Tonight's Cardiff City transfer news as Bluebirds linked with winger eyed by rivals and Kieffer Moore return ramps up
The latest Bluebirds news from Cardiff City Stadium
Here are your Cardiff City headlines for Tuesday, December 12.
Bluebirds linked with winger
Cardiff City have been credited with interest in non-league winger Jordan Thomas.
According to Football Insider, the Bluebirds, as well as rivals Swansea City and Bristol City, are in a race to sign the 22-year-old Bath City wide man in January. Sign up to our Cardiff City newsletter here.
The report adds that 23 EFL scouts made the trip to watch him in action against Yeovil Town last Wednesday. Thomas, who also operates as an attacking midfielder, has seven man of the match awards and eight goals in 21 games for the National League South side this season. He has previously played for Didcot Town and North Leigh.
While Thomas may well have been watched by scouts, we understand Erol Bulut is looking to add immediate quality to the first team and it is does appear unlikely the untested midfielder would feature in that sort of planning for this season.
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Kieffer return talk grows
The conversation surrounding Kieffer Moore returning to Cardiff City continues to grow.
We understand Moore is City's top target this winter, with the Bluebirds in need of both a focal point and a goalscorer up front for their back-end-of-the-season push.
Indeed, Erol Bulut has spoken of his desire to bring him back, with the Wales striker currently suffering a lack of game time on the south coast. However, he did score for the Cherries last week.
Cardiff were unable to sign the forward in the summer as they were under an embargo which prohibited them from buying him for a fee. They are under no such embargo this time around and TEAMtalk are today also corroborating our sources that the Bluebirds are confident of sealing his signature next month.
Pack: Cardiff have made good appointment in Bulut
Marlon Pack believes that managerial uncertainty has hindered Cardiff's progression in recent years but thinks the Bluebirds have made a good appointment in Erol Bulut.
Cardiff have made their best start to a league season since Neil Warnock, the man who brought Pack to the Welsh capital, steered them to Premier League promotion. And the Portsmouth midfielder thinks the manager has a lot to do with that.
“All of my old teams I’ve played for, I always keep an eye on their results, I think that’s natural for most players," he told WalesOnline via SkyBet. "It’s good to see them doing well! I think they have obviously, over the years, had some uncertainties with managers, and it seems they have made a good appointment and they’re up in and around the play-offs and they’ve had some good results this season."
Pack was a mainstay in the heart of midfield for most of his time with the Bluebirds, however he was phased out under Steve Morison towards the end. But, looking back, he loved his time with Cardiff and thinks the dressing room was key to getting into the play-offs in 2020.
“I think the best thing about Cardiff when I was there was the dressing room – it was a good dressing room," he added. "I think Neil Warnock was good at recruiting some good characters – that dressing room took care of itself. We had some good, experienced players there – Sol Bamba, Sean Morrison who was a great captain, Lee Peltier, Alex Smithies, Will Vaulks, Joe Ralls, so some good eggs in that dressing room.
"That’s why at times when I think in terms of style of play it wasn’t the easiest on the eye, but because we had a good dressing room with good people in there it helped towards getting good results. The culture in the dressing room, and how that managed itself was probably one of the most positive things when I look back at Cardiff and think about over the time there – that was one of them.
“He was great, the gaffer [Neil Warnock]. Obviously, he’s managed a little bit this season with Huddersfield and then you hear him on talkSPORT, he’s exactly like what you see. He’s very black and white, he’s got some good humour about him. In terms of the messages [he gave to the team] it was simple - you must run harder than the opposition, run forward, play forward - and his record speaks for itself. I really enjoyed working under him and was always grateful of him taking me to Cardiff.”
Blues missing a host of players for tomorrow's clash
Wayne Rooney is without two former Bluebirds and a number of other players for their visit of Cardiff City Stadium tomorrow evening.
They could be without up to eight players for the trip to south Wales. Former Cardiff loanee Dion Sanderson is a doubt with a bad foot, as is Cody Drameh - also a former favourite in these parts - after he rolled an ankle in training. Both are being assessed.
George Hall is out with a hamstring complaint, as is Ethan Laird (hip), while Kevin Long has a calf issue which will sideline him until the end of the month. The game in Wales will come too soon for Keshi Anderson (hamstring) and Welshman Tyler Roberts. Alfie Chang is a long-term absentee.
Rooney said: “We’re in a difficult place, we know that, with the run of results and the points we’re losing. The big thing is the goals we’re conceding are very poor goals. We have to figure it out and make sure we don’t give easy goals away. The run of form can’t continue.
"Of course I understand the fans’ frustration. That’s normal when you go through a run of results like this and we have to change this as quickly as possible. If I was a fan in the stands there tonight I would be exactly the same. But what I can tell you is we’re working really hard to fix it, to improve results and performances.”
Bulut warns against complacency
Erol Bulut is not taking anything for granted as he heads into tomorrow's game against Birmingham City.
The Blues are on a dire run of form and come to Cardiff while sitting 17th in the table, at time of writing. Cardiff got back to winning ways in ugly fashion against Millwall, but had lost three of their four games prior to that.
While the Bluebirds are currently 10 spots above tomorrow's opponents, the City boss is not expecting an easy evening.
"I saw them when they were playing against Coventry, OK they lost the game, but it will not be an easy game," He said of tomorrow's clash at Cardiff City Stadium. "Nobody can think that because they lost the game, everything will go for us.
"We have to work had for that game and we have to be ready for that game, because it will be a hard game to get three points again."