Norwich City laughed to the bank at Cardiff City deal - Vincent Tan was “conned” | OneFootball

When Cardiff City returned to the Premier League in 2018 they needed reinforcements, but an £11m winger would leave Vincent Tan feeling "conned".

When Cardiff City returned to the Premier League in 2018, they spent £11 million on a winger who would end up leaving Bluebirds owner Vincent Tan feeling "conned."

When Cardiff City pipped Fulham to second place in the Championship and an automatic promotion place into the Premier League in 2018, the Bluebirds had work to do.

The team needed strengthening, and one of the players that they alighted on to rebuild in preparation for the top flight was the Norwich City winger Josh Murphy, bringing in competition on the flanks for Junior Hoilett and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.

Murphy had first signed at Carrow Road with Norwich's under-12s alongside his twin brother Jacob, and made his senior debut for them in September 2013, having won the FA Youth Cup with them the previous season. Over the next five years, he would run up 108 appearances for the club, while also having spells on loan with Wigan Athletic and MK Dons.

But while the 2017-18 season was a very successful one for Cardiff, it wasn't for Norwich, who finished a relatively lowly 14th in the Championship, and at the end of the season, when the Bluebirds offered £11 million for him, his club were more than happy to cash in and sell the player.

Murphy had enjoyed the most prolific goalscoring season of his career that term, recording 11 strikes across all competitions — seven in the Championship and an impressive four in EFL Cup action, too. Despite that, however consistency was an issue, and many Canaries supporters were surprised when - despite his obvious talent - the club were able to collect an eight-figure windfall for the wide-man's services.

Josh Murphy went to Cardiff City from Norwich City at Neil Warnock's insistence

Josh Murphy had been one of two priority transfer targets — along with Greg Cunningham of Preston North End — for Bluebirds manager Neil Warnock, who admitted that he flew 14 hours to speak to the club's owner, Vincent Tan, to persuade the Malaysian to splash out on the winger.

£11 million was the reported fee when the signing was confirmed, with Warnock telling the press at the time: "Josh is maturing all the time. I have watched him for six years now and he excites me. I love people who get the ball and run at people and we are going to need that, especially when we are under the cosh at some of these grounds."

Murphy started well for Cardiff City in the Premier League. He scored his first goal for his new club at the end of September against Burnley and put in a string of strong performances.

But it didn't last. Murphy's form tailed off throughout the second half of the season, just as Cardiff's did, following the sad death of Emiliano Sala that January. Cardiff were relegated back to the Championship at the first attempt, after finishing 18th in the table with 34 points.

Vincent Tan claimed to feel "conned" by Warnock spending £11 million on Josh Murphy at Cardiff City

But by the time Murphy's four-year contract expired in 2022, it was clear that his time with Cardiff City was over. Neil Warnock stayed until November 2019 before leaving the club, and Murphy would soon fall from favour with Warnock's replacement Neil Harris. The Bluebirds reached the play-offs in their first season back after finishing 5th, but were beaten in the play-off semi-finals by Fulham.

Murphy was a reasonably regular first-team player throughout the 2020-21 season, making 32 league appearances for them, but Cardiff could only finish in 8th place in the table and missed out on a play-off spot altogether.

But by the start of the 2021-22 season he'd fallen out of favour. Harris had been replaced by Mick McCarthy in January of that year, but McCarthy had only managed nine months in the job himself before being replaced by Steve Morison.

With just a season left on his contract, Murphy was sent out on loan to Preston North End for the 2021-22 season, but performances were again unimpressive, and he made just 12 appearances for the club. If that loan spell was a shop window in which Murphy could advertise that he should get a contract extension, he failed. He was released at the end of the season and took a free transfer, dropping a division to play for Oxford United.

Murhpy found himself in the firing line when the Cardiff owner Tan gave a rare interview to Paul Abbadonato of Wales Online and the BBC's Rob Phillips in November 2022. It didn't take too much joining of the dots to know who Tan may have been talking about when he said: "Sometimes money has been wasted, mainly on players who cost way too much and didn't perform. Stupid transfers, ones our managers persuaded us to make. Wasted my money. But I'm still as enthusiastic as I was when I first took over."

And were there any doubt who he'd been referring to earlier in the interview when he talked about "stupid transfers", Tan clarified later: "Neil Warnock did a good job taking us up, but then he creates a bad side and buys the wrong players. Murphy cost £11m, hardly scored any goals, then left on a free transfer. He was never worth that money. I was conned."

Harsh words, but the owner of the club wasn't holding back: "Stupid buys. The managers recommended them, pushed very hard, but we won't be making those mistakes again. What happened is still fresh in my mind. We will have more careful checks in the future."

But Josh Murphy has had the last laugh over Vincent Tan, at least. He scored both goals for Oxford United in the 2023-24 League One play-off final against Bolton Wanderers and signed a three-year contract with Portsmouth a couple of weeks after that match.

He remains a Championship player with Pompey to this day and has just signed a new contract extension with the club, after starring in the second-tier last year, while Tan's Cardiff were relegated to League One at the end of the 2024-25 season in bottom place in the Championship. Upon leaving Cardiff in 2019, Neil Warnock said that his time in South Wales was, "some of the best days in my long football career."