Troy Perrett playing for Wales U19s against England earlier this month
Omer Riza said he takes pride in seeing Premier League clubs linked with his top Cardiff City academy talents after Aston Villa's reported interest in midfielder Troy Perrett.
The Wales under-19s international is an emerging talent in CF11 and has been recognised by first-team boss Riza, who has asked the teenager to train with the first team on a number of occasions.
Indeed, just a few weeks ago, Riza picked out the attacking midfielder, 18, for praise after being impressed by him stepping up to the first team from youth-team training. Sign up to our daily Cardiff City newsletter here.
"Anyone who has stood out for me? I think Troy Perrett has done very well," Riza said last month when asked about emerging youngsters.
And Riza has now insisted that the club will decide what is right for the player moving forward, with Cardiff reticent to allow more young talent to leave the club after the departures of Charlie Crew (Leeds United), Gabriele Biancheri (Man United), Timeo Whisker (Man City), Lewys Benjamin (Wolves) and Japhet Matondo (Stoke City) to category one academies in recent years.
"I have read the same thing you are telling me," he said of the reported interest in Perrett. "But even if there was interest, they are our players so we decide what's happening with our players and we will all talk diligently and discuss.
"There is always going to be interest in players coming from Cardiff, a category two academy side and you have got category one Premier League clubs who see a young player, 17, 18, 19 and they are always trying to pinch! It's the way of the world.
"If they are not producing their own, they will try and take from somewhere else. It's credit to us as a club that we've got the amount of players we've got coming through.
"We see it. Isaak (Davies), Ash (Cian Ashford), Rubin (Colwill), Joel Colwill, Joel Bagan, the list goes on. It's lovely to see - for me, it's brilliant. I love the fact I can give these boys a chance to play and they are proving they can do it."
Perrett recently featured for Wales under-19s during the international break, alongside fellow Bluebirds Luey Giles, Dakarai Mafico and Dylan Lawlor.
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