Erol Bulut has no regrets over 'difficult decision' to join Cardiff City and now wants time to get it rightThe Bluebirds boss came out strongly in his press conference ahead of the game against Stoke City this weekend
Erol Bulut has urged time and patience over the project he wants to build at Cardiff City and says he has no regrets over making the "
difficult decision" to move to the Welsh capital.
The Bluebirds are on their worst run of the season, having won just one game in their last eight and are winless in the last four, but have made strides on where they have been the last two campaigns.
They sit in 14th position in the table, but in October they beat Bristol City to get into fifth place, which raised expectations among the fan base, despite having a squad which was not realistically capable of sustaining a play-off push.
Bulut has said he wants to build something at Cardiff, but at time of writing his contract expires in June. Many want some stability at the club, but others are frustrated by the football and the results.
Half of the 24 teams in the Championship have sacked their managers this season. This season, however, Cardiff are not one of them, but every team below them in the league have changed manager this term. Whether Bulut is here next season is another question all together.
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About this I can speak many things because In the past I trained at clubs for this decision is on the board," he said. "
They have to make the decision. For me it was not an easy decision to come to Cardiff. I made the decision for me and I did not make the wrong choice, I think I made the right choice to be here in Cardiff. I made the correct choice to be with this team to build something at Cardiff City with the board with he players and my coaches.
"I knew it was not an easy job I am taking but now I think everybody, fans media, inside the club, given how we started and how we went in the first few weeks, we put the expectations high. That is why we are now talking like this."
He is clearly ambitious, but sometimes talking too highly or ambitiously can be your downfall, especially if things start to go awry as they seem to have done in the last couple of months.
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Now we are talking differently - don’t come back on the bad thing, think positively," he added. "We made a lot of good things all together we have to build on this, this will be the decision of the club.
"If they want a new manger or not, if they want to continue with us or not on this I cannot decide. But I try to give my best for this club and I know it was not easy for me to get players, to get players to sign new contracts it was not an easy job."
Cardiff have had financial constraints. They had an embargo last summer and struggled with the EFL's profit and sustainability threshold last month, meaning they did not get all of the players in that they wanted.
But he asked for time to get this project right and believes he can do just that. Sign up to our Cardiff City daily newsletter here.
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Time is always important, sometimes fans don’t think like you or me, they say Cardiff must continue like this. In one way yes they are right, we have been in play-offs now why are we not so close? I could speak about a lot of things but now is not the time, and so of course we could have games where we should take three points many games, I say for now we should have minimum 47-48 points but to have and and to get is something else," he added.
"
For this you have to score and we did not. In many games we have made many individual mistakes but you have to accept this.
"Many many big teams with big budgets are behind us. We cannot say we have invested really big amounts to get players in to be at a different level so we have to go step by step. Of course I would like it more to be in the top six but this is a big step from last season to this season.
"You cannot build a building when you want to build 50 floors in one day and for this you have to have time."
Cardiff have gone from looking at the top six, to tentatively looking over their shoulder at the relegation spots. A win over Stoke City on Saturday would likely put paid to any worries over relegation, but Bulut doesn't think they're are in a battle for survival, anyway.
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I think in football, nothing is guaranteed. But I think with the team that we have right now, with 13 games to play, we don't have to think about the relegation places. That's my opinion," Bulut said.
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