Neil Warnock says transfer targets were reluctant to replace Emiliano Sala at Cardiff

CARDIFF were unable to convince any transfer targets to replace Emiliano Sala, boss Neil Warnock has said.

Bluebirds record signing Sala is missing, presumed dead, after his light aircraft disappeared on January 21.

Leandro Bacuna was brought in from Reading on deadline day for a deal worth around £3million.

But Warnock explained the hurdles the relegation-threatened club encountered when it came to negotiations with strikers.

He said: "One or two of the strikers that we were told about didn't really want to come in, in the circumstances.

"They [players] didn't want to come after what's happened, so it's been a very difficult transfer window. I was really pleased with Bacuna, that was a bonus.

"Because at the start of the transfer window, I would have been pleased to get two of my three targets.

"I should have probably got all three of them as we know now, so I don't think we could have worked much harder.

"For one lad from abroad who we were looking at, the sort of finances we were talking, you'd thought the lad was playing for his country on a regular basis.

"They were talking the sort of money we paid for Bacuna - as a signing on fee, plus an agent's fee.

"I wasn't going to jeopardise the club or the owners for something like that, so we had to pull the plug on a couple of deals at the end of the day.

"One of them possibly was [close] until we finally got the terms, which were astronomical for what we agreed. Things seemed to change every other day.

"Whether they were pushing on our circumstances, I don't know. I spoke to [chairman] Mehmet [Dalman] and [chief executive] Ken Choo at great length and we weren't going to have a gun put to our head."