It’s fair to say it looks like this summer is going to be a big one for Cardiff City as Steve Morison looks to reinvigorate the club ahead of next season.
Not only will we see new players come into the squad, but we will also see an abundance of names leave the club as the Bluebirds look for a fresh start. As many as 15 members of Morison's current squad are set to depart, with signings therefore needed across the park.
Whereas some would see that as a daunting prospect, Morison has taken the opposite stance and is fully embracing the challenge ahead. He told supporters to be excited ahead of the new term. "The hard work doesn't start now, it started ages ago," he said of transfers after his side's 1-0 win over Derby County. "It started in the January transfer window. It was a case of making sure I was in charge beyond that so I could implement the work I put in place.
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"All being well, the first signing we make, we first started doing reports on in February. I don't just put a load of names in a machine and a load of names come out, there is a process to it. There is stuff we'd like to do, but that is personnel-driven and now I've got the opportunity to bring the personnel in so I don't have to sit here and say, 'I can't do that because we haven't got the personnel'.
"I am buzzing for it. I can't wait for it. I just wish everyone was as buzzing and happy as me and my staff are. I am really happy and really positive about everything that's going on and my message to the fans is: Be as excited as we are, because it will be a good time."
Ahead of the match with the Rams, Morison laid out in detail how the summer would look from a recruitment perspective, putting some meat on the bones as to how they will go about the selection criteria for new players.
“It's a process that that we’ve been planning for a long time, for example one of the players we're not far away from signing, we did our first report on him way back in February,” Morison admitted.
“This process isn’t just me picking players I want, which has happened previously at this football club. This isn't the manager just going around and picking players he wants.
"There's a process, we have a recruitment team, we highlight positions, we highlight attributes, we highlight characteristics that we want and then we look at the market that we can look in and then plan accordingly on the back of that. The recruitment team will come to me with a few players and we'll sit down as a group and look at it together, there's a hell of a lot of work.”
Morison added that he hoped the new structure at the club will be in place for many years to come. The Bluebirds have a massive task on their hands to not only replace the players out of contract but also in terms of cost-cutting to reduce the financial pressures on the club.
“Hopefully we all benefit off the back of it so that I end up being successful here with my staff," he told WalesOnline. "We hope that the team will be successful because of the work we've put in for the football club and then when I move on, hopefully it's not for a long time, or they replace me the structure is still in place.
“I hope that the work that the recruitment team is doing is still going on for a long time to come. The manager who comes in or even me, we carry on that that process and you'd like to think that without going back to the old way we keep on this path and carry on with the new structure.”
Morison has acknowledged that this overhaul is inevitably going to take time. However, it seems the manager is assured that the work he and his staff have done will pay off in the long run.
“It's going to take time but the biggest thing is when we get back to and there's going to be new faces, that's going to be the biggest challenge is getting them all to gel," he explained.
“The plus point is the fact we're getting specifics with these players, then we know already when these players come in, we know how they're going to fit in and how they're going to work. For the new players it’ll be more of them just finding their feet, then getting on with each other.
“We're not bringing any bad eggs, so there shouldn't be those issues. Hopefully, we don't have too many setbacks and we get the people we've highlighted and if we do, as I said, it's really exciting.”
There have been many players linked with Cardiff this season, including the likes of Gareth Bale, but Morison has insisted that this reshape of Cardiff’s squad has to happen. If they don’t get a player they want, they will go approach their next target. One thing is for sure, this will be a very new Cardiff City next season.
“If we don't get the players we are looking for we will look for the next the next target," he concluded. "I'm excited because when was the last time we got to turn around like this? If I look at the board now I can see about 12 names on there, we need new bodies. We have to do it."
