Cardiff City blocked Neil Warnock signing bargain £2m England international - it wasn't "the end of the world" though | OneFootball

FLW's Cardiff fan pundit has given his verdict on the missed opportunity to sign Ollie Watkins in 2017

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

All football clubs have transfer deals that could’ve been, and Ollie Watkins is one such case at Cardiff City.

The Bluebirds were in the mix to sign the current Aston Villa striker back in 2017, with their manager at the time, Neil Warnock, pushing for the move.

However, he later claimed that the League One side’s hierarchy refused to sanction a £2 million deal for the player, who was at that time plying his trade for Exeter City.

Watkins, of course, went on to sign for Aston Villa in a reported £33 million deal, and has been a standout player in the Premier League in recent years.

Watkins has also established himself as an England international, and was even a key part of the team’s run to the final in Euro 2024.

Ollie Watkins may not have succeeded at Cardiff City

When asked if he’s frustrated about missing out on Watkins, FLW’s Cardiff fan pundit claimed that we’ll never know if he would’ve developed into the same kind of talent under Warnock.

However, he did point to other failed deals for Luis Diaz and Jarrod Bowen as examples of the kind of team the Bluebirds could’ve had.

“I think you look back to the Neil Warnock time, the sort of cheap deals that we made, we really did uncover some gems and Neil Warnock did love trying to uncover a gem in the English market,” Hall told Football League World.

“I think if you look at the ‘what ifs?’ Luis Diaz, Jarrod Bowen and obviously add Watkins to that, I think if we had made other decisions we could’ve been in a different situation.

“That is obviously one of them as well.

“I think you could potentially make the argument that the player that they are today is because of the development they’ve ended up going on.

“I think the prime example of that is Josh Murphy and Bobby Decordova-Reid. We signed them to play in the Premier League, they’d just come off top end Championship seasons.”

Hall is also unsure whether Watkins would’ve been suited to working with Warnock, while also suggesting that the £2 million fee might not have been worth it based on the player he was at the time.

“You look at the sort of player like Ollie Watkins, the trajectory that he went on, you could potentially argue that Neil Warnock wasn’t really the manager for these talented young attackers, more flair-type players, and that Ollie Watkins may not have been the player he was today if he had played under Neil Warnock,” he continued.

“It would’ve been a lot of running down the channels, trying to win headers, not a lot of the ball.

“Obviously, playing in-behind would’ve been good for him and counterattacks, but it’s easy to say we could’ve signed so many players.

“We could’ve had this, that and the other, but I think it’s frustrating that we didn’t, but at the time £2 million for someone who hadn’t really done a massive amount at Brentford isn’t really the end of the world.”

Watkins is currently on his way to 100 Premier League goals, and has even helped the club return to the Champions League with his efforts in front of goal.

Ollie Watkins deal could’ve worked wonders for Cardiff City

Watkins was coming off the back of a 13-goal season in League Two in the 2017 summer transfer window, so it was hard to judge whether he was ready yet for the Championship at that time.

But he did score 10 goals for Brentford that next season when he did make the step-up to the second tier, so it’s easy to suggest in hindsight he would’ve been a good signing.

Given Cardiff earned promotion to the Premier League in 2018, it would’ve been a great move for all parties. Watkins would’ve hit the top flight much sooner - a level that we now know he is more than good enough for.

However, it’s hard to imagine the forward wishing his career worked out in any other way given the success he’s had.