Cardiff City have been relegated to League One - These 2 players could follow Yousef Salech out of the exit door | OneFootball

Football League World looks at three players who could leave Cardiff City after their relegation to League One was confirmed over the weekend

For the first time since its inception more than 20 years ago, Cardiff City will be playing League One football in the 2025/26 campaign after becoming the first team to be relegated from the Championship this season.

It has been a torrid old term in the Welsh capital, with the club's historic 125-year anniversary tainted by a first relegation to English football's third-tier since 1985. Cardiff made their worst-ever start to a league campaign under Erol Bulut and lost five of their opening six matches before the Turkish boss was dismissed back in September, but they never truly recovered from such a wretched induction as Omer Riza failed to see out the season.

Caretaker boss Aaron Ramsey, who was placed in charge of Cardiff's final three matches, also found himself unable to propel the Bluebirds away from relegation, and their fate was officially sealed on Saturday when they were held to an agonising 0-0 draw at home to West Bromwich Albion on an afternoon which saw relegation rivals in Luton Town and Derby County both pick up three points apiece.

Cardiff's final day trip to Norwich City now represents a complete dead-rubber affair, and the Bluebirds must - although one would suspect otherwise - be scheming and strategising for next season in League One. A squad rebuild is sorely needed for a club desperate to finally hit the reset button, and there are a number of players you would not bank on seeing in the third-tier come August.

With that in mind, Football League World looks at three players who could be poised to leave the Cardiff City Stadium in the coming weeks and months...

Yousef Salech

On the basis of his blistering displays since arriving from Swedish side Sirius only this January in a deal worth up to an eventual £3.3 million figure, it would be little surprise to see Yousef Salech emerge as one of the first players out of the exit door this summer.

The towering Danish-born frontman has been a revelation throughout the second-half of the season, hitting the ground running in remarkable fashion and offering Cardiff a tangible shot of survival all the way up until matchday 45.

A powerful physical presence, Salech's ability to aerially dominate nigh on any opposition defender in his path while freeing up space for others and linking play is remarkable. He continually fashions out opportunities for himself but also has a knack of arriving in the right places at the right time, and has returned six goals from 19 Championship appearances and 13 starts across just 1,187 minutes, equating to 0.45 strikes per 90 minutes.

The 23-year-old's seamless adaptation to the rigors of Championship football, leading the line in a struggling side with limited service around him, while transitioning to a new country and culture, is mightily impressive and makes you wonder just how better off Cardiff would be had they been able to call upon his services all year long, or alternatively, what exactly Salech could do in a more competitive team.

He is simply too good for League One, and both Cardiff and others are sure to realise that. The slither of hope is that Salech has already established himself as a fan favourite, is one of the very few players deemed by supporters to "get it" and spoke of his desire to stay at Cardiff for a long time in the wake of the side's 1-1 Easter Monday home draw with Oxford United, a result which left them staring down the barrel of relegation.

Visibly distraught in the immediate aftermath of Cardiff's relegation to League One over the weekend, there will be the hope that Salech fancies a full season and is up for the mission of getting the Bluebirds back to the second-tier at the very first time of asking.

However, given his explosive start to life as a Cardiff player, City would arguably do pretty well to keep hold of him beyond this summer. They are, mind you, helped by the fact Salech is under contract until the summer of 2029, meaning a handsome fee will likely be collected for the striker if he does indeed depart.

Alex Robertson

One player who many fear will follow Salech out of the club is Alex Robertson, who has been one of very few positives and a rare outlier for the right reasons in a summer marked by mismatched recruitment following his arrival from Manchester City for an initial £1 million outlay.

The Aussie midfielder was routinely exceptional during the first-half of the season, finding himself liberated by an initial, and often, less-pragmatic approach from Riza as opposed to the approach of Bulut.

He has enjoyed a largely impressive campaign, even if performance and consistency levels just appear to have dipped somewhat after spending some time on the sidelines following the turn of the year. Perhaps not coincidentally, Robertson's own dip has dovetailed with Cardiff's plunge in form, outlining the gravity of his importance to the side.

Capable of breaking up, dictating and accelerating play with a composed and classy range of passing beyond his youthful years, the 22-year-old boasts enormous talent and potential and Cardiff will be eager to retain his services for the long-run after tying him down to a four-year contract last summer.

Robertson, however, has already strutted his stuff at League One level and excelled in the first-half of Portsmouth's 2023/24 title-winning campaign on loan before seeing his season cut short by injury.

Whether he will fancy heading back down to the third-tier after giving such a strong account of himself in both League One and the Championship over the last two seasons remains to be seen, and he will be expected to have an array of suitors.

Calum Chambers

Calum Chambers, meanwhile, may not have the added incentive of age and future potential on his side akin to Salech and Robertson, but his proven pedigree and experience could be equally encouraging as the vultures prepare to circle at Cardiff.

The free transfer acquisition of Chambers last summer in the wake of his exit from Aston Villa appeared to represent a real coup. After all, the three-cap former England international, who chalked up more than 100 appearances for Arsenal between 2014 and 2022, had not once played below the Premier League before joining Cardiff.

The prospect of him staying put in League One, then, is most certainly up for debate.

Initially signed to play in the centre of defence, Chambers struggled for consistency in his opening months with the club but was notably revolutionised in a sense by being moved into a more-accommodating holding midfield role, the same position which saw him win Fulham's 2018/19 Player of the Year award while on loan at Craven Cottage.

For the most part, the 30-year-old has been solid and assured this season. More may have been expected in a way, but he has still performed adequately enough to vacate the Championship - for the time being, at least - with his head held high.