Erol Bulut: Cardiff City boss fears job uncertainty could affect Bluebirds' players
- Published
Erol Bulut has played and managed in countries such as Germany, Greece and Turkey
Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut believes uncertainty about his own position could be affecting the team.
Bulut's one-year contract expires at the end of the season and he has not yet opened talks about a new deal.
Cardiff lost 2-0 at home to Sunderland in the Championship on Friday, with Bulut describing it as one of their worst performances of the season.
Asked if a lack of clarity about his future might be a contributing factor, Bulut said: "It can be."
The former Fenerbahce boss added: "I don't have any problems. I respect it from the board if they are not coming with a new offer.
"I'm focusing on my job until the end of the season. Until now we haven't had any communication about that, so let's see."
Bulut has overseen a significant improvement at Cardiff since taking over last summer.
Before the former Turkey Under-21 international's arrival, the Bluebirds had only narrowly avoided relegation from the Championship in their previous two seasons.
However, under Bulut, Cardiff have consistently been in the top half of the table and were in contention for a play-off place earlier in the campaign.
Their top-six aspirations have faded recently and, with seven games left this term, Bulut's side are 11 points adrift of the play-off spots.
Cardiff's two most recent performances - in successive 2-0 defeats against Sunderland and arch rivals Swansea City - have suggested the players might be lacking inspiration as they drift towards the end of the season.
Relegation does not seem to be a realistic threat with the bottom three 14 points behind, but Bulut does not want his players to simply go through the motions in the final stages of the campaign, even if they might not have much to play for.
"Maybe they think like this but I don't think so," he said.
"I told them when they came in [to the changing room], 'we cannot be comfortable because we have 53 points'.
"We still have seven more games to play and have to get as many points as we can.
"We can't stop the season from now. Everyone has to come back from this performance and in the last seven games we have to give our best, for the fans first of all and for the club, also for themselves.
"There will have to be a change mentally when we are on the field."