Mon Feb 20, 2017 7:20 pm
Cardiff City's patience with Kadeem Harris is finally paying off under Neil Warnock
By Scott Johnson
BY SCOTT JOHNSON
Monday 20th February 2017
Harris has been in stunning form of late for the Bluebirds, but that hasn't always been the case
Cardiff City is not a patient club.
Players need to hit the ground running otherwise they need to run along.
The list of players that have passed through in recent years without so much as the opportunity to unpack their suitcase is lengthy.
But that is not the case with Kadeem Harris, who has somehow managed to avoid the chop and is now blossoming in to the player everyone hoped he could be.
When Cardiff signed 18-year-old Harris in January 2012, he was League Two’s reigning Apprentice of the Year and agreed a three-and-a-half-year deal.
He was a Malky Mackay signing and to give some idea of just how long he has been with the club now, he joined up with the likes of Tom Heaton, Robert Earnshaw and Kenny Miller.
Harris had to wait a year to make his senior debut, playing just over an hour in an FA Cup tie against Macclesfield and had to wait another 18 months for his next start.
He has also had a loan spell during this period, spending three months at Brentford during the 2013/14 campaign.
The following season threatened to be his breakthrough at Cardiff, as he was regularly used as an impact substitute, but last year Harris made no starts and was shipped off to Barnsley for another short-term loan deal.
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After just six Cardiff starts to his name in his first three-and-a-half years with the club, this year has been rather different. 12 starts, three goals and two assists tell their own story, as Harris has firmly established himself under first Paul Trollope and now Neil Warnock.
Warnock has proved to be the right manager at the right time for Harris and he admitted as much after his brace and man of the match display against Derby last week.
"I think he's the first manager that's come to the club that's actually shown real belief in me," Harris claimed.
"Even if I don't have the best of games he'll pull me aside and sometimes I might even start the next one and I don't think I've had that before. I'm just thankful now that I could repay him in this game. With him showing that belief in me, it's given me a lot of confidence."
When Warnock first arrived, he admitted that if fans were picking the side, he expected that Harris would start every week, but he appeared unconvinced.
Having worked on the defensive side of his game, Harris has become a firm favourite and that belief coupled with regular playing time has also resulted in greater consistency.
In the past, impressive performances for the Development side have counted for little, but with Cardiff short of wide options, Harris was presented with an opportunity and he has embraced it.
When Harris has featured for the first team in the past, he has looked particularly raw. Sometimes he would be rather careless in possession, make bad choices or frustrate more than he impressed, but it is easy to forget how little first team football he has played in his career to date.
In footballing terms, Harris remains a rookie. Harris is still considered a youngster, probably because he spent so much time in and around the Development squad, but that is no longer the case.
He is actually older than Raheem Sterling, Ross Barkley and Harry Kane, while only a matter of weeks younger than Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba.
As a result of age and length of time with the club, this season was always going to be make or break for Harris. His contract is also up in the summer, so he has found favour at exactly the right time and Warnock is keen to extend his terms.
“I want to keep him,” Warnock conceded during a press conference ahead of the 5-0 thrashing of Rotherham.
“I’ve had a meeting with his dad and they’ve been good meetings. I’ve said to his dad that he won’t play for anyone better than me. The grass is never greener anywhere else. When you know a player inside out, you can get the best out of him. So sometimes, it’s not just about money, it’s about being in the right place with the right manager at the right club.”
Like Peter Whittingham and Junior Hoilett, who are also soon out of contract, the hope is that Harris will agree to stay on.
His sudden development also acts as a timely reminder that patience is usually a virtue.
We’ll never know how good Joe Inge Berget, Magnus Wolff Eikrem, Guido Burgstaller, Tom Adeyemi or Mats Moller Daehli might have been for Cardiff because they were barely given the chance to adapt to their new surroundings.
Hopefully those days are now gone and Cardiff won’t be so trigger happy with the likes of Emyr Huws, Idriss Saadi, Matthew Kennedy and Stuart O’Keefe, who are all currently impressing on loan.
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Huws and Kennedy have both already found the net at Ipswich and Plymouth respectively, while O’Keefe has added bite to the MK Dons midfield.
Saadi is actually the third highest scorer in Belgium’s Juliper League with 12 goals and it was a surprise that Cardiff did not consider recalling him in January.
These are good players and given time and opportunity, may yet go on to emulate Harris.
Without question, Harris has been Cardiff’s most improved player this season and one of Warnock’s greatest successes in his time at the club. He has been instrumental in Cardiff’s ascent up the table, staring and scoring in the weekend’s 5-0 rout of Rotherham and should his rapid recent progress continue, Cardiff may yet struggle to hold on to him this summer.
Hopefully Cardiff’s faith in Harris will be reciprocated and they will continue to benefit each other for the foreseeable future.
Mon Feb 20, 2017 8:00 pm
Sven wrote:After just six Cardiff starts to his name in his first three-and-a-half years with the club, this year has been rather different. 12 starts, three goals and two assists tell their own story, as Harris has firmly established himself under first Paul Trollope and now Neil Warnock.
I find that the people who write these articles, Wales online or wherever, quite often get the stats wrong, Kadeem has scored 4 this season and has 3 assists to go with that I think.
Anyway I've always seen Kadeem as a player thats just waiting to be let loose on teams, every time he gets the ball and a bit of space, you just know that he wants go past players, either be it with pace or a skill, often enough you expect him to get past him but then you just need him to have that killer cross, I agree his final product needs working on more and I am sure both him & Warnock know that.
Harris has the potential it's just up to someone like warnock to help him fulfill it and currently he's definitely on the right path, if Harris wants a good career the best thing he can do is sign that contract and play for Warnock & us next season.
Mon Feb 20, 2017 8:27 pm
I was never a believer in Harris and I am still a little skeptical that this may just be a freak spell.But, It appears i was wrong and he may be good enough.
Wingers do go in and out of form throughout the season and one thing for sure i did always prefered Harris to a 30 year old who has only played in Scotland.