Cardiff City should try to sign £12m Southampton outcast - Brian Barry-Murphy knows him well | OneFootball

Cardiff City may be on the hunt for a new goalkeeper this summer, and Gavin Bazunu would fit the bill

Cardiff City are celebrating an instant promotion back to the Championship and are clearly in a stronger position to tackle the second tier than they have been for several years.

Brian Barry-Murphy has transformed the outlook of the Bluebirds this season, with a much more youth-centred focus, relying a lot on academy products who were already coming through the club.

Given that approach, not many new arrivals came through the door at the Cardiff City Stadium in the summer. Just three in total did, one of which has been one of the standout stars in their campaign in between the sticks.

Nathan Trott came in on loan from Danish side Copenhagen with an option to buy for £1.5 million if Cardiff secured promotion. But now that's confirmed, the Bluebirds are reportedly struggling to get the 27-year-old to agree to permanent terms.

It would be a massive blow if Trott, who sits third in the clean sheet ranks in League One this season, is unwilling to commit to the upcoming Championship campaign. But if he continues to stall talks, Cardiff should quickly move on and look to bring in a former Premier League promotion winner in his place.

Cardiff City should pursue Gavin Bazunu this summer to fix goalkeeper situation

The only permanent signing that Cardiff made last summer was Gabriel Osho, who was playing in the French top flight at the time and had played in the Premier League a couple of years earlier with Luton Town.

Evidently, he was way above the required level to play in League One, but the lure of playing under Brian Barry-Murphy once more was too strong for the centre-back to turn down.

Indeed, Osho was part of Barry-Murphy's entertaining Rochdale side back in the 2020/21 third-tier campaign. The Dale would score 61 goals, despite relegation, and play a free-flowing style that Cardiff fans have seen throughout this season.

Osho was keen to reunite with the Bluebirds boss at his new club, and perhaps Southampton's Gavin Bazunu would, too, who also spent time at the Crown Oil Arena that year, as part of his first loan move away from Manchester City.

The 24-year-old was touted for big things when he was part of the Saints side to achieve promotion through the play-offs in the 2023/24 campaign, two years after his £12 million move from the Etihad Stadium.

However, an Achilles injury right at the end of that season forced him to watch on the sidelines at Wembley, and it stopped him from playing a part in what was a disastrous Premier League campaign last year.

Since then, Bazunu has lost his way slightly. After being replaced by Daniel Peretz in the Saints goal this past January, he was loaned out to Stoke City, who do have an £8 million buy option for the Irishman.

If Viktor Johanssen stays put at the bet365 Stadium as and when he returns from injury, though, then the likelihood that the Potters will spend that much on a backup seems incredibly slim, which would see him return to St Mary's and be once again touted for a move elsewhere.

Cardiff City can help Gavin Bazunu recapture some confidence

At 24, Bazunu still has almost all of his career ahead of him and the potential to realise that, still.

A move to Cardiff to be managed by one of the better managers in the entire EFL when it comes to trusting young players and helping them develop should be something that the Irishman should be champing at the bit to be involved in.

He showed clear rustiness in the opening half of the current campaign after effectively a year out of action, barring a couple of months at Standard Liege, and he's hardly been able to get back on track at Stoke, either, being sidelined almost immediately after debuting.

Since coming back from that thigh injury, though, he has begun to get back into the swing of playing again, and Cardiff can ensure that continues into next season, if they opt against pursuing Trott permanently.

With the 24-year-old's stock arguably the lowest it's ever been in his career, performing admirably and helping a newly-promoted side stay in the division may be exactly what Bazunu needs to get back to the levels that incurred a £12 million fee from Southampton for his services back in 2022.