Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock believes that the early Premier League transfer deadline might have worked against the Bluebirds in signing Chelsea youngster Tammy Abraham.
The 20-year-old, a product of Chelsea's youth academy, has been sent out on loan to further his development and impressed with Bristol City in the Championship in the 2016/17 season.
Abraham then stepped up to join Swansea City the following year and spent an entire season in the Premier League, but was unable to prevent the Swans from going down.
Warnock, who has just taken his team up to the English top division, insists that he was keen to sign Abraham on loan for the season, but that did not happen, with the Pensioners taking time to decide on the future of the player.
And with the Premier League transfer window ending three weeks prior to the Championship after the top flight window shake-up, the move did not happen, with Maurizio Sarri finally deciding to let the player go to the Championship on 31st August.
"I wanted Tammy Abraham from day one. I spoke to Eddie Newton about it, but he ended up at Aston Villa", Warnock told Standard Sport.
"I was really disappointed they didn’t even come back to me. I thought I at least deserved a phone call saying ‘sorry Neil, he’s not joining’.
"It might have been because our deadline was three weeks before the Championship’s.
"Perhaps they weren’t sure at the time and then he ends up leaving at the end of the month, when only a move to a Championship club is possible."
Aston Villa are next in action away at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday, with Abraham awaiting his debut for the club.
