By Gareth James
Erol Bulut plans to help raise the morale of Aaron Ramsey by focusing his captain on immediate club matter for Cardiff City.
The Bluebirds boss admitted Ramsey’s mood took a hit when Wales failed to make the Euro 2024 finals this week after heart-breaking defeat to Poland on penalties.
Bulut has admitted he was surprised Ramsey wasn’t brought on by Wales manager Rob Page late in extra time in order to take a penalty.
Now he wants to use the Good Friday clash with Sunderland back at the same Cardiff City Stadium venue to give his star man a boost.
Having integrated the Wales skipper back into the fold after his latest injury set-back with 30 minutes in the south Wales derby against Swansea City, Bulut fully expected Page to use his most experienced player at some stage in the game against Poland.
Can now add Erol Bulut to the list of people wondering why Aaron Ramsey wasn’t brought on to take a penalty on Tuesday night #CCFC #Bluebirds https://t.co/y9pTmWEXbt
— Tom Coleman (@tomEcoleman) March 28, 2024
“I was expecting him to play at least 15 minutes in the last game against Poland just to have him on the field to take penalties. Every manager thinks differently and we have to respect that,” said Bulut.
“I met Aaron straight after the game and his morale wasn’t good. That’s normal especially when you lose out on a place in Euro 2024.
“I know Aaron wanted to be there for one last Euros, so it’s disappointing. Morale is down for him and for Siopis, who missed out with Greece in another penalty shoot-out in Georgia.
“I hope we can motivate them both when we meet Sunderland. The next three or four games are very important for us in determining what our season looks like in the end.”
Sunderland are one place and five points behind Cardiff in the Championship table after an awful run of six successive defeats followed by a draw.
Understand Aaron Ramsey to consider international future after Wales’ Euros exit. Might not add to his 84 caps and 21 goals.
— Phil Blanche (@philblanche) March 27, 2024
Cardiff has won four on the bounce before their 2-0 defeat to the Swans and Bulut is keep to pick up the previous winning momentum across the final eight matches of the season.
Sunderland are a high-quality, young team who work well,” he added.
“We have to be fully concentrated and to think only about the three points. Everybody is pushing and we have only eight games to play, so everybody knows where we want to be and what we want to push.
“Everybody knows that we take everything game by game, and this will continue. But I think that the next three to four games will decide where we will be.”
