These are your Cardiff City headlines on Wednesday, August 17
Leeds snap up Crew
Leeds United have snapped up highly-rated Cardiff City teenager Charlie Crew.
The 16-year-old heads to Elland Road on a two-year scholarship and will go into the Whites' under-18s set-up.
Welshman Crew is a defensive midfielder who has featured for Wales' under-16s and under-17s. Last year as a 15-year-old he was given the honour of captaining the Wales under-16s Victory Shield squad who performed very well over in Belfast recently.
READ MORE: The Cardiff City youngsters who made their cases to Steve Morison and the player levels above
He has regularly played in the Wales under-17s squad, which proves just how highly thought of he is within the Welsh youth structure.
He can play at centre-back or in centre midfield, has an excellent range of passing and, technically, is unrivalled at his age group with the ball at his feet.
Crew had been with the Bluebirds since the age of eight.
Robins' plan for Bamba
Former Cardiff City defender Sol Bamba is training with Bristol City for the next two weeks - but Robins boss Nigel Pearson is giving no promises of a contract to the vastly experienced centre-back.
Bamba was released by Middlesbrough at the end of last season and has ben mulling over his next step in football. That may well be continuing to play, possibly with the Ashton Gate outfit, who are in need of another central defender at present.
It was confirmed Bamba had joined the rest of the Robins squad at the High Performance Centre on Monday.
Pearson said after their 2-0 win over Luton : “Sol’s in the building for a couple of weeks to get fit and then we’ll see where it goes. I like him, he’s a good man, he’s a very positive character who’s got great game understanding but no promises - he’s here to train and if something else happens then I’ll let you know when it does.
“Sol’s not here under any pretence of coming here for a contract. I’ve done it before with a few players, they’re out of contract at places and you give them the opportunity to get fit in a club training environment. Sometimes it’s nice to help people out.”
The 37-year-old has bags of experience, with 426 senior appearances for the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Hibernian, Leicester City, Leeds United, the Bluebirds and Middlesbrough under his belt, as well as being capped 46 times for his national team.
Pearson’s relationship with Bamba stretches all the way back to their time at Leicester City in 2011, as well as the manager taking the defender on trial at Derby County in 2016.
Bristol City will host Cardiff in the Severnside derby at Ashton Gate on Sunday.
Early West Brom team news
New Cardiff signing Jack Simpson is still not ready to start for his new club tonight at West Brom, Morison has confirmed. The manager said of the ex-Rangers man: "He hasn't played a game. It would be a big decision if we decide to play him.”
Fellow summer addition centre-back Cedric Kipre is unavailable for selection, as he is unable to play against his parent club.
This leaves Morison with a dilemma - who will partner Perry Ng in the centre-back role? Elsewhere on the pitch, Cardiff have reported no other concerns except for Ebou Adams and Isaak Davies, who will be unavailable due to fitness/injury issues.
Another player who will be back in contention for the game at The Hawthorns is defender Curtis Nelson. The centre-back was pulled from the squad for the clash with Birmingham City at the weekend after two poor performances in the two previous games against Reading and Portsmouth.
But Morison confirmed he hadn’t dropped Nelson due to performance but instead because of an injury issue. "He just had a little niggle," he said. "It wasn't worth the risk because we had brought Jack in, so we didn't have to take an unnecessary risk."
You can follow the game with us here tonight.
Prutton's prediction
Sky Sports pundit David Prutton is backing the Bluebirds to claim all three points in the Midlands.
Cardiff have started the season strongly with two wins from three, beating Norwich City and Birmingham City in the process. Yet many Cardiff fans will look back on the poor performances against Reading and Portsmouth and know danger is never too far away.
Prutton still favours the Welsh side, though, backing them to gain all three points on the road. The Sky Sports pundit said: "Cardiff will be very pleased with how they’ve begun. They narrowly beat Birmingham on Saturday but it should have been far more comfortable. I’ll back another tight win for the Bluebirds here.”
On the hosts, Prutton added: "After a poor end to last season Steve Bruce needed to hit the ground running in this campaign. West Brom simply have not done that yet, albeit with a tough run of fixtures to start the season.”
There’s no doubt Morison’s Cardiff side will go into the game with plenty of confidence but it goes without saying West Brom have quality and will no doubt test the Bluebirds.
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