Cardiff City have announced their first signing of the Erol Bulut era as Ike Ugbo joins on a season-long loan from French club Troyes.
During his unveiling, Bulut made a point of stating that Cardiff's attacking output had to be improved this season and has sought to address that in this transfer window.
Indeed, we believe this to be the first of a spate of transfers in the coming days and weeks, with business set to ratchet up exactly one month out from the beginning of the Championship campaign.
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And Bulut will hope that Ugbo, 24 and a product of Chelsea's academy, is just one piece of the jigsaw which will slot into place in order to make the Bluebirds a far more threatening prospect at the top end of the pitch.
“I’m very happy to be here. I’ve been waiting to come back to the English leagues for a while now and I’m really pleased that it’s finally over the line," Ugbo said.
“I spoke to the manager before coming here. He was telling me how I suit the club, what I can do to help the club and what the club can do to help me. I think our ambitions align together, so I think it was a perfect choice for me.
“For the team, I think we should push for the highest and try and get promoted. I think we shouldn’t short-change ourselves. There is great variety in the team, so I think we can do really good stuff this year. I can’t wait to finally put on the shirt and score my first goal for the club.”
The Bluebirds are understood to have held interest in former Blues man Ugbo from last January when they brought in Sory Kaba and Connor Wickham. Scottish giants Rangers have also kept tabs on the Canada international.
Ugbo has had spells with Barnsley, MK Dons, Scunthorpe United, Roda JC and Cercle Brugge while on loan from Chelsea before joining Genk permanently in 2021.
The forward's loan to second division Dutch side Roda JC in 2019/20 shot him into the wider public conscience across Europe as he netted 13 goals in 28 league appearances for the club.
It earned him a move to Belgian top-flight club Cercle Brugge, where he once again impressed with 16 goals in 32 league outings, helping him secure a permanent move away from Chelsea to Genk. He signed for Troyes last season in Ligue 1 after a successful loan spell with them.
"For me, this is an excellent signing for the offensive part of the team," manager Bulut said. "Iké has shown what he can do over the last three years. When he was in Belgium he scored a lot of goals, and he did some very good things with Troyes as well.
"In 1v1 situations, he is really good in the box. His heading and finishing is also good. These are things that we need, because we know that last season the team did not score enough goals.
"We have signed him early, so he will have a pre-season with us. I think having a pre-season will bring a lot of positive things for him."
