Here are your Cardiff City headlines for Monday, May 9.
Pack announces departure
Marlon Pack has become the second confirmed player to leave Cardiff City this summer after posting a statement on social media.
Steve Morison had already confirmed that Alex Smithies would depart the Welsh capital upon the expiration of his deal in June, however the manager has remained tight-lipped about who else would be leaving.
Pack, though, has taken it into his own hands to confirm he is one of the players whose contract will not be renewed. On Instagram, he wrote: "My time at Cardiff City has come to an end, I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity to play for the club.
READ MORE: Exactly how Cardiff City will conduct summer transfer business
"I want to thank the fans for all your support over the past three seasons especially during the pandemic and this season where it hasn’t gone how we all wanted.
"Special mention to all my team-mates, the members of staff, the managers I’ve worked under and the numerous people I’ve crossed paths with in and around the football club over the last three years. I’ve made some great friends and met some fantastic people and that’s what football's all about.
"Enjoy your summer and all the best in the future."
Pack was a mainstay under Neil Warnock, Neil Harris and Mick McCarthy, however has fallen off the radar since January with the club under the stewardship of Steve Morison.
The midfielder, 32, played 109 times for the Bluebirds, scored five goals and registered 10 assists.
Cody Drameh returns to Leeds United
Cody Drameh has already returned to Leeds United following his half-season loan spell with Cardiff City, according to the Yorkshire Evening Post.
They report that Drameh will immediately take part in training at the club's Thorp Arch training ground as manager Jesse Marsch wants to run the rule over the right-back ahead of a huge summer for the 20-year-old.
While Drameh, and Leif Davies who was on loan at Bournemouth, has returned to the training ground, he cannot partake in any of Leeds' final three games of the campaign.
Following Stuart Dallas' long-term injury and Luke Ayling's sending off against Arsenal on Sunday, resulting in him missing the crucial end-of-season run-in as Leeds fight for Premier League survival, some fans up in Yorkshire wondered whether Drameh would now be eligible to fill in at right-back for the remaining games.
However, as reported by the YEP, Drameh is not eligible to play owing to transfer and registration stipulations.
On his exit, Drameh wrote on Instagram: "Great way to end the season with a win. Thank you to the wonderful supporters, chanting my name it meant a lot.
"I’ve had an amazing time at Cardiff City and the support from the club, staff, players and supporters has been unreal. Thank you for everything."
Smith drops Hugill hint
Norwich City boss Dean Smith has hinted that Jordan Hugill will be a part of his plans next season.
The Canaries manager allowed Hugill to join Cardiff in January after the player endured a horror start to the campaign on loan with West Brom before the New Year.
Hugill stated he wanted to prove a point to his parent club, who will be playing in the Championship next season, and he has certainly done that with a solid loan stint with the Bluebirds, for whom he scored four goals in 19 appearances.
And while Smith did not say anything too concrete, he did say that Hugill would be returning and that his squad for next season is shaping up as "healthy".
“We’ve got a pretty settled squad,” said Smith. “We have only got one player out of contract, we’ve got Todd (Cantwell) who Bournemouth have an option on. Other than that, we are pretty solid as a squad.
“We have got loan players coming back, three of them will join in training with us next week as well. Jordan Hugill is back from Cardiff. Sam (McCallum) and Onel (Hernandez) are going to join in with us next week as well.
“So we have got quite a healthy squad. You have to remember during the summer we will have players out playing international football as well so they won’t report for pre-season until a little bit later than the others, so we are going to need to have some of the loan players to have a good look at them next season.”
Uche to learn fate today
Chris Wilder is set to hold face-to-face meetings with his entire first-team squad on Monday to thrash out where their futures lie.
That is according to the Northern Echo, who report that Uche Ikpeazu was transfer listed back in January and now Wilder is set to "wield the axe" further this summer.
It could also mean that former Bluebirds favourites Sol Bamba and Lee Peltier depart the Riverside, too, as both of their contracts are set to expire next month.
It would be no surprise to see Ikpeazu, Bamba and Peltier leave Boro this summer, with Wilder predicting a "big rebuild" job this summer.
“The issue of I’ve had is I can’t come out and say what I really want to say because they’re still playing and giving everything," he said.
“I don’t think, from a motivation point of view, the players would have taken too kindly to me saying, ‘give it a good go until the end of this season, but then I’m going to let a load of you go and there’s going to be a big rebuild’. But basically, now, there is going to be a big rebuild and I am going to let a load of you go, as you’ll see in the next couple of days.”
Ikpeazu is currently on holiday in Dubai, so any face-to-face meeting with him would likely have to be done through video call, one would think.
