Town loanee Emyr Huws has played down his decision to take a pay cut in order to push through his move from Cardiff until the end of the season.
Huws, who caught the eye on his debut in last week’s 2-2 home draw with third-placed Reading, said: "The first half of the season didn’t go my way — I hardly played any games — so I was keen to come here.
"I’ve admired the manager for a while so when I knew he was interested in me I was just pushing to try and get the deal done. A pay cut had to be done but I don’t see it as that much of a big deal.
"I’ve spent a lot of my career not playing so I was desperate to play — and to play with my friends, Jonny Williams and Tom Lawrence, was a real pull. The money wasn’t a factor for me and I’m really happy to be here.
"Everyone wants to play and hopefully, as I move forward in my career, I can continue to do that here.”
Huws was just seven when he entered Swansea’s academy, but he later came to the attention of Manchester City and was persuaded to join them when he was 14. Since then he has trained and played alongside modern-day giants of football like Sergio Aguero and Gareth Bale.
It was in his time at the Etihad Stadium that he trained alongside Argentine striker Aguero and other household names, while he is an international colleague of Real Madrid’s Bale.
Huws, who captained City’s U21 side, said: "It was a good experience for me at City — a massive club where I played with some really good players — but I had to move on to get first team football. But looking back I can see how good it was for me.
"I trained with the City first team squad a fair bit, top players like Aguero, and I learned a lot from them. It all helped to improve my game.
"When you train with players of that ability you see little bits that they do and you think ‘I need to integrate that into my game’. It was good to train with those boys.
"Training and playing with the likes of Gareth Bale is also a big thing when you think how far he has gone in his career. You try to compare yourself and you should always be looking to improve. Hopefully I’ll continue to do that.”