Fresh Cardiff challenge is spurring Morison on
CARDIFF City manager Steve Morison says he is relishing the root-and-branch changes which are ahead at the club this summer.
With 10 players out of contract, loan stars returning to their parent clubs and new signings needed across the park, Morison is set to oversee a mammoth overhaul come the end of the season as the club attempt to cut their financial cloth accordingly.
And Morison says he is looking forward to the challenge ahead, saying the reset is much-needed.
He said at his pre-Middlesbrough press conference: “It’s great and it’ll be exactly what is needed for the football club. I cannot wait to walk in here on June 22 and everything being fresh and new.
“A new impetus, a new environment. It’s been on the cards for a while. It just took someone to really buy into it and push it. It’s what I firmly believe in.
“I still would have had the same beliefs even if I wasn’t in this job. Does it have to be painful at times? Yes.
“We are going to lose games. I will take losing them now rather than July 30, when we can be judged properly.
“Lots of stuff goes on that no-one ever sees.
“I suppose that’s what hurts you the most, when you hear and see a lot of the stuff that gets said about you, when really you’ve not got a clue, you are just speculating.
“We are just trying to win games of football and in the best style we can.”
Morison admits he already has a plan pf what is required in the future.
He said: “It’s having the acceptance that we are where we are from a budget point of view. It’s no point in me going to engage with people we can’t get. It just changes my angle of approach.
“Characteristics, personality, of the players we want, that doesn’t change. It means you have to be more inventive, further afield.
“You might never have heard of any of them. They are going to have attributes to help us compete next year. It sharpens your mind and your focus, rather than cast the net about players you can’t get close to.”
Tonight, Cardiff go to the Riverside Stadium looking to dent the home side’s play-off ambitions, though Morison is keen to focus on his own side.
He said: “We are not going to worry about them. We worry about ourselves. It’s on TV and a great game to play in.
“We will go up and give a good account of ourselves. Everything is building towards the summer.
“We just want to win games. It annoys you when people question whether you are trying to win games. I’ll try and pick the best team I can for the game with the players I’ve got available.
“They’ve been doing all right. They did all right at the weekend, they just didn’t take their chances.
“This is their game in hand, they are right in the mix. They are a really good team. It’s no different to our game on Saturday.
“They are competing at that end of the table for a reason. They had a good window and brought in some good players from Brighton and Arsenal.
“Hopefully this time next year we will be in that position. It’ll be a great test.”
Middlesbrough will assess Marcus Tavernier and Dael Fry in training to see if they’re fit to be involved in tonight’s crunch game against Cardiff.
Manager Chris Wilder is hopeful both of the key duo will be available.
Fry has missed Boro’s last three games with a calf injury, with ex-Bluebirds fans’ favourite Sol Bamba deputising in his absence. Tavernier, meanwhile, rolled his ankle late on in the weekend draw at Swansea City and was withdrawn immediately, though the prognosis after seemed positive.
Matt Crooks will miss the game as he serves the final game of his threematch suspension after accumulating 15 yellow cards throughout the course of the season.
He will be back in contention at the weekend, though Riley McGree will likely continue in the middle against the Bluebirds after an impressive performance in South Wales.