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With nine games left of the Championship season, the jury remains out on a large part of Cardiff City's summer transfer business. 

The Bluebirds spent around £16 million during the 2019 summer window (Transfermarkt) as they looked to give Neil Warnock the weapons he needed to get the club back up to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

That would've been the 71-year-old's ninth promotion in English football, breaking the record that he currently holds, but things did not go plan and Warnock was out of the club by November.

That will likely have made life harder for the players that he brought in and one man, whose arrival always seemed a real 'Warnock signing', that may be cursing his exit is Aden Flint.

Having made his name at South West rivals Bristol City, Flint arrived from Middlesbrough in the summer in a deal reportedly worth up to £6 million.

Flint featured in Cardiff's first 26 games of the season but has been missing since they were hammered 6-1 by QPR on the 12th of January.

Though on the surface the continued absence of their £6 million signing may look like something of a failure for the club, in reality, it is a reason to rejoice.

Flint's absence from the starting XI has allowed the central defensive partnership between Sean Morrison and Curtis Nelson to really start to blossom.

Nelson was another summer signing, arriving from Oxford United on a free transfer, and took some time to cement his place in the side but now is an integral player for the Bluebirds.

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The combination between the physical Morrison and the more athletic and agile Nelson has worked really well for the Bluebirds over the last few months–helping them to force themselves back into the play-off race.

Neil Harris' side are now just two points adrift of the top six but even if they finish in one of its much-coveted spots, the centre-back partnership looks a huge positive to take into the 2020/21 campaign.

Both Morrison (28) and Nelson (26) are younger than the 30-year-old Flint, so the defensive duo could form the foundation of the Cardiff side for years to come.

Of course, there will be some frustration that £6 million is a lot of money to spend on a player that isn't in the starting XI but the joy that can be taken from the reason he is not there will surely outweigh it.