Football League World
·1 February 2024
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·1 February 2024
Cardiff City have been on the hunt for a new goalkeeper for a while now, and it appears that they have their man.
The starting goalkeeper position at Cardiff hasn't been as consistent as they'd have liked it to be. It's the one position on the pitch that can really affect a player's levels if they keep on getting rotated. Keepers need consistency and to know where they stand, whether they are number one or number two.
Jak Alnwick has been the main number one through most of the 2023/24 season so far, but he did have a recent run of five consecutive league games on the bench, where Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson started in his place.
This shows that the manager wasn't fully happy with the options that he had between the sticks, and Cardiff have been looking at new options throughout January. It's taken them a while, but new reports are suggesting that they have acquired a Premier League target.
The Bluebirds have agreed a deal to sign Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Ethan Horvath, as per The Telegraph's Mike McGrath. The US Men's National Team keeper is set to undergo a medical with the Bluebirds this morning.
Rúnarsson, who was on loan at Cardiff from Arsenal until the end of the season, will return to the Gunners, cutting short his season-long loan. McGrath also reported that the Icelandic keeper's future is undecided.
Horvath, who joined Forest in the summer of 2021, hasn't played a Premier League game for the club, but he has played in both the UEFA Champions League and Europa League for Belgian side Club Brugge, before making the switch to English football.
Reports from Wales Online have suggested that the Bluebirds have been interested in bringing in the American for the past week. The fee that Cardiff will pay for Horvath is unknown at this stage.
Any time a club can acquire a player who was a regular for a promotion-winning side of the season just gone, it's a good move. Horvath was a major contributor in Luton Town's promotion-winning season, in the 2022/23 campaign. He played in 44 Championship games for the Hatters, and he was involved in their famous playoff final victory at Wembley which took them to the Premier League.
Cardiff have dropped off a bit from their strong start to the season. They currently sit in 14th place in the Championship table, but having their undisputed first-choice keeper almost through the door should help them to improve.
What will be interesting to see play out is what happens with Alnwick. He was the usual second choice behind Ryan Allsop last season, so it's not as if he now finds himself in an unfamiliar position on the Cardiff bench. The 30-year-old has a year-and-a-half left on his current deal.