You would be hard-pressed to find too much argument against the belief that Cardiff City’s roster need needs reinforcement, by hook or by crook, even if the free agency market is often somewhat empty after the summer transfer season.

After losing five of his first six games, Erol Bulut was sent off by the Bluebirds following a disastrous start to the 2024–25 Championship campaign. The assumption that Cardiff could turn things around and challenge for a play-off berth was universally held by supporters over the summer, but their early-season showing is alarmingly at odds with that expectation.

What was supposed to be, at most, an interesting window of opportunity has not turned out to be a fruitful one. Even after completing eight acquisitions, there is still a belief that Cardiff severely lacks speed, dynamism, and drive since they were unable to resolve their ongoing striker problems.

They did, however, take advantage of the free agent market and signed Chris Willock in addition to Anwar El Ghazi and Calum Chambers, two former Aston Villa players.

Although Cardiff may prefer to move on from its blunders now, they may eventually require a quick remedy. Football League World looks at three free agency acquisitions that the team may be thinking about in October, should they decide to bring in new players outside of the window.

Vito van Crooij

If Cardiff wants to bolster their wide options, they could do far worse than to pursue a deal for Vito van Crooij, in what would be a most unconventional piece of business.

Operating on both sides, the 28-year-old Dutchman’s contract with Saudi Pro League team Al-Wehda expired last month, leaving him a free agent. Despite his disappointing performance in Saudi Arabia, Van Crooij is not expected to be out from the game for very long, since he has demonstrated consistency over a number of years at the Eredivisie level.

While he produced respectable results with both VVV-Venlo and PEC Zwolle, it was during Sparta Rotterdam’s 2022–23 campaign that he had his breakthrough season. He scored 12 goals and added 11 assists, surpassing the likes of Mohamed Kudus, Dušan Tadić, and Cody Gakpo while also setting up more goals than Xavi Simons, Steven Berghuis, and Joey Veerman.

It begs the question of why, at the age of 28, he is unsigned to a team when he ought to be playing his best football and has been in such a rich vein of form just two seasons ago. However, if they could even pull off the trade, he would undoubtedly provide a team in need of that much-needed attacking and goal-scoring momentum.

Isaac Success

Isaac Success, whose name is maybe more well-known in England, is best known for his tenure at Watford. He was released by Udinese at the beginning of the season, and he is currently available on the free agent market.

Success moved to the Hornets from Granada in 2016 for a then-club record £12.5 million, although he only scored six goals in 72 games at Vicarage Road, never reaching his full potential.

However, he can show that he is a true threat with his physical presence, link-up play, and direct running, which allow him to pull defenders in and draw fouls, creating space for teammates to enter the game and pinning opponents deep inside their territory.

Although it is important to note that he put up respectable figures in the top division of Italian football with Udinese, those qualities are more valuable than the record of goals scored by him throughout the course of his career. Success scored five goals in three complete seasons, but he set up nine in his first and then six in his second.

Success is a forward that Cardiff desperately needs to be able to drop deep, win duels, surge forward, and connect with teammates in order to create a more fluid and flowing offensive dynamic. You can imagine that the positional versatility of the adaptable forward, who can play anywhere on the front line, would be a huge bonus.

Daniel Amartey

Finally, Cardiff’s deficiencies in terms of goal scoring are just as serious as their defensive issues. Van Crooij and Success would provide something fresh to the final third, but they could live to regret not taking care of the backline as well. They have been awful in both boxes.

Over the course of seven years, Amartey established a strong body of work in English football. He played for Leicester City in the UEFA Champions League and won the most unlikely Premier League title in his first year there.

Cardiff ought to seriously consider a move for him given he is now without a club after departing the King Power Stadium last summer, having spent a year with Besiktas.