Cardiff City are closing in on the appointment of Brian Barry-Murphy as their latest manager, which will bring the near two-month long hunt for Omer Riza’s successor to an end.
It was reported by Sky Sports earlier this week that the Bluebirds are on the verge of an agreement to bring in the Irish coach for next season.
The 46-year-old will be aiming to build a team capable of guiding the Welsh outfit back to the Championship at the first attempt after their relegation to League One.
The summer transfer market will be key, and one decision he will likely have to make is regarding the future of loanee Will Alves from Leicester City.
Cardiff City, Will Alves loan claim issued after brief 2024-25 stint
On deadline day of the winter transfer window back in February, Cardiff announced the addition of Alves for the rest of the season, with game-time much needed after recovering from a torn ACL the year prior.
At the time of his signing for the Bluebirds, the then-19-year-old had only played in 16 matches – four of those for Leicester’s first-team – since he’d recovered from his lengthy period on the sidelines, and he found it difficult to make a huge impact at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Alves played 14 times for Cardiff, starting in eight of those outings, and he managed to register four goal contributions in that time – he was however hooked after just 33 minutes in his final appearance against Norwich City in what was a tactical change after going down to 10 men.
When asked whether Alves should return to the club for next season, with incoming manager Barry-Murphy knowing all about Alves from his time at Leicester as assistant coach, FLW’s Cardiff fan pundit Matt Hall claimed he isn’t needed.
He believes the winger didn’t perform well enough for the Bluebirds last season, and that they now have enough young prospects in that part of the pitch without bringing in someone that would take up a valuable loan spot.
“It’s an interesting link because obviously Will probably was a bit too raw for us at the time he came in,” Hall told Football League World.
“I’m a bit conflicted. I don’t think we probably were the right environment for him at the time. He showed talent but he was quite a frustrating player – I think he needed to simplify his game a lot more.
| Will Alves – Cardiff City league goals and appearances (per Fbref.com) | ||||
| Season | Appearances (Starts) | Goals (Assists) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 14 (8) | 1 (3) | ||
“Would he be necessarily what we need? I would probably lean towards saying no, I think there will be other clubs that would be better off having him as a young player.
“But, you’re looking at our squad next season, we’re going to have a very young side anyway, we’ve got most of our wingers that are young, bar [Chris] Willock, and pretty much adding a young loan winger would maybe push it a little bit much, especially someone who is as raw as Alves.
“If, let’s just say it wasn’t to go to plan, like his initial loan, then you’ve got another young player that’s a bit frustrating, takes up a loan spot, and blocks the pathway to one of our players.
“So, for example, we’ve got [Tanatswa] Nyakuhwa, he made his debut at Norwich, young winger, really highly rated, was linked to Atalanta in January.
“You could argue, would you rather give him a chance than loan someone who didn’t necessarily impress a huge amount during his time here?
“I would probably be in that camp.
“My only exception is if Barry-Murphy himself feels like he can see something in Alves that would suit his system, then I would be all for it but, my instinct would be probably to stay away.”
Will Alves would benefit from regular starts next season – he likely wouldn’t get that at Cardiff City
Barry-Murphy will know Alves from his time as a coach at Leicester, so perhaps there’s a connection there that could help him fit in better with Cardiff than he did last season, as well as the drop in divisional quality.
However, his performances while on loan last season weren’t good enough on the whole, even if he did show flashes of his quality at times.
Given the other players coming through the ranks, like Cian Ashford and the aforementioned Nyakuhwa, the Welsh outfit would be better off utilising their loan spots elsewhere.
