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Omer Riza says he is hopeful Cardiff City will make a signing before Saturday’s crucial South Wales derby clash, with the club understood to be closing in on a deal for Danish striker Yousef Salech.
The Bluebirds were left frustrated on Tuesday night after Cian Ashford’s second-half strike was cancelled out with three minutes to go by Vakoun Bayo.
Cardiff will be hoping to add to their ranks before the weekend, with 22-year-old forward Salech, who plays in Sweden’s top flight with Sirius, a player they are looking to capture in order to bolster their forward line. Read the full story here.
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When asked a signing would be made before Saturday’s game, Riza said: “I hope so, yeah.” Sign up to our daily Cardiff City newsletter here.
When probed on whether a striker was high on the agenda, he added: “Striker position, wingers potentially, hopefully within the next few days we will get a few players through the door.
“Might be one, doubt it will be two. We are still waiting on certain things with players. I think tonight’s performance will hopefully cajole a couple of players into saying ‘I want a piece of this’. Hopefully in due course they will be in through the door.
“I speak with the board every day regarding transfers, I speak to Mr Tan, Ken (Choo, CEO), Mehmet (Dalman, chairman), Paddy (Deboys, head of recruitment), we are all talking, the list I’ve given out with regards to players, they’ve worked really hard to get them in. We are communicating well and hopefully these players will start to come through the door.
“It will become clear over the next few days regarding players. It will happen when it happens, I’m sorry you have to be patient with it, but these things take time. Things are happening.
“Potentially we could have one coming in before the derby game and he may get some minutes potentially. We will see how they come in the building and where they are at – so hopefully.”
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The Bluebirds climbed out of the relegation zone on Tuesday, but Portsmouth immediately behind them have two games in hand.
Riza said he hopes the performance, which was positive for large parts, against Watford will help to convince would-be signings to join the club this month. Because they need help.
Omer Riza, Cardiff City manager -Credit:Huw Evans Picture Agency
Ultimately, though, Riza was left frustrated that yet another two points were poured down the drain, bemoaning as many as eight points he thinks the club have left out there since he took charge.
“Frustrated for the players,” he said of the game. “They have worked really hard again and deserved to take three points, but if you don’t do enough you give teams the opportunity to get back in the game. The last four games we should have got eight points more in the league and it would have taken us to 13th, 14th, but it’s shoulda, woulda, coulda.
“You don’t score then you give the opposition a chance to get a goal. We need to control the game a little bit more when we are in front. Didn’t frustrate them or make them tire so they don’t have that energy in the end. We need to kill the energy and kill the momentum and we are not quite doing that at the moment. Goals and killing the momentum of the game are the things that are frustrating. But it was a good performance and we have to take that into Saturday.
“There are always things you can work on which we are bringing to light all the time. The position we are in the league leads the boys to be anxious or nervous at times. But we had enough control of the game today to keep it, play out, make the opposition work more.
“We allowed them to have the ball, when we went too early with the ball, we allowed them to hurt us. That’s what happened at the end. For huge parts of the game we didn’t give them much. Frustrating and there is stuff we need to work on. That will improve as the season goes on. We know we need three points, but we are out of the bottom three for now.”