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Kieffer Moore: Wales striker 'forced' move to Bournemouth says Cardiff City boss Steve Morison
Image source, Graham Hunt/ProSports/REX/Shutterstock
Cardiff City Manager Steve Morison says striker Kieffer Moore "forced" through his transfer to Bournemouth and claims uncertainty over his future affected the player's performances.
The 29-year-old Wales striker joined the Cherries on transfer deadline day.
He has only scored five goals this season, compared a tally of 20 in the previous campaign.
"I think you can see his performances since the summer have not been where they were last season," said Morison.
"We still didn't want to sell him, we wanted him to turn his form around and be a part of what we're doing.
"He still had a contract for next year and we had an option on him as well, so we had him for a good bit of time. But he said that he really wanted to move and effectively forced the move in the end with the transfer request.
"From our point of view, there's no point keeping people who don't want to be here. We need people who want to be here and want to fight and who want to make us better as a group and keep pushing us on, so it suited everyone in the end.
"I wanted to try and get the version back of Kieffer that was here last year and not the version that we've had this year and I'm sure he'll up his levels now he's gone to Bournemouth".
Moore had been linked with Premier League clubs last summer after scoring for Wales at the Euro 2020 finals and Morison believes that speculation affected his Cardiff form.
Image source, Getty Images
"One hundred per cent. Human nature takes over," Morison said.
"You think you're at it, you think you're doing what you did last year.
"Obviously, it was a tough run of games, at the start the season, in terms of results, so everything kind of plays a part. I think everyone likes a bit of certainty and likes a bit of clarity in life and I think that uncertainty definitely affected his performances.
"He's got he's got what he wanted, Bournemouth have got what they wanted and we got what we asked for".
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Moore joined the Championship promotion chasers in an undisclosed deal understood to be worth up to £5m.
As a replacement Morison has managed to bring in Middlesbrough forward Uche Ikpeazu on loan until the end of the season, having missed out on signing Stoke City's Sam Surridge.
"When (Cardiff captain) Sean Morrison texts you at 11 o'clock to say "make sure he's on my team", you know that you'd rather have him [Ikpeazu] on your team and in your group of players than having to play against him," Morison said
"The opportunity was there and was something we spoke about at the start of the window. It wasn't feasible at the time, because they [Middlesbrough] wanted a permanent and obviously that didn't materialise.
"Once Kieffer forced that move to happen, it just made sense that we would get him in as soon as we can to help us out.
"He wanted to come and play for us. He had offers to go elsewhere, but he picked us, so that's great. It's another person in the building that's got a point to prove".