STEVE Cook believes Cardiff City have been “very shrewd” by snapping up former Cherries loanee Harry Wilson, but added: “I felt like he deserved to stay in the Premier League.”

Wilson joined the Bluebirds on transfer deadline day last week, signing up on a season-long loan switch from Liverpool.

The 23-year-old spent the elongated 2019-20 campaign with Cherries, netting seven goals in his 35 appearances, but was unable to prevent the club slipping out of the top flight.

Only striker Callum Wilson scored more goals than Harry Wilson for Cherries last season, notching nine from his 39 outings.

Harry Wilson did return to Liverpool this season, featuring in their Carabao Cup penalty shootout defeat to Arsenal, but has now been loaned out again and made his Cardiff debut in Sunday’s 1-0 win at Preston.

And the Wrexham-born ace is in line for a swift reunion with Cherries, when the Bluebirds host Jason Tindall’s men in the Championship tomorrow evening (7.45pm).

“I was really good friends with Harry when he was here and still speak to him now,” Cook told the Daily Echo.

“I was disappointed for him because I felt like he deserved to stay in the Premier League. He’s a top quality player so Cardiff have been very shrewd in bringing him in.

“I’m hoping that he doesn’t have too much of an impact on Wednesday, he hasn’t played a lot of football recently so we’ll see how that goes.

“It will be nice to see him, but we’ll be looking to go to Cardiff and make Saturday’s draw against QPR a good point. If we go there and win, it’s a solid point here and we can move on from there.”

Boss Jason Tindall worked closely with Wilson last season in his former role as assistant manager and praised the impact the Wales international had at Vitality Stadium.

He said: “I felt Harry Wilson’s time here last year was a really productive one. He had a great season when he was on loan at Derby, scored a number of goals and did great for Derby that year.

“He came to the Premier League to us last year and was one of our top goalscorers. He scored a good amount of goals for someone that plays wide and in his position.

“One thing you get with Harry Wilson is someone that is very, very dangerous and does score goals and gets himself in goalscoring positions.

“He’s certainly a player that we’ve got to be aware of and a player that I enjoyed working with whilst he was here and someone that I’ve got a huge amount of respect for because of the professional that he is and the way he conducted himself every single day during his time at Bournemouth.”

Asked if he considered trying to bring him back to Cherries this season, Tindall added: “I think anyone with Harry’s quality, I’m sure there was a lot of clubs that would’ve considered him, or wanted him because he’s productive in terms of the way he plays.

“With us, we’ve got some really good attacking options so we always have to think about that – Junior Stanislas, David Brooks, Roro (Riquelme), Josh King, Dom Solanke, Sam Surridge, just to name a few.

“So I think when you’re looking to recruit and looking to bring players in, you have to be mindful of where they can play and what impact that’s going to have on the rest of the group.

“But Harry Wilson is a great player, someone that in my opinion did very well during his time here, scored some important goals, some good goals for us and is a real asset for Cardiff.”

Among Wilson’s goals for Cherries last term were stunning free-kicks against Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur.

Quizzed on if he’ll be telling his side to avoid conceding set pieces around the box, Tindall said: “We haven’t spoken too much about that in terms of the free-kicks, but our guys certainly know what to expect from him and how dangerous he is if you allow him space to shoot on his left foot.

“He’s a great signing for Cardiff, did very well for us and we know about Harry Wilson. He’s certainly someone we’ve got to be aware of.”