Ex-Cardiff kid opens up on time at the club Former Cardiff

Ex-Cardiff kid opens up on time at the club


By Glen Williams


27/08/21



Former Cardiff midfielder Aaron Bolger has opened up on his time with the Bluebirds.

He began his professional career with Shamrock Rovers before initially joining Cardiff on loan in 2019, a move which was made permanent later that year.

It never quite worked out for him though and he never cracked the first team. The Irishman returned on loan spells back to his native land before signing for Cork City permanently this summer.

And Bolger opened up about almost joining Preston, being stuck training with the under-23s and why training with the Cardiff first team was not such a big step up from playing for Shamrock Rovers.

“I wanted to go to England. Obviously, I was playing with Ireland, and all the boys were starting to get into first-team football in England. I felt that that was something that I needed to do. My agent got the word about and a few clubs wanted to sign me, and I ended up going to Cardiff," he told EchoLive.Ie.

“My agent was speaking to Preston before I joined Cardiff but their U23 team ended up folding. So, I went to Cardiff on loan. It was kind of a loan trial for six months. Then they wanted to sign me permanently after that.

“I initially went over to Cardiff on trial around Christmas time, and in January, they got back in contact and said they wanted me to go over for six months. When I was over on trial, I knew I was good enough to get a contract. I trained with the 23s but that isn’t what I want to do, I wanted to train with the first team.

"I went from playing with Rovers first team and playing games in the league to going over and training with 16 and 17-year-olds, it was a difficult adjustment.

“When I went in to train with the first team over there, training with Neil Warnock when he was manager, from training with Rovers every day, there wasn’t even that much of a step up. I think people look down on the (Irish) league over there.

"Obviously, there are unbelievable players over there but I think there are a few players over here that deserve their chance in England, but obviously, I didn’t get the breakthrough over there. It’s something that I would be looking to do in the future but at the moment, I’m just looking to get back to enjoying my football and playing well for Colin [Healy, Cork manager] and the club

Before someone say it's another youngster ruined by Cardiff, I'd say the League of Ireland is on a par with the League of Wales. Although Cork City's average attendance its around 3,000.

We saw some youngsters come through under Mick McCarthy last season and Bolger wan't one of them. It sounds a bit like sour grapes, but maybe he could have gone to Division 2 or National league if he's that good.