Town and West Brom are eyeing Cardiff City’s out-of-favour central defender Darcy Blake, according to one of this morning’s tabloids. The 22-year-old Welsh international is concerned he might lose his place in Gary Speed's side if he remains out of the Bluebirds’ first team.
Born in New Tredegar, Blake came through the ranks at Cardiff, making his debut towards the end of the 2005/06 season.
Also comfortable in midfield and at full-back, 6ft-tall Blake was on loan at Plymouth during the first half of 2009/10 and Town fans may recall his sending off for a crude lunge on Alan Quinn during a 1-1 draw at Home Park.
Capped eight times at full level by Wales, scoring once, Blake was a regular in Dave Jones’s side last season but has been less involved since Malky Mackay took over as boss.
Speaking last week, he said he planned to speak with Mackay about his situation: "I’m disappointed I’m not playing but hopefully I’ve shown him what I can do.
"Cardiff’s my team and it’s the team I want to play for — but I want to be playing week-in, week-out.
"I’m going to go back, have a sit down with the manager and tell him that I need to play games.
"It’s going to be hard to get in the Wales team with the players we’ve got if I don’t play regular for my club.”
Blake, who is contracted until 2013, has made 56 Cardiff starts plus 42 appearances as a substitute, but is yet to score a domestic goal.
Last week, Blues boss Paul Jewell said he wanted to add another central defender to his squad with Town's current centre-halves having suffered a number of injuries this season — Ibrahima Sonko and Damien Delaney are both sidelined at present - and with Blake’s fellow Wales international Danny Collins due to return to Stoke at the end of his loan in mid-December.
Meanwhile, Blake's former Cardiff team-mate Michael Chopra has tweeted his thanks to the Blues support at Nottingham Forest at the weekend: "Would like to thank Ipswich fans for Saturday, they were great again.
"Just at training waiting to do a run. Wonder what's in store today. Need a good week's training and hopefully put things right again."
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