The truth about Sheffield Wednesday's £5m bid for Sean Morrison and the conversation that reveals so much about Cardiff City's captain -
Wednesday 21st February 2018
Cardiff City boss Neil Warnock has revealed just how close in-form captain Sean Morrison came to joining Sheffield Wednesday in the summer.
The player himself insisted after the win over Middlesbrough - a victory that saw him score the only goal of the game - that he preferred keeping clean sheets to scoring goals, a statement that has left his gaffer nodding in approval.
"He (Morrison) doesn’t get carried away, they (Ipswich) have Garner, Waghorn and good forward-thinking players so it will be a good test for the back lads at Ipswich."
Morrison has undoubtedly proved his early-season nay-sayers emphatically wrong this season, but Warnock insists he never had any doubts over towering defender's credentials as a leader for his high-flying side, particularly after the 26-year-old's impassioned vow to stay at the club back in the summer.
Much has been made about Wednesday's unsuccessful bid of £3 million for the centre-back, but Warnock has revealed the Owls then returned with another improved bid to get their man, adding that it would have proved a successful pursuit were it not for Morrison's desire to be part of "something special" in the Welsh capital.
Warnock said: "I thought he would go to Sheffield Wednesday, especially when they upped the price to £5 million or something like that.
"I said to him, you’ll get a lot more money than here and a longer contract, I said I don’t want you to go but I can’t stop you going.
"He came to me and just said, ‘I think we have something special here gaffer, I’d like to stay if it’s alright with you’. I said, ‘it’s alright with me son, yeah.’.
"That was at the start of the season and I think a lot of players would have gone, if I’m honest, chased the money.
"I didn’t recommend Sheffield Wednesday to him, being a United-ite, but I didn’t stand in his way and I thought that was a crucial time.
"When he said “I’m captain and I think we have something special coming on here”, I thought that was special and that’s why I’ve supported him because not just on the field of play, there’s a lot that goes off the field as well and Sean is right on top of that."
Morrison's passion is undoubtedly a key reason for Cardiff's recent defensive success, although Warnock is keen to ensure that every member of his defence receives a solid level of praise, although he insists there is plenty of work still to do.
When asked if this was the best defence he's ever managed, Warnock replied: "It is at the moment but I’m 69 and I can’t remember half of them!
"Even right at the start, my first success at Scarborough, we had a real solid situation there and I signed Kevin Blackwell within a couple of months and that got us promotion.
"I went to Notts County and we had Craig Short and Dean Yates, people like that - you don’t get promotion without a good defence - impossible..
"Is it good enough? I’ll tell you in 14 games because they will have to play out of their skin to keep us up where we want to be."