Exciting young talents Jaami Qureshi and Ollie Tanner are on trial with Cardiff City this week, WalesOnline understands.
It is understood that the Bluebirds are keen to overhaul not only their first-team squad, but their under-23s side this summer in one of the biggest recruitment drives we have seen at the Welsh capital city club for quite some time.
And Cardiff are using the final weeks of the season as the perfect opportunity to get a few youngsters in with a view to signing them, if they impress, ahead of pre-season. We knew that trialists would start pouring in towards the back end of the campaign, with clubs having made decisions on which crop of budding talents they are going to keep and who will be able to seek pastures new.
READ MORE: The Cardiff City transfer notebook
Cardiff City's under-23s played Coventry on Monday lunchtime, with a trialist named in the young Bluebirds' starting lineup. WalesOnline believes that to be Qureshi, an 18-year-old winger who is eligible to play for England, Malaysia and Iraq.
Cardiff made a similar signing last summer when winger Jack Leahy, then 18, was signed from Brighton and he has gone on to impress for the Bluebirds' youth teams this term. Qureshi has two goals for Brighton's under-18s this term. And, later this week, it is understood that Tanner will be brought in by Cardiff for a trial, which represents an exciting move by the recruitment team.
Cardiff were linked with Tanner at the back end of the January transfer window, but so, too, were Southampton, Luton, Watford, Brighton and, most notably Spurs.
The 19-year-old, who can operate on either wing as well as in the No.10 position, had the opportunity to sign for Tottenham in January but rejected the north London club, but failed to agree personal terms. In a statement, Tanner's club wrote at the time: "Lewes Football Club would like to confirm that whilst the club and a Premier League club agreed a deal in principle for the transfer of Ollie Tanner, Ollie and the Premier Club were not ultimately able to agree personal terms and he remains a Lewes FC player."
The winger, who was on the books at Arsenal as a youngster before moving to Bromley in 2018, played out the rest of the season with Lewes, who finished seventh in the Isthmian League Premier Division, but it was always expected that clubs higher up the football pyramid would go in for him again in the summer.
Lewes boss Tony Russell said to the Sussex Express at the time: "Ollie is a great lad and a great player. He is also very level-headed and that’s really why he has decided against this move.
“Brighton and Spurs both made bids for Ollie and while Brighton’s was silly, one from Spurs was accepted by the club. They, therefore, had permission to speak to him. I went with him to watch a Spurs Under-23s game and I think it made him think about what his career path would be if he went there.
“What he’s ended up deciding is that going straight from step three of non-league to a Premier League club would be a step too far. In some ways, it could be seen as a dream move but think about it: What would be his chances of getting in their first-team?
“Ollie wants to play first-team professional football and he probably has more chance of that by going to a smaller club. If he does that and does well and a bigger club then comes calling, great.”
That likely plays into the hands of Cardiff, who have a much clearer path to the first team than Spurs. We have seen youngsters been given an opportunity to flourish time and again over the last 12 months and that will likely appeal to Tanner, if what his Lewes boss says is true.
Cardiff manager Steve Morison just last week spoke of how he hopes for an exciting transfer window for the under-23s this summer and how new recruits can benefit just like the ones who have taken strides from the Bluebirds academy this term. When asked last week if he was expecting a big player turnover in the under-23s, Morison replied: "I’d like to hope so. Kev (Beadell, head of recruitment), who works with me and Paddy (Deboys, lead recruitment analyst), works with the under-23s as well. You’ve seen trialists have been playing in games and that will continue to happen.
"I’d like to see a few new faces in there next year. We have seen the benefit of that with Chanka (Zimba), Oli Denham, James Connolly, they’ve come in because they’ve been released from the likes of Category One academies and they just needed a chance and another place to play and thrive.
"I’d like to see a few more come in and I think it’s needed, personally."
Expect to see far more trialists and fresh faces come into the building before the end of the season.
