Perhaps the biggest indication of Cardiff City's strength in depth is the list of players who didn't play in that opening-weekend victory over title favourites Norwich City.
The Bluebirds came out 1-0 victors against the Canaries thanks to a goal from Romaine Sawyers, but when you take a look at the players who didn't even make the bench — Joel Bagan, Eli King, Oliver Denham, Vontae Campbell, Mark McGuinness and unfit trio Rubin Colwill, Ebou Adams and Isaak Davies among them — it makes the feat all the more impressive and paints a better picture for the campaign ahead than last season.
Another player who was absent was new signing Jaden Philogene. He was brought in two days before the Bluebirds' Championship curtain-raiser, but the buzz surrounding his arrival was quickly usurped by that win over the Canaries and subsequent fallout. The news of Tottenham striker Kion Etete signing perhaps pushed Philogene down that pecking order, too.
READ MORE: Cardiff City transfer news Live
But he should not be forgotten about, far from it. As our Midlands expert Ashley Preece put it, he has everything in his locker to explode on to the Championship stage this season.
Given he was away on Aston Villa's pre-season tour of Australia, Steve Morison felt it was right not to throw him in at the deep end against Dean Smith's side last weekend. But it's a different story this weekend and it's fair to say the Bluebirds manager can't wait to see the Villa loanee in action.
"He was fit to play last weekend but he came on Thursday," Morison said, explaining his decision to omit him from the matchday squad. "He’d just got back from Australia and had not been sleeping too well. It was the right thing to do, not having him on the bench last week, but he is fit and available, ready for Saturday.
"He’s very good in one-v-one situations, which is what we want, we want competition in those wide areas. If someone isn't on it then we can put someone else in. If they are tired we can put someone else in and the level doesn't change.
"The whole plan when we started putting all this together was that we wanted competition and people looking over their shoulders the whole time and if people aren’t doing that, they need to re-evaluate, because change will happen if it's needed,
"He is one that comes in with a great pedigree at Aston Villa, they've extended [his contract], because that's how good they think he is and you've seen the players they produce.
"It will be Interesting to see what he’s like on the pitch, I can’t wait to see him in and around their penalty box with the ball at his feet."
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