Ahead of Saturday’s inaugural match of the 2025/26 season, Yousef Salech spoke to the press at Cardiff City Stadium.
With this weekend’s highly-anticipated fixture against the Posh just days away, Yousef reflected on pre-season under the leadership of Head Coach Brian Barry-Murphy.
“It’s been really good [working with Brian],” began Yousef. “We’ve been finishing the last week of pre-season and we’re really excited. We had a really good pre-season as a squad, with the new Head Coach coming in we’ve built a lot around that from day one.
“I’ve been enjoying it, and we’ve been training very specifically around where we want to improve and how we want to play the games. I’ve seen a big improvement in that throughout pre-season and everyday in training, so hopefully we can bring that onto the pitch on Saturday.”
Click here to watch the press conference in full on Cardiff City TV!
Discussing his own role within the team, Yousef – who scored nine goals for the Bluebirds last season – believes that City now have the chance to hit the ground running, starting with a return to CCS this weekend.
“We’re creating a lot of chances for each other in pre-season,” he continued. “It feels like we are very dangerous as a team right now.
“As a striker, waiting in the box for the ball and learning what my teammates can do in different situations and waiting for them to do the right thing, I’ll try to do the right thing for them too.
“I’m really happy here. It’s not long ago that I joined, and I’ve enjoyed every part of it so far. I want to score goals and help the team win games, and the goal for the club is to get back up and to do it in the best way possible.
“We have incredible quality in this squad, and that quality has been even more visible since Brian came in, as I’ve seen across training and the pre-season games. I think we have a strong squad and we look better now than we did three or four months ago.”
With excitement high around the squad, Salech nonetheless anticipates the challenges of playing in League One, and is adamant that the squad maintains its focus throughout the campaign ahead.
“I don’t believe that any league in the world is going to be easy,” said Yousef. “You have to work hard and do well to get the results you want, no matter what you do. I’m not the player in the squad with the most knowledge of League One, its players or its teams, but I don’t expect anything to be easy.
“There is a lot of excitement, we are motivated and looking forward to the start of the new season, and the chance to show how good we believe we are. I’ve said how good I believe we are in training, but at the end of the day we need to show it in the games.
“I think that we are ready, both as a player and as a part of the team. The feeling is really good right now, and we’re all very excited for Saturday.”
Watch more from Yousef and Brian Barry-Murphy on Cardiff City TV!