Harris accepts Ward is set to rejoin friends in the north
NEIL Harris expects Danny Ward to leave Cardiff City this summer.
The striker joined the Bluebirds from Neil Warnock’s former club Rotherham United in the summer of 2017 but recently saw his contract with Cardiff expire.
Ward committed his short-term future to the club by seeing out the remainder of the protracted 2019/20 season, despite seeing his deal run out.
However, he’s now expected to move on to pastures new, with Huddersfield Town linked with a move for the frontman.
“I think he will [leave],” said Harris.
“Me and him have a fantastic relationship. We’ve been aware for a little bit of time now that Danny Ward might leave us.
”Being out-of-contract naturally comes with interest.
“He’s been very loyal to me after lockdown where he could easily have made the same decision as others lads in the game have to not play, but he stayed and worked great for us, and personally as well by scoring a couple of goals.
“Danny is a northern lad. He’s got a young, beautiful family and sometimes, location and contract status dictates what you do in football.
“If Danny is to leave us, it’ll be sad for me because I enjoy working with him but also I fully understand that sometimes you have to move on and do what’s best for you family wise.”
Gary Madine departed in January while Omar Bogle also recently left the club, leaving Harris short of options up front.
However, he has seen Kieffer Moore join from Wigan which comes as a welcome boost to the Bluebirds as they bid to secure promotion in the manager’s first full campaign in charge of the club.
Harris has revealed Moore turned down more lucrative offers from others clubs to secure a move to the Welsh capital, adding that he believes the capture of the Wales international gives Cardiff a new dimension heading into the 2020/21 campaign.
“If Danny was to leave us – and it is still an ‘if’ at the moment, but it’s more probable than probably not – and Kieffer’s come in, I certainly feel we’re okay,” he added.
“I think it’s important that we don’t stand still.
“We want to achieve and I do feel that Kieffer
will add another element to us. He can compete in the front line with Robert Glatzel, Callum Paterson and a young Mark Harris who is improving all the time.”
Moore had also been linked with a possible move to Middlesbrough under former Cardiff boss Neil Warnock before officially becoming Harris’ first summer signing, with Moore having spoken to both Harris and the Yorkshireman ahead of signing on the dotted line.
Harris added: “We really had to fight off some competition to get him in, and we’re really pleased and certainly want to thank the owner, Vincent Tan, the chairman, Mehmet Dalman, and the CEO, Ken Choo, for the support in doing this.
“I’ll be honest, he could’ve taken more lucrative offers from elsewhere in the country, but he wanted to come and play for Cardiff and he wanted to come and play for me. That’s a big thing.
“He knows what we’re trying to build here and how we’re trying to progress and what a good group we’ve got. He wanted to be part of that.”
Ward netted eight times in his 33 appearances for Cardiff last term.
He has scored a total of 12 goals in 68 outings in all competitions in his three seasons in South Wales.