Sheyi Ojo scored the winner while Harry Wilson made his Cardiff City debut on Sunday. Ojo scored early in the second half to earn the Bluebirds a 1-0 victory at Preston North End, whilst Wilson came off the bench as a first-half substitute at Deepdale. #awlfc [lfc] pic.twitter.com/exetU7jEu0
— Anfield Watch (@AnfieldWatch) October 19, 2020
As reigning Premier League champions, Liverpool’s first-team fringe players were in high demand via the loan system for this season and two talented wingers left Anfield to spend the campaign at Cardiff City.
The Bluebirds have been an ambitious club for the last 15 years ever since ex-Everton player Dave Jones came in as manager. In that time, Cardiff have moved from Ninian Park into a new stadium in the Welsh capital and twice won promotion to the Premier League.
Now helping their latest efforts to get back into the promised land are Sheyi Ojo and Harry Wilson. The Bluebirds currently sit in mid-table mediocrity, almost equidistant from the play-offs and the relegation zone.
That may be why the 2021 Championship odds on the exchanges don’t currently put them among the favourites for promotion, as of 14th January, but they have been wrongly disregarded by the market before. Cardiff’s first ascent to the Premier League in 2013 had been a long time in coming.
There were failed play-off campaigns aplenty in the season prior to them lifting the Championship title. A second Premier League promotion in 2018 under specialist manager Neil Warnock was more of a surprise.
It was his successor, Neil Harris – a figure previously synonymous with Millwall – that is the beneficiary of the Liverpool loans. Arriving first on 7 September and the eve of the Championship season, Ojo brought plenty of experience at this level with him to the Cardiff City Stadium.
Ojo joined the Liverpool academy from MK Dons in 2011 and played the first games of his professional career in the Championship during a loan spell with Wigan Athletic during the 2014-15 season. Similar spells with Wolves and Fulham followed in subsequent campaigns. Ojo was part of the squad that went up via the Championship play-offs in 2018 during his stint at Craven Cottage.
He has also spent recent campaigns in other football nations, with Reims in France’s Ligue 1 and Rangers in the Scottish Premiership. To date, Ojo has three goals and five assists for Cardiff which matches the tally of Wales international Wilson, who joined the club a month or so later.
Although he may have hoped to stay at Anfield and fight for a first-team place following an encouraging stint with Bournemouth, despite the Cherries’ relegation from the Premier League, Wilson had to again leave Merseyside to get regular game time. Liverpool’s signing of Portugal winger Diogo Jota from Wolves pushed him down the pecking order. Wrexham-born Wilson had never played club football in his homeland until joining the Bluebirds on 16 October.
Prolific at Championship level during previous loans with Hull City and Derby County, he is a proven performer that gives Harris a goal threat as well as guile in the final third. The tactics Cardiff are using aren’t too difficult to see with the presence of fellow Wales international Kieffer Moore, bought on the cheap from cash-strapped Wigan, in the centre-forward spot.
Both Ojo and Wilson can supply the Bluebirds’ main striker who, at 6ft 5in, offers a physical presence and aerial target for their balls into the box. This may be old school, but it’s a tried and test method of getting out of the Championship. Who knows, Ojo and Wilson may help Cardiff to pull off another surprise promotion.
