Cardiff City will always rue triple Celtic FC transfer raid - Bluebirds were poached | OneFootball

Celtic prised away some of Cardiff City's top talent prior to the Bluebirds' Premier League promotion in 2013

Cardiff City's historic, and long awaited, first-ever promotion to the Premier League in 2013 may have been tainted by the club's controversial rebrand from blue to red colours, but it remained richly rewarding following a litany of trials and tribulations and failed attempts to attain top-flight status.

The Bluebirds had established a rather unwanted reputation as the Championship's 'nearly men', often threatening to achieve promotion with a swashbuckling brand of attacking football before falling away and failing to deliver when it mattered most. Indeed, in the three campaigns prior to the 2012/13 term, in which Malky Mackay's side romped to the league title with an eight-point margin over second-placed Hull City, Cardiff had suffered play-off heartbreak in each season.

Cardiff's 3-2 defeat to Ian Holloway's Blackpool in the 2010 play-off final was a bitter pill to swallow, and Cardiff would go on to secure successive top-six finishes before losing out at the semi-final stage on both occasions. In the 2008/09 season, meanwhile — City's last at the famous Ninian Park — David Jones' needed just two points from their final four games to seal a play-off finish, but managed just one and consequently missed out on a top-six berth to Preston North End.

Continual near-misses meant that Cardiff were susceptible to losing their best talent, and that's typically what happened. It was something of a miracle, then, that Cardiff managed to retain the legendary services of the late, great Peter Whittingham throughout their numerous failed attempts at promotion, with the much-loved playmaker having cemented his worth as one of the division's greatest and classiest operators of all-time.

But though Whittingham remained, the likes of Jay Bothroyd, Michael Chopra, Chris Gunter, Roger Johnson and Aaron Ramsey would all move on. Cardiff's recruitment across the 2000's was productive and brought a wealth of talent to the Welsh capital, while the academy set-up was also flourishing — and one club in particular was aware of that.

Celtic FC conducted triple Cardiff City transfer raid for Glen Loovens, Joe Ledley and Adam Matthews

That club, of course, was Scottish giants Celtic, who successfully conducted a triple transfer raid on Cardiff inside four years by luring away three of the Bluebirds' most prized assets.

The first player to be taken was Glen Loovens, with the Dutch defender's departure coming in August 2008 following interest from Old Firm rivals Rangers, a contractual standoff in South Wales and two years of sublime service at the heart of the Bluebirds' backline.

Still fondly remembered by supporters to this day, Loovens played a vital role in Cardiff's shock run to the 2008 FA Cup final against Portsmouth but, with just one year remaining on his deal at the time, the ex-Feyenoord man rejected the offer of a new contract and eventually joined Celtic in a reported £2.5 million deal.

Celtic landed Loovens, but that didn't mean they were going to leave Cardiff alone. Following Cardiff's aforementioned defeat to Blackpool on Wembley Way, Joe Ledley refused to sign a new deal and promptly left the club as a free agent. Aged 23 at the time, FIFA's cross-border rules meant that Cardiff were not entitled to any compensation for Ledley through a move to Celtic despite the midfielder being under the age of 24, and they reportedly would have received £3 million from Stoke City had he decided on a move to the Potteries — having also rejected £6 million for his services from the Staffordshire outfit two years prior.

It was Cardiff's loss and Celtic's gain, as the Scottish giants pounced to exploit the loophole and bring the Bluebirds academy product north of the border. Ledley had been with Cardiff since the age of nine and rose through the club's ranks to make more than 200 first-team appearances, scoring on 27 occasions, but he has endured a mixed relationship with Cardiff supporters ever since because of the nature of his exit and the windfall which was missed out on.

Celtic were not done there, either, and just one year later, they would successfully raid for a Cardiff academy graduate once more. This time it was Adam Matthews, whose brief Bluebirds senior career would somewhat fizzle out just as swiftly as it had started before he joined Ledley at Parkhead by joining Celtic on a pre-contract agreement.

The Swansea-born right-back, still a teenager at the time, had been named as the Championship's Apprentice of the Year amid reported interest from a number of top Premier League clubs in 2010.

However, a calamitous own goal in Cardiff's 2-0 defeat against Ipswich Town in September of that year provoked a fiery response from Bluebirds boss Jones, who would start him on only once more before his move to Celtic was confirmed in January 2011.

Matthews, much like Loovens and Ledley, rebuffed the offer of extended terms to head up north to Celtic instead.

How Glen Loovens, Joe Ledley and Adam Matthews fared after leaving Cardiff City for Celtic

Loovens would go on to make 89 appearances for Celtic between 2008 and 2012, helping the side to one Scottish Premier League title along with the Scottish Cup and the League Cup, but he perhaps failed to truly realise his potential in the green-and-white quarters of Glasgow.

The Dutchman lost his place in the side before being released, which paved the way for stints with Real Zaragoza, Sunderland and a reunion with Jones at Sheffield Wednesday inbetween.

For Loovens, it proved to be a case of the grass always not being greener — although Ledley would flourish at Celtic.

Ledley would help Celtic to three successive league titles, establishing himself as a vital cog in the side's midfield. He left to return to English football with Crystal Palace in January 2014, where he was reduced to a squad player role but still proved his worth in the Premier League.

The all-action midfielder took in spells with Derby County, Charlton Athletic, Newcastle Jets and Newport County before hanging up his boots, having also starred at international level by racking up 77 caps for Wales and featuring in all six games as the Red Dragons embarked on a stunning run to the EURO 2016 semi-finals in France.

Matthews, meanwhile, thrived at Celtic by helping the Hoops to establish uninterrupted domestic dominance, winning a litany of titles and accumulating north of 100 appearances. However, he would see his promise drift away after making an ill-fated move to Sunderland in 2015. Matthews would remain contracted to Sunderland for four years, but was deemed surplus to requirements by then-manager David Moyes and found himself on loan at Bristol City as the Black Cats were relegated to the Championship in 2017 before returning to the club ahead of the Black Cats' second successive relegation.

The defender stuck around with Sunderland in League One for a single season and would then join Charlton. After the Addicks, a two-year stint with Cypriot-based club Omonia Nicosia beckoned, and Matthews then joined Shamrock Rovers earlier this year.