By Graham Thomas

Cardiff City boss Erol Bulut has insisted defender Mark McGuinness was left out of the defeat to Sunderland because of a tight hamstring – and not because his thumb and index finger are about to pen a deal to join Luton Town for £10m.

The former Arsenal player was conspicuous by his absence from the 2-0 home loss but Bulut claimed it does not mean he is on his way out of the club.

“He had a hamstring problem before,” said the Bluebirds manager.

“He trained one and a half days. I can say we are protecting him not to be in too early. Today, we did not have a centre-back problem. Our centre-backs have been good today.

“McGuinness will continue as a Cardiff player for now and with this, I am happy.”

EFL Skybet Championship, Cardiff City v Sunderland at the CCS today, pics by Andrew Orchard pic.twitter.com/OWzuNCeRlk

— Andrew Orchard (@sportsphotoAOSP) August 10, 2024

Bulut stressed he wants more incomers, though, and said: “We are looking, negotiating with a few positions where we have need. I hope shortly we can finalise two or three.”

Cardiff could do with a creative spark to ignite their own campaign as for all their possession, they created very little.

Their own version of Sunderland’s man of the match, Jack Clarke, the unpredictable Ollie Tanner, had a wayward opener and was taken off early.

Dan Neil insists Sunderland can go from boom-and-busters to steady graph-climbers under new French head coach Regis Le Bris.

The Black Cats spent a lot of time chasing the ball in their Championship opener, but not the result.

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That always looked firmly in their grasp once Luke O’Nien gave them an early lead before it was secured by classy Clarke’s late strike.
But skipper Neil reckons there is much more to come once they learn the decree of Le Bris.

“We need to improve on the game model we have been working on,” said Neil.

“That was the first time it was put in competitive action with something on the line and everyone can see that there is room for improvement.

“We have to keep improving but we have to keep winning games and we’ve managed to do both here.

“I don’t think the performance was as good as we would have hoped, but these types of games last year, we would have lost.”

Sunderland admitted they were left surprised by Cardiff’s approach, which Bluebirds boss Bulut is trying to move away from long ball to keep-ball.

It was only late on that Bulut sent on his burly bruisers from the bench – new loan signing Wilfried Kanga and fellow striker Yakou Meite – and reverted to power play.

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Neil and his teammates coped with both styles, though, and in winger Clarke they had the player whose quality was a cut above the rest.

“The Cardiff we played today is a lot different to the Cardiff we’ve played against in the last two years,” added Neil.

“There is always that uncertainty around teams and they came out differently to what we expected but we adapted during the game.”

Clarke – who strolled in from the left, waltzed around Cardiff’s Perry Ng, and planted a shot in the far corner – will be key for Sunderland if they can hang on to him.

A number of lower end Premier League clubs are keen on the 23-year-old but have so far flinched at his £20m valuation.

When asked if he thought he could cling on to Clarke in this transfer window, Le Bris joked: “I think his position with us is perfect! Let’s not change anything!

“Stay with us, keep growing because we need this kind of player. The rest, I don’t know. He’s an important player for us, for sure.”

Cardiff boss Erol Bulut says he was pleased to see Aaron Ramsey play the full game against Sunderland ⚽#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/SqcFcBsWuK

— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) August 11, 2024