Here are your Cardiff City headlines for Monday, March 10.
Derby target Cardiff recruitment chief
Cardiff City's relegation rivals Derby County are reportedly in talks to appoint Bluebirds transfer chief Paddy Deboys as their director of sport.
Deboys took the reins, his first time in such a role, after Kevin Beadell departed the club in the summer of 2023, around the same time Erol Bulut was appointed Bluebirds manager.
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Deboys has been tasked with driving down the squad's age, while pumping up the market value in order to make profit on players in the future - something the club has struggled with for some years.
However, Football League World claim the Rams are now interested in his services and have held talks over appointing him as their now sporting director. Derby currently don't have a sporting director and the appointment would mean the creation of a new role.
In a recent interview with the club's matchday programme, Deboys, who is rarely heard and even more rarely seen, lifted the lid on the broad remit he is currently tasked with at Cardiff. Sign up to our daily Cardiff City newsletter here.
"There are five key roles that I would cover," he said. "The first one is head of recruitment, signing first-team players down to emerging talent, from under-18s up to first-team players. I would oversee that process. It entails leading a team of four technical scouts on identifying players.
"The second aspect then would be player contract extensions. We have successfully renewed some of our top talent under the age of 24 but have also seen our senior players sign extensions recently. I work with the aboard on that.
"Then there's loan management. We've introduced a system with academy manager Gavin Chesterfield and first-team coaches Tom Ramasut and Darren Purse where we have a detailed loan strategy that bridges the gap from our top academy talent to the first team.
"We've got 30-35% of the first team now being supplied by the academy, which is great and we're seeing the benefits of that. Another aspect of my role would be the multi-club management, with our sister club KV Kortrijk. We've seen huge success with the likes of Isaak Davies in utilising our sister club to bridge that gap and gain experience.
"Within our recruitment team, it's about leadership and seeing development. We have redefined our recruitment department and have shifted from a traditional scouting model to a more data-guided recruitment model, with technical scouts focusing on different positions, rather than a location-based scout. Rather than seeing the best player in Manchester, for example, we need to see the best player across the world for Cardiff City.
"We have one of the most efficient recruitment departments in the league. You've seen that with the likes of Yousef Salech coming in; our system has allowed us to sign players from broader markets, rather than just the UK market."
Trotters boss challenges Etete to make impact
Bolton Wanderers Steven Schumacher believes Kion Etete can still make a significant contribution to the season despite his challenging start with the club.
The Cardiff striker has managed only 23 minutes of football for the Trotters against Reading, during which he conceded a penalty on his debut, before suffering a thigh muscle tear in the warm-up for the subsequent game against Crawley.
Etete's signing just before the January transfer deadline was seen as a risk by many Bolton fans due to his struggle with injuries over the past year. The 23-year-old is expected to return to full training in about 10 days' time and should have the entire international break to regain his form and fitness.
However, given his limited first-team action with the Bluebirds this season, Schumacher concedes that the club will have no choice but to reintegrate him gradually over the final 10 games.
When asked if Etete, who signed a new two-year deal with Cardiff before being loaned out to the League One side, could win over the sceptics, the Wanderers boss told the Bolton News: "I don't know about changing people's minds, that's up to him.
"I think he should have enough games to make an impact, it just depends what physical condition he can come back in and how quick he can get himself up to speed.
"Now, he hasn't played any football really all season. The initial plan when we signed him, and obviously it was one day in the job for me when we signed him, was to not throw him in the deep end straight away and to keep trying to get him to slowly increase his match fitness.
"We did that and he came on for 20 minutes at Reading and unfortunately in the training week the very next week he tore his thigh, so we didn't get a chance really to build his fitness up.
"So that will have to be the case again when he does come back and he returns with the group - to build him up slowly and throw him on for 10-15 minutes here and there and try and get him to get that endurance and that robustness.
"But, yes, there probably still is time, and there's still no doubt that he's a good player. He's just got to get himself right, so hopefully he can make an impact."
Tsunoda stars in rare Kortrijk win
Ryotaro Tsunoda was one of the stars of the show during a rare win for Vincent Tan-owned KV Kortrijk.
The Bluebirds centre-back, currently in his second loan stint in Belgium, has seemingly picked up where he left off last season with KVK, turning in a number of positive performances in the Pro League.
The left-footed centre-back once again impressed during the club's 2-0 win over OH Leuven.
Tsunoda started at the heart of defence during the shutout victory, with Thierry Ambrose bagging two goals for Bernd Storck's side.
The Japanese defender, 25, completed back-to-back 90-minute showings for the first time this season, having also suffered an injury setback while in Belgium last month.
According to stats experts WhoScored, Tsunoda was the second-best Kortrijk player against OH Leuven, notching an impressive score of 8.6/10 (second only to Ambrose who was given a 9.99/10).
The Cardiff man completed 16 clearances, more than double the next player on the team, and a team-leading three interceptions, along with two tackles.
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Riza praises Davies after first goal of the season
Cardiff City manager Omer Riza expressed his satisfaction with Isaak Davies' performance at Sunderland after the forward netted a goal in his first start of the season for the Bluebirds.
Despite being disheartened by the 2-1 loss at Sunderland, Riza praised academy graduate Davies, who scored in his first appearance after an injury-ridden season.
The former Wales under-21 international has overcome a severe hamstring injury and recently had his contract extended until 2026, despite having played only four times this season.
"Isaak has been out a long time injured, he's got himself back, he's got a new contact now as well and it was nice to see him out there," Riza said.
"That was the plan today, to let him go out and open up and he's quick and aggressive on that top line and he's followed it in well and got a goal and I am pleased for him."
Luton boss could welcome back defender
Luton Town manager Matt Bloomfield is hopeful that he can include defender Reece Burke in his team for the crucial Championship match against Cardiff City tomorrow night.
The 28-year-old has been sidelined since a 3-0 defeat to Leeds United in late November but has recently resumed training.
While Luton suffered their 21st loss of the season at Burnley on Saturday, Burke was working hard back at the Brache with the medical team, aiming to increase his chances of playing in the season's final stretch. The Hatters will be without key centre-back Kal Naismith, who is serving a one-match suspension following his red card at Turf Moor.
When asked about Burke's potential return for the upcoming game, Bloomfield, during his pre-match press conference, said: "We'll potentially have Burkey back in the squad. We haven't trained yet today, we're training this afternoon. We've given the lads some extra recovery time this morning before we travel, but we'll have to see how he is.
"He's been injured and he's been ill, he missed a week so we're just building up his fitness. He did a big session Saturday morning, so we'll see how he is when he gets in the building today, see how he's reacted to that and see whether we can include him for the trip tomorrow. I've got the numbers and the distances, but I wasn't here to put eyes on him so we need to see him, see how he's feeling in himself as on top of the injury he had a week or so where he was ill, lost of a bit of weight and that's just knocked him back this last little bit.
"We've been speaking about him for a few weeks, I've been telling you he's nearly there and I thought he was but he was ill for a week around the Watford game, so we just need to get eyes on him today. If we can include him tomorrow night then great, if he needs a bit longer then we've got to be careful with him as he's missed a lot of football, so we've just got to make sure that he's right."
If Burke, who has made just 10 appearances for Luton during yet another injury-hit campaign, is available then it's most likely he would be named as a substitute to begin with, Bloomfield adding: "Bench would be best case scenario for us at this point. He's not played any U21s football, reserve football, he's been out for a long time."
