Fresh Cardiff City, Vincent Tan fear raised amid Gareth Bale takeover talk - Bluebirds could "rot in League One" | OneFootball

FLW's Cardiff City fan pundit outlined his nightmare summer transfer scenario - It involves Vincent Tan and the potential takeover by Gareth Bale

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 supporters are dreaming of a rosier future under Welsh legend Gareth Bale, who is interested in purchasing his hometown club from the hands of controversial long-serving Bluebirds owner Vincent Tan.

It was first reported last week by David Ornstein of The Athletic that a consortium led by the former Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid star had made an approach to buy Cardiff.

According to that report, Bale's group sent a letter of intent to Tan last month, with the 35-year-old's interest in the takeover remaining strong despite seeing an initial proposal rejected by the Malaysian businessman.

Bale then sent pulses racing in the Welsh capital on Monday evening when he publicly laid bare his interest for the first time in a stunning interview with Sky Sports. He revealed how forming part of an ownership group to take over Cardiff would be a "dream come true" and that he would "love" to take the club dearly close to his heart back to the Premier League, reiterating that the consortium is locked in discussions with the Bluebirds.

However, Bale's interview was followed up with an update from Cardiff City Supporters Trust chair Keith Morgan, who stated that a bid has not yet been lodged to Tan from Bale's consortium. According to Morgan, a bid is not anticipated after Tan had little interest in the letter of intent.

Takeovers, of course, are notoriously difficult to broker, and there is the additional caveat of a formal hearing in the well-documented court case with French club FC Nantes over the fateful transfer of Emiliano Sala, who tragically lost his life en-route to joining Cardiff in January 2019, set to take place later this year, which could "significantly increase" the Bluebirds' value and means that Tan may not be looking to entertain a sale anytime soon.

Not all hope is lost, however, and supporters remain optimistic that Bale will eventually seal a takeover for Wales' capital club.

Fresh Cardiff City, Vincent Tan fear raised amid Gareth Bale takeover talk

While most supporters have expressed a certain degree of concern that Tan, despite devoting a "large part of his wealth" to Cardiff and being urged by his family to sell over the years, will play hardball and refuse to sanction a sale, a fresh fear has been raised involving the event of Bale's purchase.

FLW asked our resident Cardiff fan pundit, Matt Hall, to name one nightmare scenario for this summer's transfer window. Matt is worried that Tan could potentially "asset-strip" the club of its most prized talents while not investing further to recoup as much money as possible after selling the Bluebirds to Bale's consortium.

In Matt's view, this could leave Cardiff in a perilous position to "rot in League One" under new head coach Brian Barry-Murphy, who will be looking to take City back to the Championship at the very first attempt in the 2025/26 campaign.

However, it's worth noting that chairman Mehmet Dalman has previously revealed how Cardiff do not need to undertake any asset-stripping exercises and, of course, it doesn't seem likely that Bale and co will complete any potential takeover this summer.

"I think the nightmare scenario for the club this window is Vincent Tan potentially - and I use this word lightly - asset-stripping the football club," Matt told FLW.

"Obviously what we need to do is keep hold of the squad, add fine touches to it and let Brian Barry-Murphy shape it how he wishes to shape it.

"There's this massive, massive rumour - if you can even call it a rumour at this stage - of Gareth Bale's takeover. We've seen it before with other owners where, if a takeover is looming, they try and get as much money back as they possibly can.

"That comes through player sales and not financing any transfers themselves. Obviously we don't know how far advanced that is and I'd like to think that Tan wouldn't do that to the club, reputation-wise it would not look good on him.

"But I think the worst case scenario is that he sells our best and most sellable assets and doesn't reinvest it just to get as much money back as he can before any sale, and we're left in a position where, despite having potential new owners, we're really cutting Barry-Murphy's legs off before he's even tried to start walking and also leave ourselves in a situation where we could rot in League One."

Cardiff City need to retain prized assets ahead of League One promotion push

Regardless of how soon Bale completes his intended takeover of the club - or it is to go through at all, for that matter - Cardiff must look to retain as many prized assets as possible if they are to go back up to the Championship at the first time of asking.

There is strong expectation for the Bluebirds to lodge a promotion push after returning to English football's third-tier for the first time in more than 20 years last term, and they will need to keep hold of stars like Yousef Salech and Alex Robertson to make that happen.

Star striker Salech, still aged just 23, only joined Cardiff from Swedish side Sirius in January but made an instant impact by scoring eight goals from 20 Championship appearances. The general consensus is that, if he stays, the powerful Danish-born frontman will be close to unplayable in League One.

Robertson, meanwhile, arrived in South Wales last summer and impressed in his debut campaign, showing class and composure in possession beyond his youthful years.

The 21-year-old midfielder formerly worked under Barry-Murphy while at Manchester City's academy and, having also previously starred in League One on loan with Portsmouth two seasons ago, will have a big part to play if Cardiff are to compete for and indeed achieve promotion.