Neil Warnock and Gareth Bale both agree on this one Cardiff City factor - Vincent Tan needs to listen | OneFootball

Neil Warnock and Gareth Bale have both spoken about Cardiff City's Premier League potential amid ongoing takeover talk surrounding the League One club

Long-term potential is not always parallel to present standing, a school of thought which most certainly rings true in the case of Cardiff City following the Welsh club's relegation to League One at the end of the 2024/25 Championship campaign.

A historically dismal campaign in the Welsh capital, which featured three separate managers, ultimately concluded in relegation and a return to English football's third-tier for the first time in more than 20 years, with League One now awaiting under the stewardship of freshly-appointed head coach Brian Barry-Murphy.

The previous season was marked by growing discontentment off the pitch, as supporters staged multiple protests and made their thoughts clear, in no uncertain terms, towards the club's hierarchy.

Controversial owner Vincent Tan, along with chairman Mehmet Dalman and chief executive Ken Choo, all came under fire as long-standing concerns and the critique of continued, critical errors in judgement reached something of a boiling point.

So supporters were naturally uplifted by last month's revelation of Gareth Bale's sensational interest in purchasing his boyhood club as part of an unnamed US-based consortium.

The former Wales and Real Madrid superstar, who came close to winding down his playing career with the Bluebirds before joining MLS side Los Angeles FC in the summer of 2022, has since made little secret of his desire to buy the club from Tan, although the Malaysian is yet to accept any offer as a prospective deal awaits to truly get off the ground.

What Gareth Bale and Neil Warnock both agree on with Cardiff City amid takeover talk

Just last Thursday, Bale claimed on FOS Today that a "brand-new offer", deemed "more than fair" by the Welshman and his consortium, had been lodged to Cardiff in a bid to convince Tan of a sale.

However, the integrity of the offer has been disputed. A subsequent report from WalesOnline disclosed that Cardiff are yet to receive a heads of terms, proof of funds and full clarity of who is behind the money, although it did note the letter of intent from Bale and co.

It's also said that the offer is "well below" the £40 million mark, with the group having been told that this price range falls some way short of what would represent a credible bid from the club's perspective. But the saga will continue to toil on and fans, as ever, will retain the hope that Bale can return to Cardiff and oversee the reset that the club so desperately needs under fresh ownership.

Bale, as aforementioned, has been rather outspoken about his intentions, which has only further fueled buzz and excitement among supporters. Indeed, the 35-year-old is just one high-profile figure under little illusion of the long-term potential of Wales' capital city club with the right investment, ambition and direction, and he believes it is one which belongs back in the Premier League.

Speaking to Sky Sports on the red carpet at the UK premiere for 'F1: The Movie' last month, Bale revealed: "We are interested in getting Cardiff. It's my home club, it's where I grew up and my uncle [Chris Pike] used to play for them.

"To be involved with an ownership group would be a dream come true.

"It [Cardiff] is a club close to my heart. It's where I grew up and I would love to be able to be a part of growing Cardiff and taking it to the Premier League where it belongs.

"I know how amazing the Welsh fans and Cardiff fans are. It would be amazing to try and do something together.

"We are trying to engage with Cardiff and more news will come out on that in the future but hopefully we can get something done."

Unsurprisingly, Bale's admission got supporters purring and has simply amplified the external pressure on Tan to sanction a sale after 15 years at the helm.

Supporters are all-too-aware of where Cardiff can itself in the future if the correct dominos fall into place, and that's why they have become so disenchanted with the direction of travel under Tan and the other key decision-makers in recent times.

Interestingly, Bale's own viewpoint is echoed by former boss Neil Warnock, who spent three years in charge between 2016 and 2019 and famously led Cardiff to the Premier League against all odds in the 2017/18 Championship season. The promotion-winning extraordinaire enjoyed a glowing relationship with supporters, which remains intact to this day, and he also believes that Cardiff belong in the top-flight.

Speaking recently to The Athletic, Warnock said: "Cardiff is a big club. As a city, it could easily sustain Premier League football.

"You look at clubs like Leicester and Southampton, who’ve had lengthy spells up there. To me, Cardiff are on that level as a club, or should be."

The fact of the matter, of course, is that Cardiff are now gearing up for a season in League One, as opposed to the glitz and glamour of English football's elite.

It's similarly true that Cardiff are incredibly unlikely to return to the promised land, or even threaten to, under the ownership of Tan, which has become increasingly divisive over the last couple of years following relative stability and promotion to the Premier League.

Perhaps, then, that's why Tan needs to listen and take note.

Vincent Tan needs to listen to Neil Warnock, Gareth Bale's Cardiff City claims

It's worth reminding that, until Bale's consortium submit the full criteria of what's required to lodge and successfully complete a takeover bid, Tan is firmly within his right to hold off from negotiations. Tan will also stress, and with good reason, just how crucial he has been to ensuring Cardiff's financial security, with the last available set of accounts for the 2023-24 financial year revealing that, along with a pre-tax loss of £11.6 million on a turnover of £23.2 million, Tan is owed £68 million - that simply cannot be ignored.

This is a complicated and moving saga, with conflicting claims emerging about the integrity and likelihood of any potential takeover. However, if and when a suitable offer does arrive, Tan would be well-served by accepting the fact that the club requires a complete structural reset and reboot under new, hungry ownership in order to reach its potential of being established in the Premier League.

Such claims are bold for a club that has only spent two seasons in the Premier League since its inception all the way back in 1992, both of which culminated in relegation, but Cardiff are also Wales' capital side with a huge catchment area across South Wales, a productive youth system producing international-grade talent with a new academy training base not even two years old, a modern 33,000 capacity stadium and, perhaps most pertinently yet, a fiercely-passionate and loyal fanbase just waiting to see the Bluebirds' potential truly unlocked.

Considerably smaller clubs such as Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth and even, some supporters will argue, bitter rivals Swansea City, have all enjoyed fruitful and sustained stays at Premier League level over the last decade, and, in the case of the former two at least, that's down to savvy, cutting-edge, data-driven recruitment - of which they are deserving of immense credit, in all fairness.

There is more than one way to skin a cat, of course, and aimlessly chucking money at the Premier League dream has not always proved the most suitable, smartest or sustainable strategy to stay with the stars.

So, why are Cardiff yet to achieve that level of success? There are a million different answers, although one would determine the most pressing resistance to be the lack of a tangible and innovative recruitment policy, a scattergun hire-and-fire managerial approach and a fundamental shortage of coherence and strategy at boardroom level.

Those issues, rather than Tan's investment - which is believed to fall in and around the £250 million figure - are what have left supporters dreaming of a new and rosier future under Bale. There would be no guarantees with Bale, either, as many promising takeovers can crash and burn as quickly as the hope was built up in the first place, but what it would bring is hope, a factor now far-too-absent from anything associated with Tan's reign.

Tan, at least, has insisted he still cares deeply about Cardiff, and he may just get the chance to prove that depending on the stance he takes to green-lighting the mooted purchase from Bale's group - though he remains adamant that he will only sell to the right person.

The endorsements of Cardiff's long-term potential are telling, but they will only be vindicated with a new takeover and that may now be Tan's best opportunity to show fans he does indeed care.