Cardiff City transfer news as Josh Murphy axed from Reading trial and update given on Shrewsbury Town game

Wales Online

18 July 2022

Cardiff City transfer news as Josh Murphy axed from Reading trial and update given on Shrewsbury Town game

Here are your Cardiff City headlines for Monday, July 18.

Josh Murphy axed after Reading trial

Former Cardiff City winger Josh Murphy will not sign for Reading after a trial period with the Championship club.

The ex-Bluebirds winger, who cost £11m after signing from Norwich City in 2018, left Cardiff for free at the end of his contract this summer following a nightmare loan spell with Preston North End last season.

He is now on the lookout for a new club and was offered the chance to trial with the Royals alongside Connor Wickham, Jodi Jones and Grant Ward, but BerkshireLive state none of them will sign for the club and have been let go. The 27-year-old played 99 times for the Bluebirds, scoring 14 goals and producing 10 assists.

Kick-off time changed

Cardiff City's clash against Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday evening has been pushed back to 8pm due to extreme weather conditions. The Bluebirds travel to Montgomery Waters Meadow for their penultimate pre-season game of the season after wins against Cambridge United, Newport County and Cheltenham Town.

The game was originally scheduled to take place at 7pm, however the two clubs have decided to push it back by an hour in the hope temperatures will cool down in time for the match.

Shrewsbury are also providing free bottles of water to all fans attending the game.

Why Ojo's Millwall spell failed

Richard Cawley, Millwall writer at the South London Press, has said Sheyi Ojo's loan move to The Den was perhaps not the best fit.

Speaking to WalesOnline about Ojo's disappointing loan spell last term, Cawley said: "I think one of the issues straight away that he had was that he's more of an out-and-out winger and Gary Rowett tends to play quite narrow. He likes the 5-2-3, with the wing-backs pushing on and within that, he'll have two forwards slightly more narrow alongside a main striker.

"They could have played Ojo as a wing-back, but even then there would have been problems because Danny McNamara on the right-hand side is the first choice and the left is Murray Wallace or Scott Malone. So, he was never going to play as a wing-back, and with that being the case you've got to play up in the front three, but even there, there was plenty of competition.

"In the January window, Rowett strengthened his forward options further. He obviously really liked Oliver Burke and he started playing a lot more. There was Mason Bennett, too, so there were a lot of attacking options. Someone like Tom Bradshaw's form kind of forced his way into the team, too, while Benik Afobe was much improved during the second half of the season.

"There was just so much competition up front. Because of that there were always going to be people that would miss out and in that second half of the season that was Ojo . I'm just not sure he blew people away enough."

It's a tale which is slightly similar in trajectory to Ojo's opening spell at Cardiff, although this time it seems there were few positives to cling on to, no real highlights to look back on, and nothing like the effervescent opening gambit seen during his first few months at Cardiff City Stadium.

"Put it this way, you never heard anyone ask why Ojo wasn't involved," Cawley added. "They never really saw the player that might have been at Cardiff. The one thing I would say is that when he got injured against Crystal Palace he did miss 11 league games, and the last seven of those Millwall were in a very good run of form."

Study ranks Cardiff second in Championship travel index

Cardiff City have been ranked second in a study of away ground accessibility in the Championship.

Betting.com has compiled a list of all 24 Championship grounds and marked them on a set of criteria pertaining to how easy it is to visit each ground, with the Bluebirds' Cardiff City Stadium coming up second only to central London outfit Millwall.

They wrote of Cardiff: "In second place is Cardiff, and getting to south Wales seems super convenient with a score of 27.4 out of 40. Train appears to be the best mode of transport for this away day, as there are eight train stations within two miles of the Bluebirds’ Cardiff City Stadium, the closest being Ninian Park at 0.5 miles away."

In contrast, Cardiff's south Wales rivals Swansea City came in 23rd with a score of just 7.4, while Preston North End finished dead last with a miserable 3.7 out of 40.

1. Millwall - The Den: 37.8

2. CardiffCity - Cardiff City Stadium: 27.4

3. BirminghamCity - St Andrew's: 26.9

4. CoventryCity - CBS Arena: 25.2

5. Queens Park Rangers - Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium: 24.7

6. RotherhamUnited - New York Stadium: 23.5

7. LutonTown - Kenilworth Road: 23.4

8. Blackpool - Bloomfield Road: 22.8

9. WestBromwichAlbion - The Hawthorns: 21.3

10. BristolCity 3- Ashton Gate Stadium: 20.3

11. Watford - Vicarage Road: 19.6

12. HuddersfieldTown - The John Smith's Stadium: 18.3