Cardiff City praised for "sign of intent" involving Yousef Salech after Mehmet Dalman transfer update | OneFootball

Football League World's resident Cardiff City fan pundit discussed Yousef Salech's future with the club

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Cardiff City have been lauded for adopting a hardball transfer stance with star striker Yousef Salech, who now appears increasingly poised to remain in the Welsh capital for the duration of the 2025/26 League One campaign.

Throughout the summer, the Bluebirds have been eager to keep outgoings to a minimum after the likes of Anwar El Ghazi, Yakou Meite, Joe Ralls, Aaron Ramsey and Andy Rinomhota were among the nine senior players to depart at the end of their respective contracts back in June.

The emphasis has been very much on retaining prized assets, with Cardiff believing very few additions are needed to what is already a squad widely-tipped to achieve promotion under the tutelage of impressive new head coach Brian Barry-Murphy.

And, when it comes to prized assets, perhaps no player is more important than star striker Yousef Salech. Signed back in January on a four-and-a-half-year contract from Swedish top-flight outfit Sirius in a deal worth £4m, the powerful Danish-born frontman instantly hit the ground running in South Wales by scoring eight goals in 20 Championship appearances throughout the second-half of the previous campaign as Cardiff suffered relegation to League One.

Salech's future at the club, quite naturally, has been the subject of intense speculation, with claims on social media just last week suggesting that the 23-year-old was poised to leave the club.

However, he soon played down these rumours, revealing he's happy at Cardiff, while chairman Mehmet Dalman went one step further after the Bluebirds' 2-1 opening day victory at home to Peterborough United over the weekend by declaring Salech, alongside fellow striker Callum Robinson, as not for sale, as he insisted the pair are "not going anywhere".

Cardiff City, Mehmet Dalman praised for Yousef Salech transfer stance

FLW asked our resident Cardiff fan pundit, Matt Hall, to explain just how big a boost it is that Salech himself appears to be perfectly content with the prospect of staying put, and whether he believes the forward will ultimately remain with the Bluebirds come next month.

Matt, much like many supporters, is now increasingly confident that Salech will not be moving on in the remainder of this summer's transfer window, hailing a "sign of intent" from the club in adopting a hardball stance which outlines their ambitions of achieving promotion.

"In terms of Yousef Salech, I am pretty much certain - as certain as I could ever get in this window - that he will stay as a Cardiff City player," Matt told FLW.

"It's a massive boost that he is. Obviously he didn't score against Peterborough where he was virtually odds-on to. We did have an issue where we didn't give him enough service, but even with that he probably could've scored.

"But Mehmet Dalman after the game did say he's not for sale and will not be going anywhere, which is obviously one thing, but you look at the player himself and he's never said anything other than he's happy to be here.

"He would command a huge fee but I don't think he is a player who would be easily replaced, so would that fee be worth it in League One? Even if you were to get £15 million, in reality, you wouldn't be able to bring in someone like-for-like quality-wise.

"So it's just better off keeping him, despite the money. I think it's a sign of intent, it shows we are serious about promotion and it's very exciting.

"He's part of a very young core, that's the focus, we don't want to hamstring Brian Barry-Murphy before he's even really got going by selling a prized asset, and especially the outlook of selling someone who you've consistently said will not be sold.

"Optics-wise, it would be a terrible thing to do."

Cardiff City are under no pressure to sell Yousef Salech

In the immediate aftermath of Cardiff's relegation from the Championship, Dalman revealed how the club was not in a position whereby asset-stripping exercises of the playing squad would have to be undertaken ahead of a return to English football's third-tier for the first time in more than 20 years.

Seeing is believing, of course, and, to date, Dalman's word has held up.

Despite the natural reductions in revenue from relegation, Cardiff have not yet had to sanction sales of any key players - with the potential exception of Callum O'Dowda, some would argue - and they don't come more important than Salech, who now looks likely to stay with under a month to go of the window.

Salech is under contract for a further four years, only arrived in January and hasn't voiced any desire to leave - quite the opposite, in actual fact - which means that Cardiff are in an extremely strong position with his future.

Of course, every player does have a price and it's not beyond the realms of possibility that Cardiff could receive an offer simply too good to turn down, but that hasn't yet arrived and it would take something pretty extraordinary indeed for the Bluebirds to consider cashing in on his services at this late stage.