“It’s a no-brainer” – Cardiff City fan pundit urges Bluebirds to make decision involving 31-year-old | OneFootball

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…

Cardiff City have a plethora of players who are coming to the end of their contracts this summer, and when they are mathematically safe from the Championship relegation battle then you can assume that talks will accelerate between all parties.

The likes of Joe Ralls and Will Vaulks are on the verge of seeing their deals expire, and the same can be said for veteran defender and club captain Sean Morrison.

Morrison has been a Bluebird since 2014 when he signed from Reading and was a regular for the club in their 2018-19 Premier League campaign.

The 31-year-old has always been a goal threat as well from set pieces, scoring 33 times for the club since his arrival, and like many Cardiff players he was going through a positive spell of form under Steve Morison until he faced Barnsley at the beginning of February.

Quiz: Can you identify each of these 24 ex-Cardiff City players just by looking at 3 clues?

1 of 24

1. Signed for Cardiff in 2006 2. Played over 250 games in all competitions for Cardiff 3. Capped by his country

Kevin McNaughton Roger Johnson Paul Parry Glenn Loovens

An ACL injury picked up early in that clash at Oakwell cut short Morrison’s season, with Cardiff’s manager stating that he will be out of action for around nine months whilst he recovers.

That makes a decision on whether or not to extend the centre-back’s contract a difficult one, but FLW’s Cardiff fan pundit Ben Johnsey believes that the club should show some loyalty to a figure that has given them a lot of good moments and renew his deal.

“Sean Morrison has been a huge part of the side for six or seven years now and he’s the captain and on the brink of probably becoming sort of a legend of this club,” Ben said.

“And with how we treated previous players when Mick McCarthy was in charge – the likes of Sol Bamba and Joe Bennett with them just getting cast aside and what they did for the club forgotten about – I’d really like to see us try and make up for that and give Morrison the contract that he deserves and that he’s earned in his time here.

“He did have a season-ending injury, but I think he can more-than come back from that and we’re going to be short defensively next season and if he’s coming back sort of halfway through or a couple of months into the season, I definitely think he can make a big impact.

“He’s a very good and professional player, maybe he would slowly be playing less and less games but he definitely deserves a new deal, whether it’s a one or two year deal, and I think he also brings a lot to the dressing room and around the club as well.

“So, for me it’s a no-brainer – he does need to be given a new contract, despite the injury, and I think he has more-than earned one and deserves the respect of the club because he definitely has the respect of the fans.”

The Verdict

This summer will mark eight years since Morrison became a Cardiff City player and he’s given so much to the club in that time.

He was still the most commanding defender at the Bluebirds until his unfortunate injury, which is the first major issue he’s had since he arrived in the Welsh capital.

Of course some players will never come back in the same way from such a terrible setback – especially when you’re not a quick or particularly mobile player.

There will be hope that Morrison does come back in a similar vein to how he had been playing before the injury though, and the club perhaps owe it to him to extend his deal to see how he does indeed recover.