Cardiff City will be watching Burnley situation closely as club brace for transfer scrap

Cardiff City will once again come up against Burnley this season following the Lancashire club's relegation from the Premier League – and there is a good chance there will be a familiar face in the opposition dugout.

Burnley boss Vincent Kompany was prised away from Turf Moor by German giants Bayern Munich, however his assistant, ex-Cardiff star Craig Bellamy, has not travelled with him to Munich.

Instead, Bellamy is in the running to succeed Kompany at Burnley, with the bookmakers currently placing him third favourite, with Frank Lampard and Liam Rosenior ahead of him.

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Make no mistake, the Bluebirds will be keeping a keen eye on how that situation unfolds at Burnley, particularly given the season Isaak Davies has just enjoyed out on loan in the Belgian top flight.

Bellamy is a known admirer of Davies and was the architect behind Burnley lodging a £2.5m bid for his services two summers ago. Cardiff held firm on that occasion, knowing the 22-year-old had bags of potential and pace to burn – something of a rarity when it comes to Bluebirds players in recent years.

An injury-hit 2022/23 followed for the former Wales youth international, though, and he managed just 10 Championship appearances as the club scrapped to maintain their Championship status. Following Erol Bulut's appointment last summer, it was deemed to be best for everyone if a suitable loan move away was found.

And Davies enjoyed a fruitful season on a personal note with KV Kortrijk, winning the club's golden boot with 12 goals and enjoying a consistent string of games, leading the line and making match-winning contributions, something Cardiff will deem invaluable as they welcome him back this summer.

Of course, Bellamy knows all about the quality of the Belgian league, having assisted Kompany at Anderlecht before taking the Burnley job. There will be some Cardiff fans who won't be entirely convinced until Davies does it in the Championship on a consistent level – and that is understandable to an extent.

But the majority of supporters in the Welsh capital are excited by what Davies, a player who has already been at the club for the best part of 15 years, can do next season. Sign up to our Cardiff City newsletter here.

Cardiff, though, will be aware that Davies has announced himself properly over in Belgium and has shown maturity and quality in leading the Kortrijk attack over the last year. Indeed, they will be braced for transfer interest, with Monaco, Freiburg and Antwerp all having been named as clubs who are taking a look at the striker this summer.

You can almost certainly add Burnley to that list, too, if Bellamy gets the job. But Bulut has already made his feelings clear with regards to Davies, saying back in March: "Davies is doing really well in Kortrijk and I think in the new season he will be helpful for Cardiff City.

"He is a quick, skilful striker. You can use him has a second striker, you can use him as a winger. I think, for the new season, he can be a positive one for Cardiff."

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The club will take a pragmatic approach when it comes to drumming up transfer funds this summer, we are told, with a number of players earmarked as assets and the club wanting to pump money back in after being so poor in terms of selling players for profit in recent years.

But Davies himself will surely feel he has unfinished business with Cardiff. He endured rotten injury luck before his loan away and will now doubtless want to prove himself to the Bluebirds faithful.

"I've always known I'm quite an aggressive player, the runs I make, getting into duels," he told WalesOnline when asked about his loan stint. "Just having that game-time and repetition every week to show what I can do. That's been the biggest thing for me, showing everyone what I can actually do with a run of games."

Well, he has shown everyone on the continent just what he can do and Cardiff, no doubt, will have to hold firm amid interest from other clubs if they are to allow him to flourish next season.