Sunderland seeking fresh transfer exit for player - Cardiff City & MK Dons are circling | OneFootball

Matty Young could be heading out on another loan this coming summer...

Cardiff City will once again ply their trade in the Championship once more for the 2026-27 season, with Brian Barry-Murphy guiding the Welsh outfit back to the second tier at the first time of asking.

Some eyebrows will have been raised last summer when the Bluebirds announced the appointment of the Irishman as their new head coach, given his only senior club management experience had been at Rochdale, whom he ended up suffering third tier relegation with, but having honed his craft at Man City's under-21's and an assistant coach at Leicester City, Barry-Murphy jumped feet-first back into a leading role.

And whilst they could not topple the imperious Lincoln City when it was all said and done, Cardiff did more than enough to finish second in the pack to make sure their League One stay was a brief one.

Moves have already gotten underway ahead of next season's Championship campaign, with loanee goalkeeper Nathan Trott joining permanently from FC Kobenhavn, but will that be the only addition to Barry-Murphy's ranks in-between the sticks?

Sunderland set to take Matty Young action with Cardiff City & MK Dons lurking

If reports are to be believed, then Cardiff may want another goalkeeper to compete with Trott and January arrival Harry Tyrer, with City said to be one of the clubs interested in a loan deal next season for Sunderland teenager Matty Young, according to Alan Nixon.

Cardiff are not the only club circling for the England youth international though, with League Two promotion-winners MK Dons also said to be in the mix for Young's services, and both teams will likely be watching Salford City's play-off semi-final second leg clash with Grimsby Town on Friday evening to see how the 19-year-old fares in what could be his final or penultimate game in an Ammies shirt.

Young is spending his second season on loan at the Peninsula Stadium, having appeared 20 times in League Two last season, but he's made the number one shirt his own in 2025-26, conceding just 48 goals in 44 regular campaign appearances and keeping 15 clean sheets.

It is claimed by Nixon that despite Young being under contract at Sunderland until 2028, the Black Cats hierarchy want to tie the youngster down to a new four-year deal, and then loan him out once more next season higher up the pyramid, with Cardiff and MK Dons just two of the early potential suitors who have expressed an interest.

MK Dons may be a better transfer switch for Matty Young than Cardiff City

Whilst Cardiff of course will be in a higher division than MK Dons next season, perhaps a move to Buckinghamshire rather than South Wales will end up being a better move for Young.

With the aforementioned Nathan Trott landing at the Cardiff City Stadium permanently, it's hard to see him not being Barry-Murphy's first-choice stopper, and it'll do Young no good sitting on the bench for the majority of the season.

Whereas under Paul Warne at MK Dons, Young could make a legitimate step up to League One and usurp the experienced Craig MacGillivray, who at 33 years of age is not getting any younger.

MK Dons will likely be as ambitious as they were last year in League Two when landing players such as Kane Wilson, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Callum Paterson, Aaron Collins and Ben Wiles, and they'll be fancied on paper to make a push for the top half next season, so Young - if he heads to Stadium MK - could be a nice fit for the club going forward.