Junior Hoilett: Cardiff City forward eyeing top-flight return
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Junior Hoilett has scored twice in 17 Cardiff appearances so far this season
Junior Hoilett has said farewell to the man who revived his career but believes a fourth stint as a Premier League player can be achieved with Cardiff City.
Hoilett was sorry to see Neil Warnock leave but is now looking to the future under Neil Harris.
And at 29, the forward has sights set on a return to the highest level.
"Everybody's ambition is to play top-flight football," Hoilett tells BBC Sport Wales.
"We have to push on from the last few results we have had. If we get the right results over Christmas, it will build our confidence going into the back-end of the season."
Harris' arrival has already brought momentum, with the new man taking seven points from his first three games.
Cardiff have secured back-to-back league wins for the first time this season after last weekend's 1-0 triumph at Nottingham Forest - their maiden away victory in 2019-20.
"The manager has brought in a new system and he has been a breath of fresh air. I think that's what the team needed," Hoilett says.
"He has been very organised defensively and offensively. You can see that in games.
"He has got the team back to being hard to beat. We are keeping clean sheets now and that's what you need to win."
Junior Hoilett and Neil Harris celebrate after a 1-0 victory over Stoke in the latter's first home game as Cardiff manager
Hoilett will hope to make it four starts from four since Harris' appointment when Cardiff host Barnsley on Saturday.
"He could have picked anyone but he has shown belief in me," the 29-year-old adds. "From the minute he came in he told me to express myself."
Hoilett is happy under Harris, just as he had been during the Warnock era.
The former Blackburn Rovers player was a free agent in the summer of 2016 after his contract at Queens Park Rangers expired.
Warnock was out of work at the time but told Hoilett - who he had worked with at Loftus Road - he would take him to his next club.
When he was named Cardiff boss in October 2016, he swiftly made Hoilett his first signing.
"He was not only a great manager but a great human being to me," Hoilett says.
"He helped me out at a hard time in my career. I was out of football for two months but he told me he was going to get a club soon. I put my trust in him and it paid off.
"He got me back on my feet and brought me to a great club."
Hoilett has made 133 Cardiff appearances to date, scoring 18 goals, and was one of the stars of the side which won promotion to the Premier League in 2017-18.
"We moved forward together," he says. "When you lose a manager like that, who believed in you and gave you confidence when you were down, it's going to hurt you."
Hoilett has been in touch with Warnock since he left the Bluebirds and reckons his old boss may well return to football soon.
For Cardiff, meanwhile, the focus is on trying to get back to the Premier League, where Hoilett has spent much of his career.
Signed by Blackburn as a 13-year-old, the Canada international made his Rovers debut in the top tier against Manchester City in 2009.
Having been nurtured by Mark Hughes, Hoilett was given a first-team bow by Sam Allardyce and his promise was such that he was regularly linked with the biggest clubs in the land.
"The good old days," he says with a smile.
"I made my debut in the Premier League at 19. That's going to have a massive impact on any young boy and it's had a big impact throughout my career."
Hoilett left Ewood Park for Hughes' QPR in 2012 and, as has been the case at Cardiff, experienced relegation from and promotion to the Premier League with Rangers.
"I had worked with Mark Hughes and I liked the way he worked," Hoilett says.
"There were ups and downs at QPR but there are no regrets. You just have to move forward."
Junior Hoilett scored 14 goals in 92 appearances for Blackburn Rovers
Wherever he has been, Hoilett has chipped in with his share of eye-catching goals. Typically, he cuts in from the left flank and shoots from distance.
"Some of them hit the bar, some go over. Luckily some of them go in the back of the net," he says.
"From a young age I always tried to bring a spark to the team, to give the team a boost with an assist or some creative play or a goal.
"I need a few more tap-ins to be honest - they all count."
Hoilett has scored twice this season but is keen to contribute more.
"That's what we need," he adds. "The new manager has brought in organisation - being hard to beat and having a platform.
"Now we need to try to be more attack-minded to close out games and make it easier for ourselves."
Starting, he hopes, against Barnsley.