Cardiff City’s Vincent Tan must hate £85m West Ham, Mateus Fernandes transfer | OneFootball

Cardiff City will be concerned about West Ham United's potential raid for Dylan Lawlor, Ronan Kpakio, Rubin Colwill and Yousef Salech.

Two teams that were not in the Championship last season but will be in the 2026/27 campaign could well be seeing themselves brought even close together with a lot of business rumoured.

Cardiff City gained promotion back to the second-tier at the first time of asking last year, under the impressive management of Brian Barry-Murphy.

The Bluebirds put an emphasis on harnessing their productive academy and the young talent coming through and, with the progressive style of football of Barry-Murphy, they were excellent as they finished as runners-up to Lincoln City in League One.

West Ham United, on the other hand, have been a club circling the drain for some time, and they eventually plummeted down to the Championship with their Premier League relegation confirmed on the final day of last season, despite an improved second half of the campaign with Nuno Espirito Santo at the helm.

The Hammers will be expected to launch a title challenge straight away next year and their business this summer will be intriguing, both in terms of incomings and outgoings.

After the departures of Lukasz Fabianski, Adama Traore and Callum Wilson, it is said that both Jean-Clair Todibo and Konstantinos Mavropanos want a move away and stars such as Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville will surely be the subject of serious interest this summer.

One big money sale that now does look set to happen is the £85 million departure of former Southampton midfielder Mateus Fernandes to Tottenham Hotspur – and it is a transfer that could have ramifications for Cardiff City.

West Ham’s Mateus Fernandes sale could be bad news for Cardiff

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West Ham are rebuilding their squad and need to do so quickly with the season just over a month away and Nuno, the manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers when they won the Championship title, under pressure from the off.

Amid reported interest in Adam Webster and Amario Cozier-Duberry among many others, West Ham have also been linked with moves for Cardiff City quartet Dylan Lawlor, Ronan Kpakio, Rubin Colwill and Yousef Salech.

Centre-backs could be imperative for West Ham with Ipswich Town interest in Max Kilman, the departure of loanee Axel Disasi and those reports around Mavropanos and Todibo – and so Lawlor, subject of interest from abroad as well, would make a lot of sense as a signing.

At right-back, the Hammers boast both Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Kyle Walker-Peters, but the former has also been linked with a move away and so Kpakio’s reported interest makes sense.

As for Colwill and Salech, they were perhaps the two standout stars for a Cardiff side that played some easy-on-the-eye football – with those two turning the style from pretty into effective as well.

Colwill scored eight goals and provided six assists from attacking midfield and his technical ability would be welcomed in a West Ham side that will need a creative spark with Fernandes’ departure and the likely interest in Summerville and Bowen.

Salech has already proven he can score goals at Championship level, doing so at a decent rate despite City’s relegation at the back end of the 2024/25 season, and the Danish attacker would provide a very useful presence for a variety of systems and shapes, matching his technical ability with strong physicality and speed.

West Ham need to become smarter and faster, both on and off the pitch, as well as matching their likely experienced squad with some real potential and EFL exuberance, in order to change the entire mood of the club.

Therefore, the potential four-man raid on a club that themselves went through a similar rebuild, albeit at a lower level last year, would make a lot of sense – and the money raised for Fernandes will help them, while concerning Cardiff.

Cardiff may not be able to withstand the financial might of West Ham

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FLW’s Cardiff Fan Pundit Matt Hall has previously explained that it is ‘paramount’ they retain Colwill, while Lawlor and Kpakio should also have hefty price tags put on them, suggesting the club should make it clear that they are ‘not for sale’.

However, even if that was now the case and that Cardiff will slap mega fees on their key men amid West Ham interest, those fees may well be able to be met quite comfortably by The Hammers.

Having forked out around £40 million on Fernandes last August, for West Ham to make around £45 million profit (minus a few million heading back to Southampton) on that despite their relegation, will put their books in excellent stead ahead of building a squad this summer.

Cardiff may well have believed they could have sustained themselves in the second-tier and even made a challenge for the top eight, and the expanded play-off places, with the continued development of their young squad and Barry-Murphy’s coaching.

They may well still believe that even with the possibility West Ham now go big for their key men – but it may well be that they believe that because they will have to reinvest some of the money they receive, as rejecting big offers isn’t really feasible for any club at the level and accepting big fees for academy products is a very good business model, however frustrating and upsetting that is for supporters.

Colwill and Salech were instrumental in attack for City – and appear ready to make the jump up again, while Lawlor and Kpakio are a couple of the most highly-rated young defenders in the EFL.

Vincent Tan, surely desperate to repair some of his reputation within the Cardiff fanbase, will be reluctant to cash in on his key men, but every player has a price, and he may well hate the fact that those prices may now be met with West Ham landing such an astronomical figure for Mateus Fernandes.