INJURY’S A BIG BLOW FOR JOE SO WHERE
DOES IT LEAVE BENNETT’S HOPES OF LANDING NEW CONTRACT?
following his injury.
Cardiff’s transfer remit has altered slightly, as we all know, they are looking to keep the average age of the squad far lower than it has been in recent times, but that does not mean they are exclusively looking for young players.
In a sense, City want to have a hybrid squad, made up of a core group of young players but with some older, more experienced heads to guide them through. And that’s where Bennett comes in.
It would feel wrong for City to throw him on the scrapheap this summer after five years of largely stellar service. There will no doubt be many other Championship clubs willing to take him on if they did.
But he still has something to offer, that much is fair to say. If McCarthy continues to implement this wingback system next season and beyond, it would suit Bennett right down to the ground and there is no reason he could not still play a big part moving forward.
Greg Cunningham’s loan move to Preston was made permanent last month, while Ciaron Brown, whose contract is up this summer too, appears to be more of a centre-back than a left-back on first glance.
Letting someone of Bennett’s quality leave for free would leave something of a sour taste in the mouth for many, especially as we have seen a few big, and costly, players leave for relatively paltry values over the last four or five windows.
It is an uncomfortable position for Bennett to be in, with months of rehab ahead of him and his future still in the air beyond this summer.
As the weeks tick by, the issue becomes evermore pressing.
But if the manager’s recent success is anything to go by; in the right proportions, there really is no substitute for experience in this division.