Cardiff City season preview 2023/24: Will the Bluebirds have enough to survive?

Cardiff City season preview 2023/24 Aaron Ramsey of Cardiff City FC during the Pre-Season Friendly match between Cardiff City FC and FC Porto at Estadio Algarve on July 22, 2023 in Faro, Portugal.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The Cardiff City season preview 2023/24 is disconsolate, to say the least.

Following a fifth and eight place finish in the Championship following their season in the Premier League, the wheels have well and truly fallen off at the Cardiff City Stadium. The club just managed to survive the drop last season, thanks to a points deduction for Reading, and three managers over the course of the campaign highlights the lack of belief at the club.

Former Fenerbahce manager Erol Bulut arrives in Wales looking to keep Cardiff in the Championship next season, though that could prove a tough task when considering key loan players have left and there's a complete lack of goals in the team. 

Cardiff City season preview 2023/24, the fan's view: Ben James (@VFTNinian)

Last season was awful and pretty demoralising, but I’m ready to do it all over again because we stayed up. 

This season will be different because we have a new manager in former Fenerbahce boss Erol Bulut. Frankly, it couldn’t be much worse than last year.

I won’t be happy unless we go one season without sacking a manager and replacing him with whoever was in the room at the time. 

Our key player will be up for grabs, because we’ve lost excellent loanees in Sory Kaba, Jaden Philogene and Cedric Kipre and were slow to sign replacements. Callum Robinson, captain Joe Ralls and Perry Ng all did well at points last year. 

Our most underrated player is midfielder Ryan Wintle. If you know, you know. 

Cardiff City season preview 2023/24 Ryan Wintle of Cardiff City during the Sky Bet Championship match between Cardiff City and Reading at the Cardiff City Stadium on February 17, 2022 in Cardiff, Wales.

Ryan Wintle could go under the radar again this season, but don't doubt his quality (Image credit: Getty Images)

Look out for young Rubin Colwill’s breakthrough year. He has talent but has had to contend with growth spurts, injuries and Steve Morison. 

Fans think our owner is a complete football dunce (it’s still Vincent Tan). 

The opposition player who grinds my gears is Matt Grimes: annoyingly good and captains them lot down the road. 

The active player I’d love to have back is Victor Camarasa, my Spanish king. He was great for us in 2018/19. 

The pantomime villain will be chairman Mehmet Dalman when it’s revealed that his ‘big signing’ to drive ticket sales is actually some no-mark we didn’t want.

Head coach Erol Bulut of Gaziantep FK looks on during Turkish Super Lig soccer match week 19 between Gaziantep FK and Fenerbahce at the Kalyon Stadium in Gaziantep, Turkiye on January 15, 2023.

Erol Bulut is the new Cardiff City manager (Image credit: Getty Images)

The thing my club really gets right is sacking managers. 

The one change I’d make would be more football experience in the boardroom! We’ve been crying out for someone who just knows football. 

I’m least looking forward to playing QPR away. We never do well there. 

The fans’ opinion of the gaffer is one of excitement, but he’s coming in from a different league and that dampens our expectations. The way he plays looks compatible with what we want, and he looks fiery, so we’re hopeful. 

If he left, he should be replaced by Vincent Tan, so he can show us his football acumen. If not, Nathan Jones. 

We’ll finish between 14th and 8th. That would be like winning the league.

Season previews for the Premier League, League One and League Two are all available HERE

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Ryan Dabbs
Staff writer

Ryan is a staff writer for FourFourTwo, joining the team full-time in October 2022. He first joined Future in December 2020, working across FourFourTwo, Golf Monthly, Rugby World and Advnture's websites, before eventually earning himself a position with FourFourTwo permanently. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in Journalism and Communications, Ryan earned a NCTJ qualification to further develop as a writer while a Trainee News Writer at Future. 

With contributions from