The Arsenal transfer prodigy who held the key to Cardiff City's season, the missed opportunity and what happens next
The Bluebirds finally thought they solved the biggest problem they had last summer, but injury woe massively curtailed any early-season momentum and City have found it difficult to catch up
Thursday 22nd April 2021
By Glen Williams
Arsenal's Jordi Osei-Tutu has endured a frustrating season despite starting brightly for Cardiff City (Image: Getty Images)
The word coming out of both Cardiff City and Arsenal last summer was that Jordi Osei-Tutu was a top young player, one who was about to embark on his coming-of-age season in the Championship with the Bluebirds.
The Welsh club were quietly over the moon they had managed to land the young Gunners prodigy, who impressed City's scouting staff and then manager Neil Harris during his impressive loan spell with VFL Bochum last season.
The Bluebirds were desperately looking to add an attack-minded right-back and Osei-Tutu, who thrived when deployed on the right wing for the German club last season, looked the perfect fit.
Cardiff wanted to change the way they played at the start of this season, they wanted to pass the ball more, move it quicker and use width and pace, all for which Osei-Tutu was key.
City, though, did take something of a gamble. They only brought in the one right-back, meaning that position became increasingly vulnerable to a nightmare injury.
They decided to sign Harry Wilson, a forward, Filip Benkovic, a centre-back, and Dillon Phillips, a goalkeeper, on deadline day, when many thought, especially with a dearth of right-backs in the academy at that time, they would have been better served bringing in another right-back.
We now know the club had tried for three transfer windows to sign Perry Ng before landing him in January, while the club passed on Dion Sanderson because they chose to bolster other areas of the pitch. But not bringing in another player in that position seemed like a decision on which this season could hinge.
It might be over-egging the pudding to suggest that is why it all went a little south, but it certainly played its part.
Here, we look at the promise of Osei-Tutu, what went wrong and what happens next this summer...
The brilliant beginning
The young Gunner breathed a new lease of life into City's attacks at the start of the season.
While the newly-implemented game plan wasn't clicking, Osei-Tutu was one who was thriving on the right-hand side.
The ball was struggling to penetrate the lines through the middle, but out on the flank, Osei-Tutu and Liverpool loanee Sheyi Ojo dovetailed splendidly and produced a string of stellar displays out on the flank.
Defensively, too, he was astute and uncompromising. Dion Sanderson did well when he came from Wolves last January, but Osei-Tutu had outdone him in his first few games in a Bluebirds shirt.
Osei-Tutu was tremendous up at Blackburn for the 0-0 and was equally as impressive against Preston the following game, two weeks later.
The Championship tyro was visibly growing in confidence and his ability both in and out of possession blossomed with each game. He brought a lovely balance to the side, establishing himself as an attacking outlet but not allowing it to compromise his defensive duties.
But that, of course, is when disaster struck.
The injury and ill-fated comeback(s)
The sight of Osei-Tutu writhing on the floor up at Preston told a story in itself. The defender was in serious pain, clutching his hamstring, and it immediately looked to be a serious injury.
It was no surprise he was left out of the game against Bournemouth three days later, but serious eyebrows were raised when he was included just three days after that against Middlesbrough.
It was a sorry sight when Osei-Tutu couldn't even last the game against Neil Warnock's Boro, having to be helped off the pitch again by the club's medical staff. Harris, at the time, was raging.
"It looks like a hamstring again, I've not spoken to the physio but if it is I will be majorly disappointed," Harris said at the time.
"He's come off before. You've got young players and you have to rely on players to make decisions at times and young players are going to get it wrong.
"I will have to see how he is when I go back and see my physio in a minute."
Harris knew the enormity of it. You could tell in the undertone of his voice. If he wasn't ready, he shouldn't have played.
Did it do more damage? Did it worsen the injury and keep him out for longer? Of course, we are not qualified to assess such things, but one can't help but speculate.
Leandro Bacuna then slotted into right-back and while few goals can be blamed on him, the balance looked all out of kilter. Bacuna's positional awareness was sketchy and Cardiff looked nowhere near as solid.
City also lost Bacuna's presence in midfield when they needed that injection of pace in the middle of the park when they were being overrun by better passing sides.
We watched on as City one won of their next six games and there was a real sense of 'what might have been' about it all.
Then came more setbacks for Osei-Tutu. It was hoped he would return in the new year, a morsel of hope on to which Harris and City fans were clinging as Cardiff's dire run of form seemed endless.
But, just 39 minutes into his comeback game against Charlton Athletic for the under-23s in January, he was pulled off, complaining his hamstring had flared up once again.
Harris said the setback would sideline Osei-Tutu for four to six weeks, looking at mid-to-late February. Of course, we now know that was overly ambitious.
After toing and froing with Arsenal, Cardiff finally got the all clear to play him again as he featured for the final nine minutes against Brentford on Tuesday night, almost exactly six months since his last senior outing.
"I'm thrilled," McCarthy said of Osei-Tutu after the match. "Tom Sang has got a bit of a knock so there might be a slot there on Saturday.
"Everyone has been and said to him 'Delighted to see you back' after a long-term injury."
January additions and a timely boost
In January, Harris said "the need for a right-back has been there for six months", after Osei-Tutu's setback. Whether that was a pop at his own transfer strategy or something else is unclear.
"Right-back is an absolute priority for the club at the moment. We have bid for players, so we are trying," Harris said.
Ng was through the door just days later and what an inspired signing that has proven to be. He has taken to the Championship like a duck to water and looks like a player who could don the blue for years to come.
Sang had also been recalled from his loan spell at Cheltenham Town, where he had a dalliance with the right-back position, among others, but struggled for game-time.
He has since come on leaps and bounds. In fact, he and Ng have been two of City's most impressive players since January, which coincided with Cardiff's catapult up the table. It goes to prove just how important having the right players in the right positions really is.
Right-back went from the weakest position in the squad to arguably the strongest in the space of a month and Cardiff benefitted to no end because of it.
What happens now?
The all-important question is; what happens next?
McCarthy seemed resigned to the fact none of Harry Wilson, Ojo and Osei-Tutu would be back next term when he said a fortnight ago: “We've got players on loan who are very unlikely they'll be coming back and we will be losing a bit of quality there."
For Wilson and Ojo, it is probably time for them to find permanent homes elsewhere, but for Osei-Tutu, what does the future hold for him?
He is 22 and is probably some way off breaking into that Arsenal first team, another frustration because this was supposed to be the season he showed what he could really do.
The defender will likely have to go out on loan again next season and, in all likelihood, it appears unlikely it will be at Cardiff City again.
With Ng and Sang in situ, there are other areas of the squad which need addressing more urgently.
But those final nine minutes against Brentford just rekindled what fans had probably forgotten from six months ago, just how good Osei-Tutu is.
He looked completely at home, utterly at ease, going towards Brentford's goal and going back towards his own, even on the wrong flank.
He will likely get his shot at right-back on Saturday against Wycombe and will hope to finish the season off strongly, there is no doubt he will do just that.
If there is any way of finding a spot in the squad for him next season, Cardiff should take up that opportunity. Unfortunately, that vacancy, which was so gaping for a year or so, now appears to have been filled.
He has a bright future, though, incredibly bright, in fact, and whoever picks him up next season is getting a real player.
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