by The Championships have a reputation as an ultra-competitive series where anyone can beat anyone. One look at the current table, however, and you’ll see Leicester, still a Premier League side but without a name, sliding their way back into the top flight at breakneck speed, only to break through the 100-point barrier as they did Burnley. last season, with Leeds and Southampton in the running. Welcome to the new Championship: an era of big budgets and celebrity management appointments.
There have been casualties of this era in recent years, including Cardiff City. A Premier League club less than five years ago they were forced to readjust their aims, finances and pretty much start over. In Erol Bulut it could be argued that there is the least announced head coach in the Championship, but in half a season he directed them to within three points of the refraction places. A win over Leeds at Cardiff City Stadium this Saturday could send the Bluebirds towards an unlikely promotion charge.
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It would be unlikely for several reasons. Especially as Cardiff were put under a transfer embargo in the summer after they failed to pay the transfer fee for Emiliano Sala, the £15m Nantes striker they signed in 2019 who tragically died in a plane crash before he could play for the club. The transfer ban was lifted this month, but the club is still in recovery mode.
The Sala saga cast a long shadow over the British capital. He also faced relegation from the Premier League that same year. The post-Neil Warnock years have been restless and tough, with the club struggling with six permanent managers since his departure, trying to compete with a dwindling budget as parachute payments plummeted. expiring
Local boy Rubin Colwill – like Bulut – is a beacon of light, a symbol of Cardiff’s stripped-back modernity. As a youth fan and academy product who broke out in the middle of the pandemic, he knows some hard times. He was trained under Neil Harris, given his debut by Mick McCarthy and played under Steve Morison, Mark Hudson and Sabri Lamouchi, before finding his feet under Bulut. “I’ve seen a lot of managers in action, so I have a lot of experience in evaluating them,” he says with a laugh.
For Colwill and his teammates, finding a sense of stability this season has been crucial to the club’s rise. “It wasn’t great, starting my career with all the chopping and changing,” he says. “I think you always want to be part of a bigger project, a plan for the future. It is good that the manager is implementing those things to develop the club as a whole. It’s a long-term process.”
There is hope among supporters that a plan is finally coming together. Making the playoffs this season would be an unexpected bonus; a half finish would be accepted upon Bulut’s arrival after two seasons of flirting with relegation. The club is on a tangible upward trajectory for the first time in years.
Bulut is a former manager of Alanyaspor and Fenerbahce and his connections with clubs in Turkey helped Cardiff cope in the summer when their hands were tied in terms of recruitment, Manolis Siopis and Dimitrios Goutas snapped up on free transfers from Trabzonspor and Sivasspor respectively instead. The club also recalled hometown hero Aaron Ramsey on a free. Deals are in the works to re-sign Kieffer Moore as well as striker Mehmet Umut Nayir from Fenerbahce. The purse strings are loosened just a little.
There is only one snag and that is Bulut’s future. He signed a one-year contract last summer and there were no talks with the hierarchy to extend it. Therefore, it is difficult to think beyond the next five months.
“I can’t make any plans for the new season, for the future,” he says. “My plans can only be until the end of the season. It’s hard to speak when I don’t know for the future if I’m here or not.
“I said I’m happy here. I think the fans know that because we had a lot of meetings together. I want to continue to make changes here and add many things to the club. It is not easy to change everything from today to tomorrow but we have changed many things since the start of the season.
“That’s not enough for me. We have to keep working, we have to invest in bringing in quality players and bringing young players through the academy to make a really good structure. To make that work, we need a plan. For a plan to work, we have to work together.”
More time for Bulut would be welcome, especially by Colwill, who feels he is developing faster and learning more about the 48-year-old. He is certainly not alone.
“He’s a good guy,” Colwill says of Bulut. “He’s a serial winner on and off the field. It’s great that it’s here and I want to see it continue. We’ve certainly shown enough consistency and fighting spirit to not be far behind.”
There is little understanding of the game volumes, although this season’s promotion may be a bit too early for this restart at Cardiff City. The Bluebirds are about to get really high again, if they can look to the horizon.
