Cardiff boss Dai Young has revealed the club are in the market for a new fly-half with Jarrod Evans and Rhys Priestland set to leave at the end of the season — and Rhys Patchell could be an option.
Evans has signed for English giants Harlequins while Young confirmed former Wales playmaker Rhys Priestland is likely to retire.
But Young is also confident utility back Ben Thomas, who has been linked with the Ospreys, will sign a new contract to remain at the Arms Park next season.
"We don't really want to talk too much about individual contracts but Rhys [Priestland] has made it pretty clear his plan is to retire unless he gets an offer that he can't refuse," said Young.
"We are not in a position to make those offers. Rhys [Priestland] is looking at life after rugby at this moment in time but if there was something that came up, and I think he's talking more about overseas there than staying here in Wales.
"We are pretty confident Ben Thomas will be here for next season. It's well documented Jarrod [Evans] is on his way to west London [Harlequins]. We are certainly in the market looking at 10s that we would bring in next season."
One player who has been linked with the Blue and Blacks is Wales international Patchell, with the utility back set to leave the Scarlets. Young admitted he was a great admirer of Patchell, who previously represented Cardiff between 2011 and 2016.
"He's a quality player, nobody is going to doubt that," said Young when asked if Patchell was a target for Cardiff. "It would be wrong of me to go down that path [of talking about other clubs' players] but without a shadow of a doubt he's a quality player.
"We are in discussions with a lot of our players. We are progressing through our contracts discussions now, we are winning some and losing some but hopefully in the next week to 10 days we can announce some guys who have re-committed to us and there are some guys who can be moving on."
Despite a new six-year deal being signed by the Welsh Rugby Union and the four regions last week, the game remains in a perilous state with huge cutbacks kicking in. All four regions will operate from a playing budget of roughly £5.2million next season which will go do down even further to £4.5m the following year.
In an exclusive interview with WalesOnline, Scarlets general manager of rugby Jon Daniels, who also chairs the Rugby Management Board, insisted everything possible must be done to stop the budgets dropping as low as £4.5m, and Young is in agreement.
"We are all coming down a big chunk next season but none of us are getting anywhere near £4.5m in this transition season," said Young. "It would be difficult for us to get there. To physically get there and maintain a team that's competitive is a real stretch.
"I would agree 100% with Jon [Daniels] that we are all keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn't materialise. We'd like to think we are over the hump. If that is something we have to get to then we'll have problems again."
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