By Paul Jones

Cardiff City are set to sign Manchester United defender Will Fish on a permanent transfer, according to reports in Manchester.

The 21-year-old – who made one Premier League appearance for United in the 2020/21 season and has been out on loan in Scotland with Hibernian – is seen by the Bluebirds as a replacement for Luton Town-bound £10m-rated Mark McGuinness.

Fish was of interest to Cardiff manager Erol Bulut in the January transfer window and it appears the Turkish boss has reactivated that interest to pursue a deal.

With McGuinness out of the team as he nears his expected exit, Cardiff have lost the opening two matches of their Championship campaign against Sunderland and Burnley and conceded seven goals.

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Fish made his United debut under former Cardiff manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the age of 17, but has been able to sustain that breakthrough.

He went out on loan to Hibs for the past two seasons and made 65 appearances.

Fish went on United’s’ pre-season tour but was expected to make a permanent exit with defenders Lenny Yoro and Matthijs de Ligt joining the club this summer for a combined fee of over £100m.

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After Hibs finished eighth last season and missed out on Europe, Fish admitted in an interview, “My focus this season was to come back here and do the best for the club. And I feel like I’ve failed.

“The team are in the bottom six and I’ve played in a lot of the games, so I need to have a look at myself. And that hurts, as well.

“Everyone in that changing room will learn from it. In football, you never want to have days like this. But you need to have these moments to enjoy the good times. It’s going to hurt us, and we apologise to the fans as well because we feel their backing every week. It will hurt them just as much as us. It’s tough to take and we apologise.

“It’s a sickener. It’s going to take a while to digest. I mean, we’ve thrown away too many good opportunities this season. It’s just naïve. And ultimately it has cost us a place in the top six. It’s hard to say more right now, but it’s a tough one to take.”

In addition to signing Fish, Cardiff are also finalising the transfer of Norwegian under-21 defender Jesper Daland from Cercle Brugge for a fee of around £3.5m.

Appreciate it was a tough weekend, but today marks the start of a busy week.

– Jesper Daland has travelled to Cardiff ahead of sealing his move
– Mark McGuinness set to complete his switch to Luton
– Club desperate for striker with money added to pothttps://t.co/DH7X7VPHEx pic.twitter.com/ukcIfMlKgq

— Glen Williams (@GlenWilliams12) August 19, 2024

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