Here are your Cardiff City headlines for Friday, March 4.
Cardiff linked with Millwall star
Cardiff City are interested in signing Millwall right-back Mahlon Romeo, according to the Portsmouth News.
The 26-year-old, who is on loan at Portsmouth from the Lions, has been one of Pompey's standout players this term, having played 31 times for the League One club.
Obviously Steve Morison will know Romeo from his time with him at Millwall, making the connection a fairly obvious one. The report adds that Cardiff even looked into the possibility of signing the player in January, however he had played for both Millwall and Portsmouth this season and would not be able to turn out for a third club in the same campaign.
Pompey boss Danny Cowley has already admitted it would be difficult for the south coast club to fund a move for Romeo, who has a contract at the Den until June 2024. One suspects Cardiff might have similar difficulties.
However it is certainly a position in which Cardiff will be looking to strengthen this summer. Cody Drameh will return to Leeds United, Perry Ng has been playing excellently as a centre-back and Tom Sang is seen as more of a midfielder now.
Romeo's own future at Millwall appears up in the air, too, with the player seemingly having felt he received a lack of support from the Lions hierarchy after he spoke out about what he perceived as a section of their fans 'spreading hatred' when they booed players taking the knee at the end of 2020.
That, in fact, prompted the Antigua and Barbuda international's loan move to Fratton Park in the first place.
Morison opens up on Sean Morrison future
Steve Morison has shed some light about conversations he held with the board relating to Sean Morrison's future.
Morrison is out for the season after a nasty ACL injury he sustained up at Barnsley, with the Bluebirds captain's deal up at the end of the season.
And the Bluebirds boss has said that he held conversations with the board to see "if we could do something" about Morrison's future, going on to state it was the least he deserved.
On BBC's Football Daily, Morison's former Millwall team-mate and good friend Jed Wallace brought Morrison's situation to the fore. Wallace said the Lions showed loyalty to Morison at the latter stages of his career and wondered whether Cardiff would do the same for the centre-back.
Wallace asked: "With the role he has in the group, is it something that, with the loyalty Millwall showed you and vice-versa, would the club still look to keep him beyond this season, knowing his injury, and look after him? He's obviously a club legend and been great for the club."
To which Morison responded: "Yeah, of course.
"When [the injury] happened, I said straight away, I spoke to him and said I would speak to the board and we would see if we could do something for him, because he deserves that.
"It was difficult because I didn't have a contract, so it was hard for me to push too hard on those things.
"Obviously now it's in place, I can push harder on those things. Isaak Davies just signed a new four-year deal which is something I had in the pipeline, but the family and player wanted to know what was happening with myself and the club.
"Things will escalate and move a lot more quickly now."
P.S. As an aside, Morison revealed on the show he had four dogs, a cat and bearded dragons as pets!
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Another starlet signs a new deal
Cardiff City youngster Jai Semenyo has signed a long-term deal with the club.
The right-back, who joined the club last summer from non-League, made his debut for the Bluebirds in the final few minutes of the FA Cup game against Liverpool back in January.
He has been one of the standout talents in the under-23s this season and is a player who has been earmarked to have further involvement in the first team next season.
The 18-year-old, who is the brother of Bristol City attack Antoine Semenyo, has penned a contract with the Bluebirds until 2024.
McGuinness is a 'nightmare'!
Morison joked that Mark McGuinness is a "nightmare" to manage because he wants to train all the time, even when he is afforded days off.
Morison has spoken in the past about wanting to bring young players in and out of the starting lineup as and when suits them in order to best facilitate their development.
But it is easy to forget that McGuinness has only recently turned 21 and is still very much learning his trade. While the likes of Isaak Davies, Joel Bagan, Rubin Colwill, Eli King and others have been able to have stints in and out of the side, necessity has meant McGuinness has had to play every game at centre back.
Ideally, he needs a spell out of the firing line like his age-group contemporaries, but injuries to Sean Morrison and Curtis Nelson has made that unworkable. But Morison said he will get his rest soon enough.
"It’s a tough one, we speak about it all the time," Morison said of McGuinness' playing time. "We think the same, it would be good to take him out at times but we haven’t managed to do that. But we will be able to.
"He is a nightmare because even yesterday he wanted to go out and train again and it’s just like, ‘Look, relax, just train tomorrow’.
"He wanted to train properly because he felt good. It’s just getting him to realise we want the best for him.
"He is a big lad, I forget he is 21 years old. We will look after him and he will get his time out and bring him back in as and when needed.
"Not that he’ll be happy with that!"
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Manager's heartfelt thanks to players
Steve Morison revealed he held a meeting with his players to thank them for putting on performances which have ultimately earned him a longer-term contract.
The Bluebirds boss was handed a deal until the end of next season after overseeing a marked improvement in both results and performances after a woeful start to the campaign under Mick McCarthy.
And Morison thanked his players for believing in his methods and carrying them out to a tee, resulting in the manager keeping his post next term.
""I had a meeting with them to thank them, I would not be sat here for a longer period of time if it wasn't for them and their efforts," said Morison.
"I told them I respected them all anyway but I respect them even more now as human beings. They could have not bothered with me, not bought into what I wanted to do, they could have not trusted me, but they have. I am really grateful for that."
He added: "I shared a pitch with a lot of them, so having stood in front of them and asked them to carry out a job, I have the utmost respect for them that they have done that.
"They have managed to get me an extended period in the job, we have had some really good moments, have really enjoyed it and I am really grateful and thankful to them."
Wallace: Morison was nailed-on to be a manager
Millwall star Jed Wallace has said that, of all the players he has played with, Steve Morison was the one person he knew would go on to be a manager.
Morison and Wallace are good mates from their time together at Millwall and the latter knew that the former striker was nailed-on to become a manager.
The Millwall wide man said that Morison is in a group of select young managers who are proving to be exciting prospects in the dugout in the EFL.
When asked if Morison was destined to be a manager, Wallace said on Football Daily: "100 percent, the outstanding player I played with that had a knowledge of the game, mental strength and also, every player who knows Moro on and off the pitch, he is brave on and off the pitch.
"If he knows a decision he is going to make is going to upset 100 people, one person, or 10,000 people, he doesn't care.
"I think you can see that the lads are really buying into that at Cardiff and he goes alongside Ryan Lowe, Rob Edwards at Forest Green, Wayne Rooney as the young, up-and-coming managers of the EFL and I back him to do really well.
"It's always nice to see your old team-mates and your doing friends doing well in the game."
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