Cardiff City: Bluebirds consider academy upgrade

Cardiff’s arch rivals Swansea have demonstrated how beneficial a category one academy can be, having held that status since 2016.

The Swans sold former development squad players Daniel James and Oli McBurnie to Manchester United and Sheffield United respectively for a combined £35m last year.

This season, the latest player to break into Swansea’s first team has been centre-back Ben Cabango, who came through the club’s academy despite being born and bred in Cardiff.

The Bluebirds are eager to avoid allowing more players to slip through the net, and upgrading their academy status could be a step in the right direction.

Cardiff are in the midst of an overhaul in their youth set-up, having appointed former Wales striker Steve Morison as head coach of their under-23 side on Monday.

Morison played under Harris at Millwall, and the Bluebirds boss is looking forward to working with him once again.

“I’m really pleased. Steve has got great leadership,” said Harris.

“He was my club captain at Millwall and he’s been qualified with his A Licence (coaching badge) and doing his Pro Licence for a period now.

“He has always wanted to coach and he’s someone I know, and he knows what I want how I want to work, and he knows my thought process in terms of bringing young players through. He also knows I’ll only play the young players when they are ready.

“We want to give a pathway. We want to show a club philosophy that I believe in, that young players if they’re good enough get the opportunity to come through.

“It should excite the fans. They ultimately want to see Cardiff City fans playing in the first team. They want to see homegrown players.

“Everybody wants to see them come through. We aren’t going to see four or five of them in the first team next season but, in two or three years’ time, we might get to that scenario but that’s got to be the aim.”