Reading FC’s Tactics with Clinical Attacker: What Star Players Are Saying
When Cardiff City announced the signing of Adam Le Fondre following their relegation from the Premier League in 2014, there were high expectations, but he never lived up to them. The striker earned a name for himself at Reading, scoring on a regular basis throughout the 2012/13 Premier League season, which contributed to his reputation as a prolific goalscorer.
However, despite a great career that sees Le Fondre still going strong at 37, his time at Cardiff City Stadium was a terrible one, and it is not fondly remembered by the Bluebirds’ fans – in sharp contrast to how he is remembered down the M4 in Reading.
Cardiff City signed Le Fondre on a three-year contract in May 2014 for an undisclosed price, with the forward citing the opportunity to work with Bluebirds manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer as the motivation for his move. The Bluebirds had been demoted from the Premier League earlier that month, and they were not wasting time, as Le Fondre became their fourth acquisition of the summer, with the club plainly eager to return to the Premier League right away.
However, both Le Fondre and Cardiff had poor starts, and after failing to score in his first five games, he was demoted to the bench and deployed as a substitute. He was reinstated to the starting XI in October and paid his manager back by scoring his first goal for the club in a 3-1 victory over Ipswich Town, raising hopes that he would continue his form from the Madjeski Stadium, but it was not to be.
The ex-Reading player would score only two more goals for the club, both of which came against Watford, and after three goals in 23 appearances and with Solksjaer no longer at the club, he was loaned to Championship rivals Bolton in January.
His record improved at Bolton, with eight league goals in the second half of the 2014/15 season, but he had no future at Cardiff and was loaned out to Wolves in the summer of 2015. After a poor spell at Molineux, he was loaned out again in the summer of 2016, this time to Wigan Athletic, but returned to Bolton on loan in January 2017, before being released by the Bluebirds that summer.
His time at Cardiff City did not live up to expectations at all, and in hindsight, it was a mistake by Le Fondre to leave Reading, where he had thrived.
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