Players you thought would be great but turned out to be...

[Der Kaiser]

Richard Langley.

I got drilled straight in the face whilst sat in the family stand by a pre-match warmup free kick that went well wide of the goal as a 7/8 year old by that ****er, took me off my seat. Imagine for anyone who saw that it was his best contribution he made whilst with us.

Least I got given a kitkat by a kind steward

[Der Kaiser]

I'll see your Rickie Lambert and raise you:

Kevin Campbell, Emyr Huws, Adam Le Fondre, Bobby Reid (tho not his fault), Gabriel Tamas, Guido Burgstaller, Mats Moeller Daehli, Danny Drinkwater, Kelvin Etuhu, Eddie Johnson, Michael Ricketts and the ultimate wild card, Brad Smith!

How very dare you, he was worth his time just for the 'USA' chanting and 'I saw Eddie score' badges

[jon1959]

How very dare you, he was worth his time just for the 'USA' chanting and 'I saw Eddie score' badges

Fair enough. I will withdraw my Eddie Johnson and substitute 'Dave'. The hopes I had for him.....

[the other bob wilson]

Callum Robinson has been a good Championship player for a decade and for some of that time, he wasn’t a bad Premier League one either He’s played just short of forty games for Ireland and is scoring at a rate of one in every four which isn’t bad - I’m not aware of any reputation he had for trouble marking as well.

Robinson was a good player until he came to Cardiff and, apart from showing he was a crap penalty taker, wasnt doing too badly last season before the injury which ended it for him.

He’s had a poor season this time around though no doubt about that and I don’t think he’s been putting the effort in either (again, I’m unaware of this being a criticism of him in the past). Supporters tend not to take the possibility of off field issues into account when judging players, so let’s include the possibility that there may be non footballing reasons for the fact that he’s barely made an impact this season, but there’s an elephant in the room which has to be mentioned - we have a manager that criticised him in public in the autumn, has rowed with him during matches, spoken vaguely of injuries and illness to Robinson that kept him out of the first team picture for months and now he’s dropped him for disciplinary reasons.

Maybe Robinson deserves the treatment he’s received from Erol Bulut, but I can’t help thinking he wouldn’t be appearing in this thread if we had a different manager.

[PontBlue]

Diedhiou. He was class for the Wurzels. I didn't necessarily expect him to hit those heights but he's been truly awful.

Any forward would be awful in our anti-angeball setup

[dandywarhol]

Lynex and Chandler and the New Zealand players

[LA Bluebird]

A trio of big money signings our first season in the Prem spring to mind here, I was convinced that Medel, Caulker and Cornelius would absolutely do the business for us. Medel and Caulker were decent but downed tools at some point, the less said about Cornelius the better.

[Wales-Bales]

...not so great (you thought I was going to say sh*t didn't you?)

You should do a hit or miss thread at the beginning of the season.

[City123]

I was pretty pleased when we signed Bowler, he's hardly hit the heights expected. I thought Ebou Adams would be a good signing, having seen him play I think it's clear he wasn't

I thought Benkovic was a really good piece of business on loan. He was horrendous in his one appearance at Wycombe

[splott parker]

Fan Zhiyi, decent crowd at a reserve game to see his City debut. Not much to write home about.

[Citizen's Nephew]

I was pretty pleased when we signed Bowler, he's hardly hit the heights expected. I thought Ebou Adams would be a good signing, having seen him play I think it's clear he wasn't

I thought Benkovic was a really good piece of business on loan. He was horrendous in his one appearance at Wycombe

Yeah, I really went for bigging Benkovic up and had a good old joust with Pedro over him who called it straight away. Another one of my failures for us.

[Citizen's Nephew]

Ricketts gets a raw deal in my opinion, he scored a few and brought Jerome on a treat, very similar players. Yes, he was fat and had lost a yard or so, but in my opinion he still showed enough for me to believe that he did half decent. Daehli-What was that all about?

He was good in my FIFA team. I think he was one of the only Cardiff players who was gold level. They got his weight wrong in the stats.

