Cardiff City will still be haunted by £8m flop who earned £45k-a-week: View | OneFootball

Cardiff City broke their transfer record to sign Andreas Cornelius in the summer of 2013, although they have lived to regret doing so

Cardiff City may be focusing on getting the best out of their current crop, but the nagging feeling of haunt and regret still lingers in the air a decade on from the signing of Andreas Cornelius.

The financial purse-strings have been tightened in the Welsh capital during recent years for myriad reasons, with the economic ramifications brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing legal battle with FC Nantes regarding payment for Emiliano Sala, the conclusion of mandated three-year parachute payments after failing to return to the Premier League following relegation in 2019 and, of course, the vast sums of money which have been squandered with ill-fated transfers.

Despite showing glimpses of real quality, Josh Murphy never consistently justified the sizable £11 million figure which Cardiff paid to Norwich City in the summer of 2018.

Gary Madine, meanwhile, who signed just six months earlier under Neil Warnock, failed to score a single goal for Cardiff across 28 outings after arriving in a deal worth up to £6 million from Bolton Wanderers.

However, the transfer of Cornelius in July 2013 still haunts Cardiff to this day. According to reports, Cardiff paid a then-club record £8 million fee - rising to just under £11 million with add-on clauses - to acquire the striker, who was regarded among the finest emerging talents in Scandanvia.

Cornelius, then 20, had scored 20 goals across all competitions for FC Copenhagen in the previous season, but Cardiff never saw any replication of that goalscoring form and he headed back to his homeland after just six miserable months.

Andreas Cornelius was an £8m Cardiff City disaster

The costly arrival divided a lot of opinion across a club which was already in disarray at the time, with controversial owner Vincent Tan branding Malky Mackay an "idiot" for making Cornelius his first signing of the window ahead of Cardiff's historic first-ever Premier League season.

Cornelius, who was believed to be earning just £6,000-a-week in Denmark, reportedly received a bumper £45,000 weekly salary upon arriving at Cardiff. The wage bill skyrocketed following Cornelius' arrival and Cardiff never saw any return on their investment.

"It was unfortunate that we only stayed in the Premier League for one season," said Tan back in 2017.

"You know the main reason, I always say, and I have told Mehmet [Dalman, Cardiff's chairman] the same, is that we spent a lot of money there - I think it was £50 million

"What did we get? We paid £10.5 million for Cornelius who didn't even play 45 minutes and then the manager said he was a project.

"I'm in the Premier League, I need to survive. What an idiot he [Mackay] is."

"You pay for a big striker £10.5 million you should play him 90 minutes, not 45 minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes. Because he's a project he [Mackay] says, finally, he says he [Cornelius] is a project.

"How come I'm in the Premier League and you're finding time to do a project for the future? What rubbish is that? And you pay £45,000 a week for a project? Rubbish!

"If you do that he must score 10 or 20 goals. We had one not even play 90 minutes and paid the highest salary in the club's history - £45,000 a week.

"I can't believe it even still today."

Whether Cardiff should have persisted longer with Cornelius, who has enjoyed a solid career since, is a divisive school of thought, but it cannot be disputed that the deal was a blunder which still aches to some degree today.

Fortune was not on the side of Cornelius, and he suffered two consecutive ankle injuries during his brief stay at the club. Those setbacks significantly limited his involvement, as he would go on to make just 11 appearances between August and January while failing to make a single start in the Premier League.

Cornelius did not find the back of the net in any of those 11 outings, swiftly epitomising the failings of Cardiff, Tan and Mackay that summer. He has, however, achieved success elsewhere - though that may just make it sting even more for the Bluebirds.

Andreas Cornelius' career after leaving Cardiff City

Cornelius was shipped out on January deadline day, rejoining FC Copenhagen permanently in a reported £3 million deal to see him head back to Denmark while marking a significant financial loss for Cardiff.

Following a few patchy seasons, Cornelius eventually rediscovered his long-lost goalscoring touch by recording 21 strikes across all competitions - including six in the UEFA Champions League - during the 2016/17 campaign, promptly earning a move to Atalanta.

It never quite worked out for Cornelius in Bergamo, spending just one season there before heading out on loan to Bordeaux for the 2018/19 term. He scored ten goals across those two seasons, but still seemingly provided enough evidence for Parma to take a punt on him, keeping Cornelius in the top-flight of Italian football.

Cornelius scored 12 times in Serie A during his first season with the club and although the goals dried up the following year, they were once again rediscovered in style.

After joining Turkish giants Trabzonspor in 2021, Cornelius, who was playing alongside the likes of Marek Hamsik, Gervinho and even current Cardiff midfielder Manolis Siopis at the time, finished as the side's top scorer with 15 league goals to help them to a first Super Lig title in more than 30 years.

The striker is now back for the third time with Copenhagen at the age of 31, and his career does appear to have hit a standstill once again. It has been one marked by inconsistency and continued redemption, with Cornelius' goalscoring form invariably fluctuating throughout his career.

Cornelius has also forged out a respectable career on the international stage, earning 46 caps for Denmark, scoring 13 goals and playing at both the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups. It is, of course, a stark contrast to his time at Cardiff, who still rue the transfer to this very day and with good reason.