The winger has become one of Erol Bulut’s most trusted players and Bluebirds fans have really taken to him

The winger has become one of Erol Bulut’s most trusted players and Bluebirds fans have really taken to him

For Erol Bulut, Karlan Grant is one of the first names on the Cardiff City team sheet. Indeed, only Ike Ugbo has had more than the West Brom loanee’s 15 appearances for the Bluebirds this season.

The winger felt like a huge summer acquisition for Cardiff and while his goal output might not be where he wants it to be — he has scored only once and provided two assists — his performances have been consistently good. It’s just the sort of move he needed, having seen his time at West Brom stall last year, he needed a new challenge and appears to be enjoying the one in the Welsh capital.

“You want your fans to enjoy you as a footballer. It’s massive,” he said. “I’ve got a good connection with the fans and I enjoy going out and playing on that pitch. It’s enjoyable, it really is. It feels like every time we are at home we are going to win, there’s no better feeling than that.

“It’s about me playing my football again and enjoying my football, which is what I’m doing here with Cardiff. Barring me not scoring as much as I want to, I’m really enjoying it. I like the city, I like the club and for me it was important for me to go out and play. I didn’t want to just sit around and wait out my contract. I wanted to play and prove myself. There’s definitely more to come.”

There is a real feelgood factor around Cardiff at the moment. The Bluebirds leapt back into the top six after two convincing wins last week to continue their positive early-season form. And for Grant, he believes this Cardiff squad is as good as any he has played with.

“I think it’s up there,” he said of the squad. “In terms of togetherness, I think we really get on as a group. That helps massively in any successful team. The gaffer has brought that since he’s come in.

“We are all good people. When you get a good bunch of people it makes it a lot easier. You’ve got people like Sio (Manolis Siopis), who has never played in the country before and he is the loudest one in the dressing room! There have been smart signings, too, players who know the division, so it was easy for players to settle in. It’s been good.”

His situation at The Hawthorns appears to be a little up in the air as things stand. Quite whether he fits into Carlos Corberan’s plans or not remains to be seen. But, perhaps surprisingly, he hasn’t heard a peep from his parent club in over three months.

“I haven’t spoken to them,” he said when asked what conversations had been like with West Brom. “I don’t really know how it works. I’m just focused on enjoying my football here.”

It raises the question whether Cardiff might look to make his deal in the Welsh capital permanent once his loan spell is up next summer. Of course, the 26-year-old left Huddersfield Town for a hefty £15million price tag three years ago and next July he will still have two years left to run on his Baggies contract after he penned a six-year deal in 2020.

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All that has to be factored in when thinking whether a permanent move is even viable, said Bluebirds boss Erol Bulut. Asked if he had thought about making the signing permanent next summer, Bulut said: “He cost a lot for West Brom. Of course, the club at the end of the season, I don’t know the financial situation at West Brom, so maybe they will try to keep him or maybe they will try to sell him.

“I think right now it’s too early to speak about that. We still have many games in front of us, so at the end of the season we can talk about that.”