Callum O'Dowda insists he enjoyed his first season as a Cardiff City player, despite preparing to meet his fourth different manager in less than a year in the Welsh capital.
O'Dowda came as a free transfer from Bristol City last summer, brought in by Steve Morison, but saw the former Millwall striker, Mark Hudson and Sabri Lamouchi all come and go as Cardiff stayed up by the skin of their teeth in the end.
The wide man endured a destabilising season himself. Having been brought in as a winger, an early-season injury to Jamilu Collins threw a spanner in the works and O'Dowda ended up playing at left-back and left wing-back for the large majority of the campaign. Many fans would say it meant the club were unable to utilise his best assets.
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He was arguably one of Cardiff's most consistent players, though, and racked up 40 games which included three goals and three assists despite playing on the left-hand side of defence. Decent going for a player who came with concerns pertaining to his injury record.
It was a bad season for Cardiff as a club, that much cannot be argued, but from a personal standpoint, O'Dowda says he enjoyed his maiden season in the Welsh capital.
“I really enjoyed last season,” he said. “I know it was quite hard as we changed manager but that was out of my control. Personally, I felt in a really good place. I played 40-odd games in total with the cup as well.
“I got a lot of momentum and I have been given the licence to get into the rhythm of game after game after game.”
O'Dowda is currently in Turkey, where the Bluebirds' new boss Erol Bulut is from, as he prepares for a European qualifier double header against Greece and Gibraltar with the Republic of Ireland in the coming days.
The 28-year-old admits it's difficult to adapt to new playing styles and managerial demands, which has been the order of the day at Cardiff since he arrived.
Starting out under Morison, O'Dowda was tasked with playing a possession-based passing game and was deployed at the top end of the pitch. By the end of the season, under Lamouchi, Cardiff were far more pragmatic, risk-free football, with the player himself operating largely as a left wing-back.
He takes quite a philosophical approach to it all, though.
“That’s probably just the way it is at the moment, or the way it’s turning out to be,” he said of the instability at Cardiff. "As players, it is quite hard to adapt, you can go for weeks and weeks playing a system, then someone else comes in.
"The biggest thing when a manager comes in, whether he gets a (transfer) window or not, it’s how it could impact you as a player. That’s probably the hardest thing to take.
“OK, what’s his style of play, how will I suit that system? I feel I’ve been quite lucky, with how versatile I’ve been.
"I have been playing a lot at left wing-back for club and country. Obviously I can play left-mid, and I’ve played a little bit at left-back too.”
No doubt, new boss Bulut will be keeping a keen eye on his players on international duty over the coming days as he builds a mental image of what his starting XI will be for that first game of the 2023/24 Championship campaign.
It's hard to envisage a City starting XI that won't have a fully-fit O'Dowda in it, though, after his impressive first season in a blue jersey.
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