Here are your Cardiff City headlines for Thursday, February 9.
Bamba reveals Galatasaray and Strasbourg job misses
Football is often about sliding doors. For example, if two European clubs hadn't passed up the chance to have Sabri Lamouchi and Sol Bamba as their coaching duo, they would not be at Cardiff right now.
Lamouchi and Bamba decided to work together when the latter hung up his playing boots following a stint with Middlesbrough last year.
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Lamouchi even made a joke about their first job being in the Cardiff dugout - now it's become reality.
"I've known the gaffer for 11 years and when I decided to stop last season he said to me, 'As soon as I get a club you come with me, because I know what you can bring and I know you want to learn as well. If it's in England, perfect, if it's in Cardiff, even better!'," Bamba told the EFL podcast.
"He made a joke about it! So, we actually nearly went twice, to Galatasaray in Turkey and to Strasbourg in France.
"Unfortunately they decided to go for other managers and we ended up at Cardiff - I said it was fate. I'm happy, the gaffer is happy and it's worked perfectly."
This is Bamba's first coaching job in senior football, having coached the under-23s at Cardiff and Middlesbrough towards the back end of his playing days.
And he also went on to reveal his managerial ambitions as he embarks on the next step of his journey in the game.
"Coaching was always in the back of my mind," he said. "I wanted to give back to football what it gave to me. I wanted to get my hands dirty. So that was the main plan.
"I always wanted to do it gradually. I don't want to go into a job as manager straight away. It's hard and you have to learn. I worked with Cardiff under-23s before I left a couple of years ago. And I did it with Middlesbrough last season.
"So for me to be an assistant now is even better. And, eventually, and the gaffer knows it, I want to try it myself. But that's further down the line. Hopefully I can work with Sabri for many years and then see where I can go."
Striker signing close
Cardiff City manager Sabri Lamouchi hopes the club get a deal over the line for free agent striker Connor Wickham.
WalesOnline exclusively revealed this week that the Bluebirds were mulling over a deal for the player, who left Forest Green Rovers last month, after first-team coach Dean Whitehead brought him into the building.
And manager Lamouchi revealed the player has been training with the club and Cardiff are trying to finalise a deal to add him to the squad in order to boost their chances of survival.
When asked if Wickham was going to sign, Lamouchi replied: "Probably. We are discussing. We are trying to sign him, so he is training with us. I hope he will be part of the squad.
"It was the timing and opportunity. We don’t have a lot of opportunity or a lot of time. He was around and training. His experience in this league can help us and help the squad.
"He has very good experience. I remember him years ago. I spoke with him and saw him on the pitch. Physically big with quality and experience."
Wickham scored nine goals in 20 games in all competitions for the League One club earlier in the season and left in search of a new challenge higher up the football pyramid.
Read the full story here.
Mahlon Romeo injury boost
Cardiff have been boosted by the return of right-back Mahlon Romeo but are sweating on the fitness of Rubin Colwill ahead of Saturday's clash with Middlesbrough.
The Bluebirds have sorely missed the defender, who has been one of the most consistent performers for the club this season, and the balance of their back line appears to have been thrown out of kilter in recent weeks.
But in a positive news bulletin from Sabri Lamouchi, he confirmed Romeo is available to play this weekend. Unfortunately, an ankle injury to Colwill means he faces a late fitness test.
"The update on Mahlon is that he started the week training with us. So he will be available for the game. [Ebou Adams] is not training yet.
"Rubin Colwill received a kick in his ankle, so he didn’t train yesterday. We will check him today. I don’t think it’ll be serious. We will see today."
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Lamouchi: Under-21s not ready to step up
Bluebirds boss Sabri Lamouchi does not envisage any of the club's under-21s stepping up to the first team any time soon.
Lamouchi said he met with the under-21s manager Darren Purse and said some of the younger players are training with the senior squad, but that's about as far as their involvement is likely to go for the time being.
"It was so nice, even for [Purse] to come and to introduce himself and to take time to come with me to ask me what I need," Lamouchi said of the under-21s boss.
"So it will help me and it will help us. The problem is, we have players available to play with the first team right now. I'm not sure some of them will. They are training with us. They are ready to train. They are ready to play. Not yet."
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