll see.”
Here’s what fans are saying as the new Cardiff manager reveals ‘exciting’ plans in his first interview since being appointed…
@Anthony_Burns: Good luck and best wishes as our Manager. I’m looking forward to the season
@GarethPearce10: Thankfully he’s hopefully binning the 5 at the back at home 🙏🏻 🔵 so thats a start 🏴🔵🏴
@news_ninian: A real refreshing interview and has such optimism of wanting to do well here, little things like bringing players in early for preseason has sold me on him. It’s deffo worth a watch if you got a spare 7 minutes
@ccfcevan: he’s got that aura
@sg_miner21: This man means business, no messing about with Erol
Philip Davies: Lets give him a chance
Peter Bradbury: Good luck to him. He’ll need it but I’m quietly optimistic that he can do a good job!
Ashley Davies: My gaffer 😎
@connordavies612: If he brings in 4-5 quality players and 5 squad depth players we’ll be cooking
@DLBrett1: Sounding very promising mate
You must be logged in to post a comment Login