Matthews rumour hotting up

Chairman Peter Ridsdale must have read the South Wales Echo this morning and wished if one story was ever true, is was the one, the race to sign Adam Matthews is stepping up according to the paper.

As well as Manchester United and Arsenal, showing interest in the young Cardiff City defender Tottenham and Aston Villa are reported to be monitoring Matthews. With the club in need of money there would be little stand in the away of a deal if any of the clubs were to up their interest. Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp had Mattews watched at Bristol City on Tuesday.

Matthews is valued at £4million by Cardiff and normal that would be a fix price but surely, a bidding war would be healthy. The only question is will any of the teams mentioned break cover and put in a tempting bid. Cardiff are also talking about a new contract with the 18-year-old and his representative while his 20th first team appearance on Tuesday night triggered a £30,000 bonus payment for him. The payment as been earned on merit since he broke into the first team and can be seen by the number of top teams watching him. There should be a number of scouts out tomorrow at Scunthorpe to watch him, if he is picked.

Ridsdale said, “We have been in talks with Adam and his representative for several weeks and we want to get the new deal agreed as soon as possible.
“I can’t say for certain if any of our players will leave during the January transfer window.
“Of course we are aware of interest in Adam. We want him to remain, but if a Manchester United or Arsenal offered silly money, we might find it hard to stand in Adam’s way.
“Let’s wait and see what happens.”

While all this talk is in the atmosphere Cardiff City boss Dave Jones has put a bit of a brake on the talk by saying it could be a bit soon for a move into the Premiership for the player. I tend to agree with the Cardiff boss, Matthews would likely find he would be playing reserve team football or loaned out while if he was to stay with Cardiff he as more than a great chance of prolonged first team football.

The player himself is putting all the rumours behind him and getting on with it and working hard to keep in Dave Jones plans, asked about his future he said, “I simply ignore the speculation and carry on playing the best I can for Cardiff.
“When you hear some the clubs being mentioned in connection with you, it is difficult. And, of course, every footballer wants to play in the Premier League.
“But I’m at Cardiff and still learning the game. The only thing in my thoughts is to train and play as best as I can for Cardiff.”

Everyone will just have to wait and see how this all play’s out but if nothing does happen this transfer window, Matthews could be the big story of the summer.