Cardiff City's early moves in the transfer window have drawn glances from across the division and rightly so, too. Steve Morison has stuck to his word and got bodies in the door after trailing his targets for a number of months.
The four signings so far — Ebou Adams, Jak Alnwick, Ollie Tanner and Jamilu Collins — are hardly household names, but Morison assured supporters they are the sort of players and characters he wants to drive the club forward next season, ensuring they don't end up in the mess they did last season.
As we look at the first four through the door, though, there is still one area of the pitch which needs serious reinforcement this summer and needs to be addressed urgently if Cardiff are to stand a fighting chance at challenging near the top end of the table next term.
READ MORE : Cardiff City's unheralded new quartet and what they can bring
The Bluebirds lost Kieffer Moore in January, with the Wales striker proving his worth at the end of the season with Bournemouth, scoring four goals in three games for the Cherries as he secured them automatic promotion back to the Premier League.
While he had his early-season struggles at Cardiff that were clear for all to see, the whole team had suffered under Mick McCarthy. For Moore to have scored 20 goals for City the season before was a major feat, but it was still only enough to get Cardiff to eighth.
It is glaringly clear that Cardiff need goals in this squad for the start of the season. One look at the players in situ at the minute shows just how few goals there actually are in this current group.
Other areas of the squad need surgery, too, central midfield needs a few more experienced and quality players, make no mistake about that. But the importance of having a real goalscorer will make all the difference. Cardiff were crying out for a player to find the back of the net for a decade or so, since the days of Jay Bothroyd, Ross McCormack and Michael Chopra, until they found Moore, they cannot wait that long again.
The recruitment in that department has to be spot on. Take Swansea City just down the road, for example, a £1million outlay on Joel Piroe paid dividends, with the Dutchman netting 24 times in all competitions for Russell Martin, who, it is said, now values the player at somewhere between £10m and £20m.
While Jordan Hugill and Uche Ikpeazu were both signed on loan by Cardiff in January, both of whom did solid jobs during their stay in the Welsh capital, neither of them looked to be out-and-out goalscorers. No doubt Morison and his recruitment team will be scouring their network to find the best goalscorer, or two, to fit into and complement the system they have designs on implementing in earnest next season.
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Because if you look at the four forwards currently at the club, a problem quickly leaps out at you. While three of the four are still relatively Championship rookies, Cardiff's quartet of Max Watters, Mark Harris, James Collins and Isaak Davies have precious few goals in the bank in a blue shirt.
They have just 14 goals in a combined 128 appearances — the breakdown is as follows; Collins three in 30 games, Davies three in 30 games, Harris seven in 57 games and Watters one in 11 games — and everyone is in agreeance that ratio simply has to be better if Cardiff are going to make a better fist of it next term.
It was hoped Collins would have contributed more, considering his past record in the Football League. Given he was bombed out of the squad all together after the January window, you have to wonder what his future holds heading into the off-season.
Davies looks as though he could be more dangerous in a wide area, and it wouldn't be a surprise if he featured more as a winger next season with Morison hoping to be more flexible with his formations. Similarly with Harris, too, Cardiff are certainly expecting a better goal output if they give him the opportunity next season.
Watters, meanwhile, has shown in glimpses what he can do, while he enjoyed a positive spell on loan with MK Dons last term. Like Harris, though, Cardiff will want more goals from him if he is to begin justifying a place in the starting XI next term.
That being said, what has been said on the striker front? Well, there are two players in whom Cardiff have shown interest.
Switzerland international Andi Zeqiri is a player with whom they've been in contact. The Brighton striker, 22, was on loan at Bundesliga club Augsburg last term, scoring two goals in 19 appearances. It is thought he will be allowed on loan again next term, with the player in contract with the Seagulls until 2024.
While he is clearly a promising prospect, he doesn't come with a weighty bank of goals behind him, unlike another player with whom they've been linked.
Rotherham forward Michael Smith has more than 100 league goals behind him, however just 27 of those have come in the Championship. Cardiff have not completely dismissed reports linking them with the 30-year-old forward, however some might think there is not space for both him and Collins in the same squad. As an aside, how many Championship goals does Collins have to his name? You guessed it, 27.
Players who put the ball in the back of the net cost a lot of money, generally. Snapping up a 20-goal-a-season striker on a free is going be highly unlikely. So, what are the options?
Well, it is likely Cardiff will look to use at least one of their available loan slots to bring in a striker with more quality than they would be able to afford otherwise. Even Piroe cost Swansea £1m, they had to speculate to accumulate.
Will Cardiff look to splash a transfer fee on a striker? It looks unlikely, as things stand. We are told they are in the market for free agents and loans as they look to drive down expenditure and cut costs accordingly. It would take an incredible deal to tempt Vincent Tan into forking out a transfer fee for a player, one would think.
It's a problem and one that needs to be solved before the window closes, that's for sure. Cardiff need goals. They might need to be creative to get them, but they definitely need someone to fill the sizeable shoes left by Kieffer Moore next season, that is an absolute certainty.
