Cardiff City's pursuit of Arsenal centre-back Auston Trusty was frustratingly halted due to new international loan rules, WalesOnline has learned.
The Bluebirds have been eager to add a centre-back in this window and were in the loan market for a left-footed centre-back in particular, with those sort of players coming at a premium.
It is understood Cardiff had profiled USA under-23s international Trusty for more than a year and were suitably impressed and were growing confident of landing his signature. The Bluebirds held positive talks with Arsenal as well as the player's representatives and were of the belief they were leading the race for the 23-year-old and Cardiff was the preferred destination.
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Arsenal are understood to have been pleased with the direction in which Cardiff were going this season and the manner in which they looked after their loan players last year, with everything seemingly pointing towards a deal being struck for the player.
However, on Thursday Birmingham City announced that had won the race for the defender's signature.
Cardiff appear to have fallen victim to a new FIFA transfer ruling which inhibits their ability to sign loan players due to them essentially being branded a "foreign" loan. FIFA's new rule, which came into effect on July 1 this year, states a club can only loan a maximum of eight players aged 21 or over to different associations at any one time and the same applies to the number which can be loaned in. The problem is set to be compounded in the coming years, with the maximum dropping to seven in 2023/24. It will then be cut to six indefinitely from 2024/25.
In practice, this means big Premier League clubs, who naturally have a high number of players out on loan, are likely to be more reticent about committing to loaning players to Welsh clubs if there are English alternatives. As we have previously reported, it's believed two potential Cardiff loan signings this summer have already stalled because of the ruling.
And we can now reveal Trusty was one of the those targets. The Gunners were open to sending the defender to Cardiff, however, given their huge squad, the international loan spaces available to them are valuable and they believed the more logical option was to allow him to join Birmingham on loan.
Cardiff sources have stated the club are understandably frustrated with the ruling, but stress there is no ill-feeling towards Arsenal's decision.
It means Cardiff have had to turn their attention elsewhere to bolster in that department, with West Brom defender Cedric Kipre understood to be nearing a loan switch to City.
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