BREAKING: “ CARDIFF CITY / YOU COULD NOT MAKE IT UP

Please do not give him another contract NEIL HARRIS or The TRANSFER COMMITTEE.



4 years 57 appearances and approx £15,000 a week



Jazz Richards suffers fresh injury setback with his Cardiff City contract running to an end

The defender has endured his fair share of lay-offs through injury and has suffered another setback during his time away from football


By Glen Williams

Sunday 15th June 2020


Cardiff City's Jazz Richards has suffered another injury setback


Jazz Richards has suffered fresh injury hell and will miss next weekend's Championship encounter with Leeds United.

The Wales international has been hit with a number of injuries during his stay in the Welsh capital and it appears his nightmare run of luck has struck once again, just weeks before his Cardiff City contract is due to expire.

The right back, along with Danny Ward, will see his current deal with the Bluebirds expire at the end of this month, however Neil Harris confirmed both players have agreed to play on until the end of the current season.

But what happens after that is anyone's guess at present and these next nine fixtures represented a huge opportunity for both Richards and Ward to prove their worth for a new contract.

Richards' opportunities, however, now appear to be limited after he injured his calf while on a road run when he and the rest of the squad were training in isolation during the coronavirus lockdown.

Richards, 29, has missed 68 matches through injury in all competitions during his four years at Cardiff City Stadium and one more will be added to that number, it would seem, when Leeds come to town next weekend.

"Jazz Richards won't be available for Leeds," City boss Neil Harris after the Bluebirds' two friendly matches against Swansea City on Saturday, both of which were drawn.

"Jazz was not 100 per cent fit when he came back into training. He will be struggling to be ready for Leeds, I cannot say he is definitely going to be ruled out completely but he is unlikely to feature."

It becomes all the more poignant given the clock is ticking very loudly on Richards' contract.

He has things going in his favour, of course, chiefly the complete dearth of right-back options Harris currently has at his disposal, which will offer some hope of a renewal beyond July 22, the date of the Bluebirds' final fixture of the season against Hull City.

And we know that the Bluebirds hierarchy are hellbent on championing Welsh talent with a view to achieving greater representation in Ryan Giggs' national team.

Richards has 14 international caps to his name and doubtless harbours ambitions to break back into the setup, too.

But there also must come a time when patience wears thin.

The full back has a paltry 57 games in a Cardiff City shirt under his belt having been at the club for four years and, with City keen on chipping the average age of the squad, one has to wonder how many more chances he will be afforded.

Ward, meanwhile, is in the same boat, but has at least played in the training games against Cheltenham Town in midweek and Swansea City on Saturday and will at least have a real shot at earning a contract renewal, if that is what the player desires.

But, in the immediate future at least, both players have told the manager they are happy to extend their contracts until the end of the elongated campaign.

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Get rid and bring a youngster through

I'm not anti-Richards but with so many injuries (occurring and/or reoccurring) there does seem to be an on-going issue with both mind and body and for his sake as much as his employers, it needs to be sorted once and for all

A wasted talent to date, so far as his Cardiff City career goes and I feel sure he won't be too happy with the situation himself

Gets a hard time from many Bluebird 'fans' for his obvious links to Wales' No.2 team but his talent is there, if only he could show it with any consistency over more than the odd game

Contract or no contract?

For me, yes if the manager thinks he can get a tune out of him; but current evidence suggests that is as likely as a Gary Madine goal...highly unlikely

What with the financial uncertainty surrounding clubs, surely to even think of extending and not terminating his contract would be I'll judged.

Unreliable through injury for 4 years!?

Feel for him but this is a business.

We cannot financially endorse this moving forward.

No new contract, unless it's a pay-as-you-play deal, nothing else.

Unfortunately Harris has previously expressed the view that Jazz is one of the best full backs in the Championship

Unfortunately Harris has previously expressed the view that Jazz is one of the best full backs in the Championship

Yes, and this sentiment worries me!!!

Unfortunately Harris has previously expressed the view that Jazz is one of the best full backs in the Championship

...but he’s no good on the treatment table. Get rid I say.

Unfortunately Harris has previously expressed the view that Jazz is one of the best full backs in the Championship

Yes, and this sentiment worries me!!!

To be fair, Harris sees him every day in training/physio (probably more the latter) so he is far better placed than any of us to assess and I can well imagine Jazz would be a Harris-type player when fit

With his injury record it can only be a pay as you play deal.

He is too injury prone and costs us massive money which can be better spent on players who can actually play

To be honest hes not even that good anyway , hes a bog standard championship full back

Unfortunately Harris has previously expressed the view that Jazz is one of the best full backs in the Championship

Yes, and this sentiment worries me!!!

To be fair, Harris sees him every day in training/physio (probably more the latter) so he is far better placed than any of us to assess and I can well imagine Jazz would be a Harris-type player when fit

It’s the “when fit” bit that’s the relevant point Sven, and I don’t think, given all that’s come to pass recently, that our club can gamble on giving Jazz yet another contract extension,,, not in the current financial situation.

Time to say good bye to him.
Buy someone who can play in team not spend most of the time injured.
Might as well pay me 5k a week I can sit in stand Much cheaper even at my age 66.
We need to develop our youngsters not pay players to sit in stand injured most of season.

Unfortunately Harris has previously expressed the view that Jazz is one of the best full backs in the Championship

Yes, and this sentiment worries me!!!

To be fair, Harris sees him every day in training/physio (probably more the latter) so he is far better placed than any of us to assess and I can well imagine Jazz would be a Harris-type player when fit

It’s the “when fit” bit that’s the relevant point Sven, and I don’t think, given all that’s come to pass recently, that our club can gamble on giving Jazz yet another contract extension,,, not in the current financial situation.

Don't disagree; but the club will know far more about him and his situation than us

The more worrying one for me was Connolly; not a bad player to be fair but on a great contract yet not played a serious game for how long?

There has been many a great racehorse who just couldn't stand the rigours of training. Jazz is one of those. It's not his ability but physical frigility.

His contract was due to run our in two weeks I am sure if he were staying that would be a done deal.

Unfortunately Harris has previously expressed the view that Jazz is one of the best full backs in the Championship

Yes, and this sentiment worries me!!!

To be fair, Harris sees him every day in training/physio (probably more the latter) so he is far better placed than any of us to assess and I can well imagine Jazz would be a Harris-type player when fit

It’s the “when fit” bit that’s the relevant point Sven, and I don’t think, given all that’s come to pass recently, that our club can gamble on giving Jazz yet another contract extension,,, not in the current financial situation.

Don't disagree; but the club will know far more about him and his situation than us

The more worrying one for me was Connolly; not a bad player to be fair but on a great contract yet not played a serious game for how long?

I think that retaining the “services” of both Richards and Connolly was bad judgment on Neil Warnocks part, and, given his transfer dealings last Summer(2019), was the

major reason why he eventually left our club.

There has been many a great racehorse who just couldn't stand the rigours of training. Jazz is one of those. It's not his ability but physical frigility.

His contract was due to run our in two weeks I am sure if he were staying that would be a done deal.

I would have thought that,,, given the fact that Neil Harris has publicly stated that he Has to cut back the playing squad, and given the current precarious financial state of Championship football (and indeed, most other leagues),,, then the last thing you are going to do is, knowing full well, how important it is to have a fit and available squad of players over the course of a long season (most of the time), would be to offer a player, with the injury track record that the player has had over many seasons, is offer them a new contract....

Definitely don't extend, when you buy a car that's unreliable and lets you down you sell it and buy another, bin him off asap.