[Wash DC Blue]

Richard Langley.

That would be my choice too.

[olderblue]

Callum Robinson has been a good Championship player for a decade and for some of that time, he wasn’t a bad Premier League one either He’s played just short of forty games for Ireland and is scoring at a rate of one in every four which isn’t bad - I’m not aware of any reputation he had for trouble marking as well.

Robinson was a good player until he came to Cardiff and, apart from showing he was a crap penalty taker, wasnt doing too badly last season before the injury which ended it for him.

He’s had a poor season this time around though no doubt about that and I don’t think he’s been putting the effort in either (again, I’m unaware of this being a criticism of him in the past). Supporters tend not to take the possibility of off field issues into account when judging players, so let’s include the possibility that there may be non footballing reasons for the fact that he’s barely made an impact this season, but there’s an elephant in the room which has to be mentioned - we have a manager that criticised him in public in the autumn, has rowed with him during matches, spoken vaguely of injuries and illness to Robinson that kept him out of the first team picture for months and now he’s dropped him for disciplinary reasons.

Maybe Robinson deserves the treatment he’s received from Erol Bulut, but I can’t help thinking he wouldn’t be appearing in this thread if we had a different manager.

Great point about the off field activities that players could be involved in?
I wonder how much clubs put into looking after their assets?
There’s always stories around over players who find themselves in financial difficulties because of gambling addictions etc
Wether it’s Gambling, excessive alcohol, drugs, laughing gas chasing other blokes wife’s there are lots of temptations for a lot of players, with a lethal combination of too much time and lots of money at an early age
It’s easy to see how some get involved in some of the things listed.
I doubt too many agents are particularly interested in these things, probably more interested in helping move the players on, on a regular basis?

I don’t know what the answer is, but in an industry that spends millions of pounds annually on new assets, I’d have a team of people who are experts in all sorts of fields from sports psychology to financial expertise at the club to help minimise these problems if it was my money involved!!!!

I guess doing a bit of due diligence on a player before signing him would help beforehand

For me Madine has to be the biggest waste of time and money in recent years

[Bobby Dandruff]

I think that a common mistake us fans make is that when we see a player produce a moment of brilliance like Tanner did against Swansea, we can automatically think that they can do it on a regular basis, or the equivalent of on a consistent basis. They can't, and that's the difference between good players and average to poor, Consistency. Also, good players find a way to show quality. That doesn't mean that they wouldn't show more in a team where things are in their favour for their ability to show through, but nevertheless, they still show it, because good players usually have a brain.

One thing I hate on here is the excuses trotted out for players who don't perform or who continue to make the same mistakes time after time. It really is in them. We have all seen good players in poor teams over the years and they still stand out, they still make a difference, they have that intelligence and ability as well as work rate. And I would also say that good players don't make excuses or blame others , because that's a weakness of character. Taking responsibility is up there with the highest of talents, and that's what the best players do, or anyone that's any good in their field.

Well said Dennis.

[Bobby Dandruff]

Callum Robinson has been a good Championship player for a decade and for some of that time, he wasn’t a bad Premier League one either He’s played just short of forty games for Ireland and is scoring at a rate of one in every four which isn’t bad - I’m not aware of any reputation he had for trouble marking as well.

Robinson was a good player until he came to Cardiff and, apart from showing he was a crap penalty taker, wasnt doing too badly last season before the injury which ended it for him.

He’s had a poor season this time around though no doubt about that and I don’t think he’s been putting the effort in either (again, I’m unaware of this being a criticism of him in the past). Supporters tend not to take the possibility of off field issues into account when judging players, so let’s include the possibility that there may be non footballing reasons for the fact that he’s barely made an impact this season, but there’s an elephant in the room which has to be mentioned - we have a manager that criticised him in public in the autumn, has rowed with him during matches, spoken vaguely of injuries and illness to Robinson that kept him out of the first team picture for months and now he’s dropped him for disciplinary reasons.

Maybe Robinson deserves the treatment he’s received from Erol Bulut, but I can’t help thinking he wouldn’t be appearing in this thread if we had a different manager.

