Cardiff City latest: Ebou Adams update, Birmingham City eye midfielder, prospect to join Stoke City, Mark McGuinness claim | OneFootball

Football League World rounds up the latest Cardiff City transfer news

Highlights

Cardiff City's transfer activity has been amplified tenfold over the last week, with plenty of news emerging pertaining to both incomings and outgoings.

The Bluebirds started the 2024/25 summer transfer window in slow fashion before picking up both Chris Willock and Calum Chambers as exciting free agent captures following their exits from QPR and Aston Villa respectively, both on three-year contracts. Tricky winger Willock has been among the division's most exciting wide players for a number of years now, while Chambers has spent the entirety of his career in the Premier League with the likes of Arsenal, Southampton and Villa, racking up three senior caps for England in the process.

There's also plenty to unpick at the other end of the spectrum though, with a host of Cardiff players attracting interest elsewhere as of late. Keeping that in mind, Football League World has rounded up the latest transfer bulletins at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Ebou Adams set to join Derby County

The drawn-out transfer saga between Cardiff and Derby County finally appears to be coming to an end, with the Gambian international midfielder now set to return to Pride Park on a permanent basis.

Adams has endured a difficult time of it at Cardiff and missed all of his first season through injury before finding himself unable to register in Erol Bulut's plans in 2023/24, preceding a January loan switch to Derby. He played a crucial role in the Rams' promotion from League One in May and they've been pursuing a deal ever since.

Bulut admitted that Adams had been absent from the Bluebirds' first pre-season outing against Kidderminster Harriers last week as he was nearing a return to Derby, who've since agreed a deal for the 28-year-old. This is according to Football Insider's Pete O'Rourke on X, where he's reported that Adams is set to sign a three-year deal with the Rams and should be a Derby player in the next 24 hours after a deal was successfully struck between the two clubs.

The deal will reportedly net Cardiff just shy of £1m, which would represent a strong profit given that they picked him up on a free transfer from Forest Green Rovers.

Birmingham City eye Cardiff City's

Another out-of-favour midfielder could be departing the Welsh capital before long, with Andy Rinomhota having attracted interest elsewhere ahead of a likely summer exit. The Zimbabwe international was a regular in his first season with Cardiff after joining from Reading but fell down the pecking order following Bulut's arrival last summer, which saw him appear just three times in the Championship before joining Rotherham United on loan in January.

The Millers were relegated from the second-tier with only 27 points to their name and it comes as little surprise to see that Rinomhota looks set to move on to pastures new, with Darren Witcoop revealing that League One newcomers Birmingham are among a number of clubs currently exploring a deal. The transfer guru adds that certain suitors are also looking to acquire the City midfielder on loan, which would still all but end his tenure in Wales given his contract expires next summer.

Japhet Matondo set to join Stoke City

Meanwhile, Cardiff are set to lose highly-rated academy winger Japhet Matondo to Championship rivals Stoke City, according to a report from WalesOnline. It's claimed that Stoke have beaten off other clubs in the race for Matondo, who has rejected the offer of a professional contract to seal a move to the Potteries.

The report also claims that Cardiff are understood to be satisfied with the compensation fee from their Championship rivals. Despite blooding through exciting academy graduates into the first-team in recent years such as Rubin Colwill and Isaak Davies, Cardiff have lost a selection of prospects from their youth set-up too, with Charlie Crew, Gabriele Biancheri and Lewys Benjamin all being cherry-picked by Category One academies.

So too was Matondo's older brother and Welsh international Rabbi, who moved to Manchester City in 2016 and even spent time on loan with Stoke in the 2020/21 campaign. The elder Matondo now plies his trade with Rangers and Stoke-bound Japhet will be looking to emulate his footsteps in the years to come.

Cardiff City receive Mark McGuinness bid

Meanwhile, it has also been reported by Paul Abbandonato that Cardiff have received a £5m bid from an undisclosed club for Mark McGuinness. Despite signing Chambers on a free transfer, the offer is still said to fall short of the valuation that City have for McGuinness, who has been a regular for almost the entirety of his Cardiff career after arriving from Arsenal in 2021.

However, McGuinness may find it difficult to remain as a sure-fire starter for Cardiff amid competition from both Chambers and Dimitrous Goutas, unless Bulut switches to a back three. That still remains possible, of course, but it wouldn't be a huge shock if Cardiff decided to cash in at some stage this summer.