The curtain has come down on a busy and crucial month for Cardiff City. And there have been real positives.

The Bluebirds needed January to go smoothly because the end of 2024 was nothing short of a car crash, with the club suffering a nine-match winless streak with a number of key players injured and a dozen contracts up in the air.

Suddenly, a month later, the skies are a little brighter over Cardiff City Stadium. A nine-match unbeaten run in all competitions certainly served to lift the mood, while positive dealings in the transfer window helped in a big way, too.

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Omer Riza was insistent that he wanted two or three players in to freshen up the squad, while players had to leave the building, too. Sign up to our daily Cardiff City newsletter here.

Early moves for Ryotaro Tsunoda, who needed game-time after an eight-month lay-off following hamstring surgery, to KV Kortrijk on loan and Tom Davies, who joined Newport County permanently, appeared the right deals for all.

Wilfried Kanga's misery in south Wales was ended swiftly, too. The striker failed to score in 16 appearances in all competitions for the Bluebirds, an unmitigated disaster of a spell, and he was recalled by Hertha BSC before making a permanent move to Dinamo Zagreb.

In light of Kanga's exit, Cardiff needed a forward addition and put their money where their mouth is. Riza had tracked Yousef Salech for some time, with the Danish-born striker having admirers from across Europe and even in the Middle East. And the 23-year-old began immediately repaying the faith the manager had shown in him with a last-gasp equaliser at Millwall in his second City outing.

The club are hopeful for him for the future. The same can be said, too, for Roko Simic, who was recalled from his own disappointing loan spell out in Kortrijk, where he played four times before suffering an injury. In his first outing in a Bluebirds shirt he showed fans what he is capable of, as well, latching on to Aaron Ramsey's lovely through-ball to score against Everton for the under-21s in the Premier League Cup at the weekend.

Simic and Salech are at a similar stage in their careers and have a similar number of goals, too. In fact, on the surface, they look pretty similar players – but that battle for game-time will hopefully drive one another on for the rest of this season and hopefully into the next.

Manolis Siopis was arguably the highest-profile exit - and perhaps the most surprising, too. If reports in Greece are to be believed, the midfielder was putting the feelers out for a return to his homeland back in November, following the sacking of his ex-boss Erol Bulut, and got his wish with a top move to Panathinaikos.

The truth is, while Siopis was a big personality and left his all out on the pitch, all too rarely did he live up to his billing. A parting of the ways seemed right. Whether that has ramifications for Dimitrios Goutas in the coming months is certainly a consideration.

Tasked with replacing Siopis, at least until the end of the season, is Sivert Mannsverk. A slightly different player in that he likes to drive forward with the ball and is perhaps less of an enforcer. But the club needed someone to ease that burden on Alex Robertson, particularly with David Turnbull working his way back from injury.

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Will Alves looks a real coup, as well. There has been nothing but positivity from Leicester quarters following news of his move to south Wales. A creative, quick, technical player who can occupy a number of positions and gives Riza the opportunity to be flexible in which systems he wants to deploy.

It adds pressure to Rubin Colwill, who will be battling the 19-year-old for the same position on the pitch, but Cardiff do have a creativity vacuum and needed more in there. Riza thought Alves, who he'd been in contact with throughout the window, was the right option and supporters are rightly excited to see what he can offer.

He was the last addition of the window, with deadline day largely a damp squib. Michael Reindorf sealed his loan move to Bristol Rovers, who came in late on Sunday night to hijack his move away from League Two Notts County, which is a good move for the teenager, who has been in hot form in front of goal for Cardiff's youth team. Kion Etete was allowed to head out to Bolton Wanderers, too, but suffered a disappointing debut in which he gave away a penalty which led to defeat, after signing a new, two-year deal. He really does need to kick on now. But given the competition up front at Cardiff following the conclusion of the window, those two seemed to be sensible moves.

It felt like a far better planned, more coherent window than the summer, which ended pretty flat with many feeling there wasn't enough quality options at the top end of the pitch. With two signings, Simic back from loan and the likes of Isaak Davies and Ramsey returning from injury, those fears have been allayed somewhat.

Meanwhile, it is arguable that tying down Callum Robinson — in particular — Callum O'Dowda and Jak Alnwick to new deals was just as important as any other transfer business in January and February. With concerns rising over a mass exodus in the summer, getting key players and squad leaders committed during a relegation dogfight was an important message to send.

The only slight disappointment on deadline day was being unable to get Jamilu Collins sold. He's not in Riza's plans moving forward and with the player out of contract in the summer, the club would ideally have liked a transfer fee for him, with tentative interest from abroad having been registered.

But it proved difficult to get him out and the option of terminating his contract has now been considered.

The late rumours surrounding a potential reunion with Karlan Grant got a few out of their seats late on, too. Perhaps a proven Championship player - something they do not have in their three new recruits - might just have taken this window from decent into extremely positive. But that move never materialised.

Importantly, this month must now be built upon. The 7-0 battering at Leeds United last weekend must only be a blip, with huge fixtures coming up in the league against Portsmouth, Bristol City, Plymouth Argyle and Hull City to come before the month is through. It's not outlandish to say that run of fixtures could go a very long way to determining in which division they play their football next season.

With some fresh impetus in the form of new signings and big, key players set to return from injury, confidence of winning the battle against relegation has improved markedly throughout the January window. That confidence, however, must translate into results in the coming weeks.