The point about (uncontrollable at least) off field factors is a good one, as I learned from listening to an interview with Mark Hudson.

That said, for a humble fan, it can often feel like excuses, when some those factors are largely brought upon the players by themselves.

[Bobby Dandruff]

...not so great (you thought I was going to say sh*t didn't you?)

This season: Tanner. I championed him after pre-season and his Swansea goal but I think he's pretty awful now. Got that one wrong. Spectacularly. Also noticed he has 'Bluebirds' on one boot and 'CCFC' on the other. Don't know why it does but I just think it's a bit naff.

Wintle: after his run at Blackpool and when he came back he looked like a new signing imo. Since then, I think he's terrible and his set-pieces are an embarrassment to football. I wrote ages ago that he should never, ever, ever take a corner again in the professional game. I think Taylor Swift should write a song about him.

This could be a long thread…..

[jon1959]

Great point about the off field activities that players could be involved in?
I wonder how much clubs put into looking after their assets?
There’s always stories around over players who find themselves in financial difficulties because of gambling addictions etc
Wether it’s Gambling, excessive alcohol, drugs, laughing gas chasing other blokes wife’s there are lots of temptations for a lot of players, with a lethal combination of too much time and lots of money at an early age
It’s easy to see how some get involved in some of the things listed.
I doubt too many agents are particularly interested in these things, probably more interested in helping move the players on, on a regular basis?

I don’t know what the answer is, but in an industry that spends millions of pounds annually on new assets, I’d have a team of people who are experts in all sorts of fields from sports psychology to financial expertise at the club to help minimise these problems if it was my money involved!!!!

I guess doing a bit of due diligence on a player before signing him would help beforehand

For me Madine has to be the biggest waste of time and money in recent years

Excellent post.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Great point about the off field activities that players could be involved in?
I wonder how much clubs put into looking after their assets?
There’s always stories around over players who find themselves in financial difficulties because of gambling addictions etc
Wether it’s Gambling, excessive alcohol, drugs, laughing gas chasing other blokes wife’s there are lots of temptations for a lot of players, with a lethal combination of too much time and lots of money at an early age
It’s easy to see how some get involved in some of the things listed.
I doubt too many agents are particularly interested in these things, probably more interested in helping move the players on, on a regular basis?

I don’t know what the answer is, but in an industry that spends millions of pounds annually on new assets, I’d have a team of people who are experts in all sorts of fields from sports psychology to financial expertise at the club to help minimise these problems if it was my money involved!!!!

I guess doing a bit of due diligence on a player before signing him would help beforehand

For me Madine has to be the biggest waste of time and money in recent years

Didn't we have one poster who claimed that Madine's flick on for Pilkington to score at Sheff Utd was worth the transfer fee alone as it helped win promotion?

[Nobody's Rep]

Didn't we have one poster who claimed that Madine's flick on for Pilkington to score at Sheff Utd was worth the transfer fee alone as it helped win promotion?

Different thread or topic 🤔 know but always thought pilkington was hard done by with other managers other than Slade - never felt he let us down whenever he was asked to play

Madine though - gash 😂

The 17 foot German we signed for me tops the list - I was young and easily wooed - always something romantic about signing a foreign player that it is guaranteed that they will be good but alas a litany of players prove this romantic wrong

[Bobby Dandruff]

Didn't we have one poster who claimed that Madine's flick on for Pilkington to score at Sheff Utd was worth the transfer fee alone as it helped win promotion?

Yes! Unbelievable……

[Moodybluebird]

Alan 'Fatty' Foggon.

[Sloop_Jon_Bee]

Josh Murphy

[DubaiDai]

100% that’s it, never felt so underwhelmed watching someone.

Turnbull. Unable to make the starting eleven after a £2M transfer

[Mr Soul '68]

There have been dozens over the years for me, right from Nigel Rees who crossed the ball for THAT goal from Clarkie, through Tony Villars and onwards (or downwards or sideways if you were the player concerned) through to Joss Murphy. I've not really expected much from our squad apart from Colwill.