How the magic man Lee grabbed a second chance
LEE Tomlin’s time at Cardiff City has been one of constant battles.
The playmaker has had to fight for his place, fight for recognition from his manager and fight for fitness. But it’s fair to say, in the last eight months, he has probably played the best football of his life.
There are a few factors behind that, of course, one being his impressive weight loss and fitness regime before the start of this season to get him back into top shape. But perhaps the biggest catalyst was the change of manager.
Since Neil Harris took the reins from Neil Warnock back in November, Tomlin has been a player reborn.
He has been entrusted with that No.10 role, grabbed the shirt with two hands and tried his darnedest not to cede it to anyone else.
As we enter the final two fixtures of the season, the Bluebirds find themselves in sixth place. Tomlin is the club’s joint-top scorer with eight goals and he also has nine assists to his name this campaign.
Where would Cardiff be if Tomlin hadn’t been afforded the chance to impact the season the way he has? For City fans, that probably doesn’t bare thinking about.
But it wasn’t all plain sailing up until this point, far from it, in fact.
The SOS transfer and the initial struggle
Our columnist Nathan Blake often says the Lee Tomlin transfer in the summer of 2017 was an SOS signing by Neil Warnock.
Cardiff were in desperate need of an injection of creativity in the squad and Warnock identified Tomlin as someone who could bring that in abundance, with sights on promotion to the Premier League brewing.
But that first season, he played more Championship matches on loan for Nottingham Forest in the second half of the season than he did for Cardiff City.
He was at the City Ground when Cardiff won promotion to the Premier League and it would have been a bitter disappointment to him that he couldn’t have played a bigger part in that push.
In that top-flight campaign, too, he was deemed surplus to requirements and was sent out on a season-long loan to League One Peterborough. There were now two whole divisions between where the player was playing and the tier in which his parent club were playing, seemingly a metaphor for how Warnock viewed him in relation to his Premier League stars.
But everyone knew there was a player in there and Tomlin, upon learning of Cardiff’s relegation back down to the Championship, sought to wrestle his way back into contention ahead of this season.
Pre-season, transfer limbo and a change of mindset
Up until this season, Tomlin’s chances had been limited under Warnock and he could have been forgiven for seeking a move elsewhere.
City announced they would head on their pre-season tour to the United States, which meant both Tomlin and Gary Madine were left in the UK owing to visa issues.
It all pointed towards the possibility of Tomlin, and fellow outcast Madine, leaving the club, but behind the scenes the player was working harder than ever. He wasn’t going to let go of it that easily.
He shred two stone in weight but, more than that, his attitude had changed. City captain Sean Morrison said as much.
“From the start of the season, even before the new manager came in, Tommo’s whole mindset had changed,” Morrison said.
“He had worked very hard in the off-season, on himself and his fitness, and as soon as he came in pre-season he hit the ground running and looked like a new man.”
While his team-mates might have thought that, Warnock seemed to remain unconvinced.
The first three games of the season, Tomlin was nowhere to be seen. But his commitment never seemed to waiver.
When asked about Tomlin’s situation back in August, a source close to the player said to WalesOnline: “Lee is staying to fight to get into the team.”
Just a few days later, however, Tomlin would get his chance.
City were hit by something of an injury crisis after that disastrous defeat by Reading early on in the season.
Marlon Pack was forced off in that game and ruled out for up to two months, Callum Paterson’s knee ballooned up after the match and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing was struggling massively after a hamstring issue he sustained on the opening day flared up at the Madejski
Stadium.
Next up was Huddersfield Town at home in midweek, with the injuries to both Paterson and Mendez-Laing unknown at the time.
When Neil Warnock spoke to WalesOnline the evening before the game, the then Bluebirds boss said he had “a little trick up his sleeve”.
That trick, of course, was Tomlin. By hook or by crook, he was handed his opportunity.
He was excellent that night WalesOnline even named him star man in the player ratings - it meant he was then virtually undroppable.
The early Bluebirds performances were criticised for a lack of creativity and Tomlin was delighting fans with a white-hot spark.
But there was a problem appearing. Over the next few months, Tomlin played just seven league games, either side of a nasty car crash which kept him sidelined for a couple of matches, and never played a full 90 minutes.
It all felt stop-start. The talent and creativity were there but there was not enough opportunity for him to find his very best form or any consistency.
When Warnock left in November, you couldn’t help but wonder what was