McGuinness in Cardiff squad 'for now' as Bluebirds boss discusses Luton's interest in defender

Cardiff boss Erol Bulut has confirmed that centre half Mark McGuinness is in the Bluebirds’ squad that is getting ready to face Burnley on Saturday ‘for now’ despite continued rumours of serious interest from Luton Town.

The 23-year-old defender has been linked with a big money move to Kenilworth Road for over a week now, as the City chief confirmed this afternoon that a bid has been received for the former Arsenal youngster, although hasn’t directly named Town as the team to have submitted it. With Cardiff heading to Turf Moor on Saturday, when asked if his travelling contingent would contain McGuinness, who scored during the 2-0 Carabao Cup win at Bristol Rovers in midweek, speaking to the club’s official website, Bulut said: “For now, yes. Interest is always there if it's Luton or some other clubs. Yesterday he showed why he has much interest from Luton, this says everything.

"He's a player for Cardiff City. I’m continuing that way until something is coming or not coming. If nothing comes we are pleased to have him here and continue with him. It is a free market so they can test, but the thing what I know, the player belongs to us so we don’t have any rush with this. The value of the player is clear, when the club gets this value, then the club will go forward, otherwise not. There is a time where I will say from now not, as I can not have it until the end of the month and let the player go when I don’t have something to get.”

Questioned as to what kind of price could sway the Welsh side to allow McGuinness to leave, Bulut continued: “For now, the offers have to come in and then I think the board will make the decision about that, especially the price. I have it in my head, but I will not share it with you. I think, we are now on that level where everyone is talking about the transfer, so it's something we're discussing right now."

Town manager Rob Edwards was also asked once more about the possibility of signing McGuinness during his pre-match press conference this afternoon, but didn’t want to give anything away regarding the club’s stance, saying: “Again, I’ve been asked before, I don’t want to talk about others clubs players, I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. I just reiterate the fact that we’re working hard to try and bring in more than one as quickly as possible.”

With Luton having sold John McAtee to Bolton Wanderers last week and Andros Townsend almost completing his move away from Kenilworth Road as well, it now leaves Town with four spaces available in their anticipated 25-man squad. On the departure of Townsend meaning Edwards will look to replace the former England international, he continued: “We want to be able to move if we can and continue to try and improve.

"If that means we can get another one in who can help us and we have the space, and it works then I think so. If that person is not going to help us improve them we won’t be filling the squad with numbers just for the sake of it, but it gives us another number now as well in the squad. We know we need them and we’ve needed them for a long time. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t been trying to do it, but yes, we do need to get one or two bodies in.

With Town CEO Gary Sweet stating that Luton’s best business could be done late in the window, discussing where that might be in the last week ahead of the window shutting at 11pm on Friday, August 30, he added: “I don’t know about that. We’re hoping soon, we really are, but some of these, you haven’t got a crystal ball, you don’t know. It’s not just as easy as going we’ve agreed that and it’s going to happen, there are several parties in these deals that need to agree as well. They’re not as straight forward as everyone thinks.”