The 29-year-old re-joined the Whites this summer to train after his contract at Norwich City expired and the full-back impressed in the pre-season friendlies against AS Monaco, Nottingham Forest and Hearts. Ahead of the new Championship season, Byram has now signed a one-year deal at Elland Road, penning terms until the summer of 2024.

Byram will again wear the number 25 shirt, the same number he wore during his previous spell with the club. The defender could also make his second debut for the Whites in Sunday’s Championship opener against Cardiff City at Elland Road, subject to EFL and FA approva

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Wherever you look, Cardiff City are being roundly written off as relegation fodder when the Championship season kicks off this weekend.

Pundits pretty much everywhere across the Bridge reckon another nine months of toil and trouble is ahead in the Welsh capital.

A Championship supercomputer even tips the Bluebirds to be relegated, with Plymouth and Hull joining them.

The bookies, those people who tend to be in the know, aren’t quite as downbeat about Cardiff’s fate as that. But they do still have them locked in a major battle to avoid the drop, with only Huddersfield, QPR, Plymouth and Rotherham more likely as League One contenders in their eyes.

Not much reason for cheer there then, you might think at first glance.

However, in every season there is one team who defy the odds. In 2023-24, there is every chance that team will be Cardiff City.

At the very least, in my eyes they are deserving of greater respect and understanding of what’s been happening behind the scenes than the wholesale predictions of so much doom and gloom.

I guess the reasons for pessimism from the outside are understandable to a degree. This is a side, remember, who would have gone down a few months back were it not for a Reading points deduction. They couldn’t score goals, couldn’t win at home, there was a horrible sense of apathy. So the natural assumption is another year of strife ahead?

But there are also a whole raft of reasons for new-found optimism too and these don’t appear to be factored in when it comes to the traditional pre-season tips.

We may only be talking a matter of weeks, but Cardiff in August are absolute chalk and cheese to Cardiff back in May. They really are.

There is a new manager, for starters. Erol Bulut may be unproven in British football, but he has real pedigree in Turkey, led one of Europe’s biggest clubs, Fenerbache, a couple of years back and brings know-how, discipline and fresh hunger to the Bluebirds hot-seat.

Cardiff are also having an excellent transfer window which has seen them bring a number of quality new signings on board, topped of course by the stunning capture Aaron Ramsey.

There surely will not be a better footballer in the league than the Wales captain, yet he’s being dismissed in some quarters too.

I find that staggering. Even if Ramsey only plays 25 games, most of those should be of a high calibre and he’ll really pep the team. He may not be Aaron circa Euro 2016 any more, but he still oozes class.

In bringing on board so many talented newcomers, Karlan Grant, Josh Bowler, Yakou Meite and Dimitrios Goutas among them, and with more signings to come, Cardiff suddenly possess strength in depth. So crucial in the Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday grind of the Championship, where matches come thick and fast and injuries and suspensions take their toll.

There are still issues to resolve. Even with Ramsey’s inclusion Bulut’s midfield badly needs further bolstering, goalkeeper too perhaps, while landing Kieffer Moore by the end of the summer transfer window would be the wonderful tasting icing on the cake. Centre-half back-up is also required.

But already this team looks a million times more likely to challenge in the top half of the table than the one led last season by Steve Morison and Mark Hudson.

Morison made 17 signings last summer. Only three of those, Jan Alnwick, Callum O’Dowda and Callum Robinson are likely to start the season opener at Leeds. And as the weeks go on, a couple of those won’t be guaranteed their starting spots, either.

This is what I mean about chalk and cheese, strength in depth. Cardiff 2023-24 are a galaxy away from Cardiff 2022-23.

Regular readers of this column will know that I love Rubin Colwill, but even I can’t see where his mercurial talents fit into a starting XI at the moment. That’s a rather nice problem for Bulut to have. And, of course, you need numbers, as much quality as possible, to battle through a gruelling Championship campaign.

So why the dramatic change, that many outside of Wales are simply not recognising?

Everything above has come around because chairman Mehmet Dalman has re-engaged and thus driven the exciting summer project, from new manager to new players. It’s been incredibly time consuming for the chairman, but when Dalman is on board like this Cardiff City are better for it.

As a bonus we’re told Vincent Tan’s business empire, so badly hit during the pandemic, has received a significant uplift in recent times. That doesn’t necessarily equate to big money being spent on the Bluebirds, it must be stressed. Financial Fair Play rules wouldn’t permit that anyway.

But at the very least the austerity appears over and Tan looks prepared to give it another real go when it comes to a promotion bid.

As such, if Cardiff are anywhere near the top eight around Christmas time, expect Tan to release the purse strings further in the January transfer window when Cardiff can spend again.

And then we have the fans. Always loyal, but understandably disenfranchised after events of the past two years. They are excited again, re-enthused, re-galvanised. It’s time for Cardiff City Stadium to be turned into a fortress once more, as was the case during the successful years under Neil Warnock, Malky Mackay and Dave Jones.

Cardiff fans will always inspire the team, but the team needs to inspire the fans, too. Last year, the odd game aside, the team most certainly did not. This season, under Bulut, they look far better equipped to do so as a result of the significant changes made, with more to come before the summer window is out.

As we’ve seen many times with Cardiff and Wales, when the CCS is rocking, the fans in full voice, it can become a venue where the opposition sometimes wilt. That definitely hasn’t been the case with Cardiff recently, it needs to be once more.

Together Stronger at the CCS. It works for club as well as country.

While this is still work in progress for Bulut, the stars appear to be aligning for Cardiff at the moment.

It’s a tougher Championship this year and meeting the two top favourites, relegated duo Leeds and Leicester, away in their opening games is an arduous beginning. If it goes wrong for Cardiff early on, people shouldn’t suddenly lose patience. Leeds and Leicester are capable of beating anybody at home at this level.

It might take time for Bulut to impart his wishes and tactics on the team in the hurly-burly of Championship football, the new players will need to gel. Bulut may have to find out the hard way who is capable of carrying out his wishes, and who isn’t, as he settles upon his first-choice XI from what looks a rather top-heavy squad at the moment.

But once Cardiff get into their stride, nobody should find them the kind of easy touch they have been in recent times under Morison, Hudson and Mick McCarthy. Particularly at home.

That’s why I simply cannot buy the negativity about being near the drop zone next May. It could, in fact, be the exact opposite.

A club of Cardiff City’s size really should be a Championship powerhouse, which is a role they have taken on for much of this century.