Cardiff City had an eventful transfer window with Mick McCarthy able to offload some players off the wage bill and also strengthen with some key additions.

The Bluebirds have managed to bring in three players on permanent deals with Mark McGuiness and Ryan Wintle signed with an eye on the future as well as for this season.

That has perhaps most clearly been demonstrated by the fact that Cardiff have allowed Wintle to leave on loan for Blackpool this term.

James Collins appears to be a very strong signing for the Bluebirds on a free transfer after his goal-scoring exploits for Luton Town over the last few years.

McCarthy will now need to find a way of getting the best out of him alongside his other forward options.

Cardiff have also used the loan market productively to strengthen their squad with Ryan Giles arriving from Wolves and he has been an impressive performer for them at the start of the Championship season.

In terms of outgoings, crucially for Cardiff, they were able to prevent Kieffer Moore from leaving the club despite Wolves making a late Deadline Day move for him.

They did manage to get the likes of Robert Glatzel, Joe Bennett, Junior Hoilett and Jonny Williams off the wage bill and that will help them financially.

While the likes of Gavin Whyte, Max Waters, Wintle and Josh Murphy have all departed on loan deals.

So with Cardiff’s summer business finally brought to a close, we take a look at what their strongest XI could look like now…

At the start of the season, McCarthy has been alternating between a 3-4-3 and 5-4-1 set up in terms of his formation.

However, following the conclusion of the Bluebirds’ transfer business, it might be time for them to try and go for more of a 3-4-1-2 formation to try and get more productivity upfront.

Dillon Phillips is Cardiff’s clear number one goalkeeper at the moment and that was always going to be the case irrespective of what transfer business they conducted in the goalkeeping department.

Alex Smithies though remains challenging him, despite Sheffield United having been credited with an interest in him.

Sean Morrison, Aden Flint and Curtis Nelson appear to be the back three of choice for McCarthy now this season with those three all getting a run of games together in the last few weeks.

McGuiness is there behind them pushing for a chance to come into the team but for now you would say that is their strongest option.

At right-wing-back Tom Sang appears to be being favoured now by McCarthy despite Perry Ng having started the campaign in the side. The 22-year-old will know that he will have to keep producing with his performances to stay in the side.

The left-wing-back position at the moment appears to be in the hands of Joel Bagan and he continues to grow and improve with more regular game time under McCarthy. He will need to keep getting better in a very important position for the Bluebirds.

In the midfield two, McCarthy seems to be settling on Marlon Pack and Joe Ralls at the start of the campaign. The pair are very dependable players that suit what their manager expects from them. However, Will Vaulks and Leandro Bacuna are quality options to have pushing them for their places.

Playing in a free role in this formation would be Giles, with the Wolves loanee proving to be something of a creative force in his first few appearances for the Bluebirds.

Four assists in five league matches is some going and Cardiff need him to carry on creating chances if they are to challenge for the top-six.

Finally upfront, McCarthy needs to consider trying out both Moore and Collins in a front two. Keeping hold of Moore was huge for the Bluebirds and you could see him and Collins grabbing a lot of goals together if Cardiff gave them a run of games together in attack.