Cardiff City struck gold with £3.3m transfer - Vincent Tan could make serious profit | OneFootball

The signing of Yousef Salech last January is proving to be a masterstroke from Cardiff City and they could soon make an enormous profit.

Following Cardiff City’s relegation from the Championship last season, not many supporters would have believed it would have actually represented a brilliant opportunity to reboot and refresh the club to kick on.

That has come from the sheer quality and volume of what has been produced within the academy, the coaching and management of Brian Barry-Murphy but the Bluebirds also have a truly standout star in attack in the form of Yousef Salech.

Cardiff are playing a brilliant style of football under former Rochdale boss Barry-Murphy and they are getting better each week as they seek to immediately return from League One.

They are four points clear at the top-of-the-table and now six ahead of third place Bradford City with performances improving and odds shortening on them to eventually romp away with the title.

There had been a disconnect between the club and the squad in recent years but Barry-Murphy’s ability to harness the youth setup at the club has allowed for Cardiff supporters to fall back in love with supporting City.

There are experienced players littered throughout the squad, such as Calum Chambers, Chris Willock and Callum Robinson but, primarily, they are being driven by stars of the present and the future, most notably with the likes of the Colwill brothers, Rubin and Joel.

Perhaps the star of the show, though, remains their Danish frontman Salech, who appeared too good for League One ahead of the season and is proving that to be the case with each passing week.

Yousef Salech has been a star for Cardiff and is a level above League One

In the midst of their relegation battle in the second-tier, Cardiff shelled out a hefty fee of £3.3 million on striker Yousef Salech from Swedish Allsvenskan side Sirius last January.

He made his debut with a six-minute substitute appearance in a 3-0 win over arch-rivals Swansea City and came off the bench to make his first six league appearances for the club, which included goals against Millwall and Bristol City, but he soon made himself undroppable from the start.

Despite playing in a struggling team and having to adjust to life in a new league and a new country, Salech immediately showed his quality for City, finishing the season with just 14 starts and yet eight goals for the basement club in the Championship.

There was a level of class and ability to his strikes that marked him out as one to watch this season in the third-tier and left many believing it would be inevitable that he would depart the Cardiff City Stadium.

He has instead stayed down in South Wales and continued to rip it up. Having already shown he is capable of scoring goals at a very good rate for a very poor team with no real settling in period, Salech has now proven that was no hot streak.

Yousef Salech should make Cardiff an enormous profit

Adjusting to Barry-Murphy’s possession-based style and away from a more reactive and counter-attacking approach last year, while contending with aggressive, robust treatment at the hands of opposition defenders each week, Salech took a bit of time to get into his stride in League One with just one goal in his first six appearances this season.

However, the 23-year-old Danish-born frontman has really begun to motor now with 12 goals and four assists in 25 League One appearances, 22 of those being starts, as they seek to run away at the top-of-the-table.

Blessed with a towering frame, serious strength and even no shortage of speed, Salech has an excellent control of himself to power away from defenders, especially at League One, matched with excellent technical ability to mark him out as the star man in the third-tier.

His recent equaliser against Leyton Orient was a perfect example of his all-round quality as a striker. Technically brilliant to get away from the defender, strong to ensure he held him off with the speed to eventually burst through before showing real composure and control to round the goalkeeper and produce an emphatic finish.

Cardiff supporters may not want to think about it yet but Salech will surely net the club a hefty profit in the near future with interest from above seemingly inevitable.

It was a punt from the club a year ago, and quite a costly one at that, but the signs were there from the start and now Salech is proving himself to be a seriously exciting striker.