This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Cardiff City have confirmed that midfielder Joe Ralls has signed a new deal to keep him at the club until 2024.
Ralls has made over 300 appearances for the Bluebirds scoring 32 goals and providing 31 assists, and has grown to become a fan favourite after 10 years at the club.
The midfielder’s contract was set to run out this summer, but he has committed his future to Cardiff for the next two years.
Last season he made 29 appearances in the Championship, scoring one goal and registering six assists. Ralls has proved to become an important player for Cardiff in the past few seasons which will see fans buzzing to have re-signed the midfielder.
With Ralls signing a new deal FLW’s Cardiff fan pundit Ben Johnsey was quick to express his delight with re-signing the midfielder for the next couple of years.
Ben made it clear that the singing of the 28-year-old was the biggest deal of the summer for the club, as he has been around for so long, giving him the edge in helping all of Cardiff’s new signings settle in.
He also speaks about how this re-signing of Ralls will save the club the expense of having to sign another midfielder, so overall for Ben this is a fantastic piece of business for The Bluebirds.
He explained: “Joe Ralls signing a new contract, for me, is probably the biggest deal of the summer. We have had some really good signings, we have brought in nine players now, but I still think that him staying is the biggest.
“He has been here for over 10 years and with a squad full of so many players that are new to the area and the need for getting them to gel, someone who is in the midfield that has been here for that long, who understands the club and understands the fans, and just how everything works here, I think signing him on at the club for the next two years is huge.
“We have saved ourselves the expense of going out to try and find another midfielder on top of the two that we have already signed: Andy Rinomhota and Ebou Adams.
“Hopefully now he can kick on and maybe surrounded by a midfield that suits him more as a player, hopefully he can have a better season that he did last year and continue to (probably) become the captain of this football club.”