Leeds United prospect Cody Drameh earned plaudits from the Cardiff City faithful following his debut in their 1-0 home defeat to Blackburn.
The 20-year-old was the subject of a lengthy answer from Whites boss Marcelo Bielsa in Friday's pre-West Ham press conference after he joined the Championship side on loan for the rest of the season in order to seek regular first-team football.
The Argentine believes Drameh should have stayed at Leeds amid recent injury troubles and questioned whether or not the former Fulham youth product would have better opportunities at the Championship side.
“I did not think he needed to play games elsewhere,” Bielsa said.
“He was a player who was very necessary with all of the absences we have.
“In a situation when opportunities for youngsters have increased, Drameh would prefer to experiment outside our team.
“Clearly, I calculated things incorrectly because what I consider as a great opportunity, they prefer to abandon the club looking for another type of competition.
“Evidently, what I imagined as a great chance, they don't. Perhaps I overvalue that you're in a 20-man squad in the best league in the world.
“Of course with a player leaving it's one less alternative. But when a player wants to leave, there's no point trying to keep them.”
Regardless, Drameh was handed a start by Bluebirds boss Steve Morison and impressed as he played 78 minutes of their 1-0 defeat to high-flying Blackburn, with Cardiff fans taking to social media to praise the Leeds loanee.
@dylanow21: Can’t complain with that performance this half, but you can tell we’re crying out for some creativity on that pitch. Drameh looks hell of a player mind
@DJluebird1927: Yeah, that one hurts, I can half accept losing if you play [bad] but when you dominate everything and lose it's a tough one.That Cody Drameh looked good though on the plus side.
@DanCCFC_: Drameh is top top quality, gonna be great for us
@JamieLuna1: Rubbish result @CardiffCityFC … but liked what I saw from Cody Drameh.
@RSpencer100: Superb performance so far @CardiffCityFC, best I've seen us play for a while. Drameh has been superb, finally looks like we have a proper wing-back who suits the system Morison is trying to play. Can't believe we're 1-0 down.
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