Bournemouth boss gives Kieffer Moore a choice after failed Cardiff City transfer bids

Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola has said it's up to Kieffer Moore if he wants to leave this summer after Cardiff City twice failed to bring him back to the club last season.

Erol Bulut showed tremendous candour when asked about his admiration for Moore last season, stating that he tried to bring him to the Welsh capital in the summer before the move was blocked by Bournemouth and he was keen on signing him again in January.

Cardiff tabled what they thought was a reasonable bid to take Moore on loan in the second half of the campaign, with the Bluebirds still harbouring an outside shot at reaching the play-offs. However, fellow promotion-chasers Ipswich Town made a more attractive offer and the Wales striker headed to East Anglia.

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Sources have refused to rule out another bid for Moore, 31, who netted seven goals for Ipswich on their way to promotion out of the Championship last term. Sign up to our Cardiff City newsletter here.

We understand that a striker is at the top of Cardiff's wish list this summer and the club are keen to sign a player with experience of scoring goals in the Championship. It is also unlikely that Bulut's desire to sign Moore will have waned in recent months, given he showed he can still very much do it at this level with Ipswich.

He does, however, have one more year left on his contract at Bournemouth, who signed him from Cardiff back in January 2022, and would command a transfer fee if he was to leave this summer. But ultimately, Iraola said, the decision will be down to Moore with regards to whether he stays or goes.

Asked about Moore, the Spaniard said: “All the players we have on loan, they will return at the beginning of July. Then in these situations, for me, I always say it, first we have to listen what they want to do.

“If they say ‘I prefer to leave, because here I am not going to have the minutes I want’, then we have to discuss with the clubs, so the money works and everyone is happy.

“They might tell me ‘I want to stay here and fight for the minutes’. They are our players. They’ve played some minutes this season with us and I value them.”

Asked whether he thought Moore could have a future with the Cherries, Iraola replied: “Yes, he could, of course. I am very happy. I am sure he has showed he can score goals.

“He is a very good number nine. But it is very difficult, even for Enes (Unal). Enes is doing very well, and it is difficult for me to give him more minutes, because right now, we have Dom Solanke.

“Dom is playing so well that he is not giving a lot of chances to the other number nines.”

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Bulut has previously made his feelings clear about Moore, the striker who scored 20 league goals during his last full season with the Bluebirds.

While on punditry duty ahead of Wales's game against Turkey in November, Bulut said: "Their striker, Kieffer Moore, plays for Bournemouth, he is tall. He also played in Cardiff before. He scored 20 goals in one season here and was transferred to Bournemouth.

"He is a good striker, he is tall, he can hide the ball well. Moore played against the Croatians He also harassed the defenders a lot."

Back in February, when asked about Cardiff's failed January bid for the centre-forward, Bulut said: "We tried a lot. I know from the board they pushed really hard to get him. His decision was to be with Ipswich, we cannot change it and we have to respect it. I tried hard. The players tried hard, because we had many talks with him. The board tried hard, but in the end it was the decision of the player.

"He decided to be with Ipswich, I don’t know, maybe he gets some extra things there, so he decided to go there."