Cardiff City: Bluebirds' 2017-18 promotion push 'has started', says Bamba

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Sol BambaImage source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Neil Warnock and Sol Bamba were previously together at Leeds

Defender Sol Bamba says Cardiff City boss Neil Warnock is already priming his side for a Premier League promotion push next season.

The Bluebirds have eight Championship games left, starting at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.

But rather than thoughts of a summer break Warnock is busy preparing his charges for the next campaign.

"We start next season now. We want to keep the momentum going," said Bamba. "We can't stop talking about it."

Warnock has signed a contract extension to keep him in Wales' capital for 2017-18 and has made no secret of the fact he is aiming to add another promotion to his already formidable record.

The 68-year-old has sought financial backing from the Bluebirds' board and Bamba believes he and his teammates will be contenders to rise to the Premier League.

"Everything we are doing now is for next season. The gaffer says that every day," said Bamba.

"If we don't do things right, he says he is going to get new players or change things, which is fair enough.

"We start now and we are ready for it.

"We believe (we can be promotion contenders). We've got the right manager.

Looking up rather than down

"If you look since the manager has been at the club, I think he said it himself, we would be third in the league from when he took over.

"We want to build on that and we do believe we can be up there, definitely. We've got good players.

"We've beaten some good teams in the league.

"If we do the right things next season and believe in ourselves, we have a good chance."

Such positive talk shows how far the Bluebirds have come since Warnock took charge in October with the Bluebirds sitting one place off the bottom of the Championship.

Victory over Ipswich before the international break took Cardiff above the 'magic' 50 points mark often cited as the amount needed to avoid relegation.

But Bamba, who was one of Warnock's first signings, says it was apparent straight away that, under their new boss, the Bluebirds would be looking up the table rather than down.

The 32-year-old centre-half added: "We were in a relegation battle then, but after a few games we were more looking up than down.

"It's definitely down to the manager. He gave us a lot of confidence. He told the players he believed in us.

"He's a character with a lot of experience in this league. We responded to that and now we are looking up."

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