Cardiff City: Omer Riza needs to avoid Neil Harris transfer blunder to aid survival push | OneFootball

Omer Riza is looking to tap into the loan market this month, and Cardiff City must make better use of it than they did in the 2019/20 campaign

Omer Riza is looking to utilise the Premier League loan market in what remains of the winter transfer window in a bid to bolster Cardiff City's Championship survival chance, but must make better use of such a strategy than Neil Harris did in the 2019/20 campaign with the stakes now significantly higher.

Cardiff stopped short of tapping into top-flight loan deals under Erol Bulut back in the summer, which has consequently shaped up to represent a poor judgement call.

That's because City are, for the third campaign in just four years, entrenched in a second-tier relegation battle, with their precarious position in the lower echelons of the league table further necessitating short-term top-flight fixes heading into the latter stages of the current season.

The Bluebirds have completed just one January signing to date in powerful frontman Yousef Salech - who is already off the mark, of course - but will be looking to make further additions before the window is up, with loan dealings likely to form the crux of the club's mid-season business, according to reports.

Cardiff have enjoyed mixed success with loan signings in recent years. The likes of Jaden Philogene, Harry Wilson, Ryan Giles, Tommy Doyle, Cody Drameh and Nat Phillips all impressed on loan from Premier League sides.

Mind you, for every Philogene there is a Filip Benkovic, with loan dealings tending to throw up a wild variation of results - and Cardiff notably failed to make good use of the strategy this time five years ago.

Cardiff City may have wanted more from Neil Harris signings Brad Smith, Dion Sanderson in 2020

Rewind five years and Cardiff were hardly languishing down at the bottom end of the Championship table. They were in the play-off mix and eventually ended up sealing fifth place before falling to defeat across two legs to eventual victors Fulham.

They made it to the top-six without a mid-season boost, though; Cardiff burned through significant sums of money in the summer of 2019 under Neil Warnock and were consequently much more restricted when the next window came around with Neil Harris in charge, and failed to bring in the sort of quality you would expect from a then-newly relegated side from the top-flight in contention for a play-off finish.

Cardiff made three signings in January 2020 and all three were loanees as Albert Adomah arrived from Nottingham Forest while the Premier League loan market was used - though not to its full potential - with deals for Dion Sanderson and Brad Smith, then of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bournemouth respectively.

Experienced winger Adomah, then aged 32, still had touches of class in his brief loan stint from Forest before the Reds, who were battling with Cardiff for a play-off spot at the time, elected to cut his deal short. He hardly pulled up any trees, though, which was broadly the same with both Sanderson and Smith.

Sanderson, it must be said, was hardly a disastrous signing from Cardiff.

Indeed, he seldom put a foot wrong and provided a solid and steady, if unremarkable presence on the right-hand side of City's backline at the age of 20, but was ultimately dropped for an out-of-position Leandro Bacuna when it mattered most for their play-off round against Fulham before dropping down to League One with Sunderland the following year.

But Smith went down as a rather strange signing.

The left-back had some pedigree, having featured for both Liverpool and Bournemouth at top-flight level before completing an impressive loan campaign with Seattle Sounders prior to his switch to the Welsh capital, but barely got a sniff of first-team action behind the ever-dependable Joe Bennett at the time.

One could be forgiven for forgetting Smith ever played for Cardiff, with the rarely-seen Aussie full-back chalking up just 13 minutes of Championship football across three appearances.

Omer Riza must better utilise the loan market than Neil Harris in 2019/20

As aforementioned, the stakes now feel infinitely higher as Riza bids to tap into the top-flight loan aisle - Cardiff's league status could just depend on it. The Bluebirds still need a left-sided winger, for example, while another central midfielder to complement the classy duo of Calum Chambers and star playmaker Alex Robertson would hardly go amiss either.

In terms of both position and personnel, there is naturally room for debate. But what is inarguable is the fundamental need for players - be it permanent signings or loanees - to come in and instantly improve and elevate this Cardiff side, who are both of the requisite profile and ability level to displace their counterparts and hit the ground running in south Wales.

Sanderson did that to a certain extent, but none of Harris' first three signings at Cardiff were game-changers on loan - compare that to the impact made by the likes of Drameh and Doyle after arriving mid-season to save the side from a relegation scrap under Steve Morison two years later. Looking back, it very much feels like a missed opportunity for Cardiff, who could have better aided their pursuit of a swift top-flight return by recruiting a higher level of quality.

It will be hoped, in that sense if nothing else, that Riza can be more like Morison, who nailed it with Premier League loan signings and later brought in the ultra-talented Philogene - one of the most naturally gifted players to turn out for Cardiff in many a year.