Bulut avoids media after Cardiff's worst start for 35 years

Former Fenerbahce boss Erol Bulut is in his second season at Cardiff

Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut refused to conduct interviews after Saturday's defeat at Derby County consigned the Championship's bottom club to their worst start to a season for 35 years.

The 1-0 loss was Cardiff's fourth from five league games, in which they have collected just one point and scored a single goal.

With a goal difference of minus 10 at the foot of the table, this the Bluebirds' worst start to a campaign since 1989-90 in the Third Division when they also picked up just one point from their opening five fixtures.

Bulut was banned from the touchline at Derby following his red card at Swansea City last month.

Although that suspension did not preclude him from doing interviews at Pride Park, Bulut handed his media duties over to assistant coach Omer Riza.

“When you talk about concern, obviously we’ve lost games and we’ve picked up one point so it’s not where we want to be," Riza told BBC Sport Wales.

"We want to be winning games and getting momentum. The only way you get those things is if you win and perform well. We’ve performed well in patches but it’s not enough."

This disappointing start to Bulut's second season comes after the former Turkey Under-21 international had overseen a big improvement in his first campaign.

Before Bulut's arrival, Cardiff had endured two successive battles to avoid relegation but, with the former Fenerbahce boss at the helm, they finished a comfortable 12th in the Championship table.

In doing so, Bulut became the first Bluebirds boss to last a whole season since Neil Warnock oversaw the 2018-19 term, which ended with relegation from the Premier League.

This season, however, has seen the Bluebirds revert to the kind of results and performances which saw them struggle in previous campaigns.