With 10 days remaining before the transfer window closes, Cardiff City have signed three players. For many supporters, it feels like only one.
Nathan Trott has made his move from Copenhagen permanent, while Calum Scanlon has returned on loan after spending last season in south Wales. Jack Moylan is the only completely new face, although even his arrival has been viewed by some through the prism of Omari Kellyman's departure.
Concerns over squad strength
Kellyman was excellent for Cardiff last season and his loan return had been privately communicated as his preference, only for Chelsea to appear increasingly likely to sell him to sister club Strasbourg. Then there's Ryan Wintle, the club's player of the year who was released. While Cardiff have a squad with considerable promise, it is difficult to argue they are stronger on paper than they were at the end of last season.
They have stepped up into a Championship that is utterly stacked with clubs with bigger budgets, greater resources and squads packed with established second-tier players. Cardiff have a young and exciting group, but they need reinforcements.
Silence creates its own problems
The messaging, or lack thereof, from the top of the club has become a sticking point for some supporters. Cardiff have often leaned on charismatic managers in the past to help navigate these periods of silence. Brian Barry-Murphy is different, it's fair to say. He is an extremely cautious operator when it comes to discussing recruitment and is at pains not to give away anything about what Cardiff are trying to do.
Even offering a ballpark figure for the number of players the club wants to sign has become something of a faux pas. The Bluebirds boss referred to doing exactly that during his first summer in charge as a "mistake". Yet that was just about the only tangible thing supporters could cling to.
Other clubs are playing a different game. Lincoln City's chief executive effectively announced Moylan's move to Cardiff during a press interview. Hull City owner Acun Ilicali has taken to social media to tell supporters his perceived percentage chances of signing particular targets after their promotion to the Premier League. Swansea City chief executive Tom Gorringe wrote an extensive summer update to supporters detailing the club's transfer plans before hosting a public forum with fans and the media, where they revealed Ross Stewart would be signing before the deal was formally announced.
Theories are filling the vacuum
There have been plenty of theories about why Cardiff's transfer business has moved so slowly. The World Cup is an obvious factor, particularly for clubs like Cardiff operating in the loan market. But supporters have also quite reasonably pointed out that other Championship clubs have managed to make additions.
Another theory is that players have been drawn up on Cardiff's shortlist only for Barry-Murphy to reject them because of the specificity and meticulousness of his recruitment demands. There is certainly no suggestion the manager will simply sign somebody for the sake of it.
Cardiff have missed out on targets. Kellyman is an obvious example. The Jens Hjertø-Dahl saga was another. Cardiff believed they were in a good position to sign the former Tromsø midfielder, only for Hull to table a bid worth around £10m and blow the Bluebirds out of the water. Hull could also offer the player Premier League football, of course.
The next 10 days matter
Cardiff need three more players, probably four, before September 1. If they manage that, and there is a confidence that they will, the mood can change very quickly. If they don't, serious questions will inevitably be asked about the structures and people responsible for the operation.
Paddy Deboys is Cardiff's recruitment chief, but he is not a particularly visible figure and the average supporter will know very little about him. There is no obvious director of football figurehead. Questions about how transfers actually work at Cardiff tend to be fudged or glossed over.
The club wanted to move away from the manager-led, agent-led strategy that had prevailed in previous years. That was one of the most important changes in the football operation. But it remains difficult from the outside to decipher exactly who is leading the process and who is ultimately responsible for driving it.
Barry-Murphy clearly has to approve the players coming through the door. Otherwise Cardiff risk repeating situations such as Roko Simic and Wilfried Kanga, where recruitment does not necessarily fit the manager's requirements and everyone's time and Vincent Tan's money is wasted. The board then have to go to Tan to execute the deal and get it over the line. But the process between those points remains somewhat opaque.
Plenty to like
This should not obscure what Cardiff have got right. Their baseline is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago and that should be celebrated. And I actually believe it is being celebrated by the vast majority of fans.
Ronan Kpakio, Dylan Lawlor, Joel Bagan, Will Fish, Alex Robertson, Moylan, Ollie Tanner, Cian Ashford, Isaak Davies, Rubin Colwill, Joel Colwill and Yousef Salech are all young players with considerable promise. Fifteen-year-old Noah Anyadike was on the bench against Wrexham. Paul Moreno, 16, and Rob Tankiewicz, 17, are also around the first-team environment.
This is a different Cardiff City. The football philosophy has changed. The emphasis on youth has changed. The pathway is visible. And, perhaps most importantly, supporters seem to have embraced it. There is a patience and an acceptance that this is a project. There is excitement about the young players coming through. There is genuine intrigue about what Barry-Murphy can build.
The foundations are there. The goodwill is there. The momentum from promotion is there. Cardiff cannot afford to botch it. Because the potential is massive. If Cardiff, with their highly-rated, forward-thinking manager and progressive coaching staff, can navigate this season successfully and make meaningful progress, suddenly the years ahead look incredibly promising. But the next 10 days will tell us a lot about whether they can execute a plan and set this team up for success in the short and long term.
