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Neil Harris could hardly believe Cardiff City managed to get a deal over the line for Harry Wilson - and it's clear to see why that was the case

Neil Harris followed suit of the wider footballing world by being left in disbelief when Cardiff City managed to get a deal for Harry Wilson over the line four years ago, and the Bluebirds reaped the rewards from defying the odds.

The then-Bluebirds boss was keen to reinforce his ranks and take Cardiff to the next level after they fell short of returning to the Premier League at the hands of Fulham in the play-off semi-finals during his first season in the job. In order to ensure Cardiff's ticket in the play-off lottery, mercurial playmaker Lee Tomlin carried the team on his back and provided myriad memorable moments, although he ran his body into the ground in the process and never quite recovered.

Cardiff, then, found themselves in desperate need of a new, natural number 10 capable of exuding the same degree of match-winning X-Factor, and offering goals and creativity in rich, equal abundance. That profile search rightly led them to Harry Wilson, who was a scorching-hot property that summer after being allowed to leave Liverpool on loan following a seven-goal haul during his loan to Bournemouth in the Premier League the previous term.

Even though Cardiff had designs on promotion and had been a Premier League side themselves just more than a year previously, there was still widespread surprise when they defeated many interested parties to land Wilson's services for the season - and Harris himself could not believe it.

Neil Harris could not believe Cardiff City signed Harry Wilson from Liverpool

Harris laid bare his amazement at being able to sign Wilson after Cardiff's win at Preston North End on October 18, two days after the window slammed shut.

The Millwall legend revealed Cardiff had beaten off "10" other clubs, which included bitter rivals Swansea City, in the race to sign Wilson, who joined the Bluebirds to bolster his international ambitions under then-Wales manager Ryan Giggs while helping his club side to try and return to the Premier League.

Harris said: "Harry wants to play in the Premier League and he wants to play for Ryan Giggs every international break.

"I could not believe we had a chance of bringing him in if I am honest. That's not putting pressure on him, I just think he's a Premier League player and an international footballer.

"Ultimately it wasn't just he wanted to come and play for me once I spoke to him, he wanted to come and play for Cardiff City.

"He wanted to come and play in the capital of Wales and he wants to catch the imagination and the eye of the national team manager.

"Harry Wilson is here not for monetary reasons, he's here because he wanted to play in Wales.

"He feels that's his best avenue of getting promoted this season with us, to find an avenue back to the Premier League with us or somebody else, but also because he knows that it catches the imagination of the Welsh fan base and it catches the eye of Ryan Giggs and his staff."

Harry Wilson was superb on loan for Cardiff City from Liverpool

Wilson had lofty expectations to meet at the Cardiff City Stadium, but by and large, he duly delivered and showed exactly why he had been billed as a "Premier League player". He wasn't always consistent, of course, though Wilson was simply on another level when firing on all cylinders.

Technically sublime, Wilson's line-breaking passing range was superb and welcomed a sense of off-the-cuff invention and ingenuity into an otherwise pragmatic, direct side under Harris and, in particular, his eventual successor Mick McCarthy.

With productive, efficient and, at times, masterful forward passing from both open play and set pieces too, Wilson picked up eleven assists that year while adding seven goals, three of which came in Cardiff's penultimate match of the season away at Birmingham City.

Given Wilson's form, Cardiff may wish they played Blues every week. He saved his very most memorable productions for the two fixtures against the Second City side; all three goals of his dazzling hat-trick at the end of the season came from outside the box, and he scored once and set up two in a 2-1 victory over Birmingham months earlier.

Put simply, the Welshman was dynamite on his day. His day, some will argue, failed to arrive as often as it should have. Admittedly, there were more than a few games where Wilson would simply go missing.

However, it simply has to be considered that he was playing in a fundamentally poor footballing side which sorely lacked dynamism and creativity, with precious few Bluebirds attackers making any sort of impact that year. Wilson was an exception, of course, though he also played wide-right more times than he did in any other position - given his proven quality more centrally as an attacking midfielder, that might be one reason Cardiff never quite saw the best of him.

That's a frustration to some extent, as Wilson was primed as the blockbuster signing to spearhead Cardiff's ascent back to the promised land. It didn't play out that way but that's hardly a slight on Wilson, who was one of just three City attacking players to rack up more than 10 combined goals and assists.