Cardiff City: Bristol City evidence shows that £50k gamble could be a masterstroke - View | OneFootball

Cardiff City forked out just £50k to acquire Ollie Tanner two years ago, but the signs are that they may have hit the jackpot

Cardiff City gambled on Ollie Tanner in the summer of 2022, and the current evidence suggests that their punt is set to truly bear fruit.

The Bluebirds have endured a miserable start to the 2024/25 Championship campaign, and they remain rooted to the foot of the division after eight matches, despite collecting four points from their last two.

Cardiff lost six of their opening seven fixtures amid the sacking of Erol Bulut, who was handed his marching orders just three months into the fresh two-year contract he penned back in the summer after claiming just one point across six outings with a 1-1 draw away to rivals Swansea City on the third matchweek.

Omer Riza remains at the helm for the time being moving into October's international break, though Cardiff will likely hope to have a new permanent manager in place - their 12th in just 14 years - by the time of conclusion. Riza has divided opinion among supporters during his three games in charge, which have returned a win, a draw and a loss.

Of course, Cardiff's latest result was a 1-1 draw in Sunday afternoon's Severnside Derby showdown at Bristol City, where the visitors should really have come away with all three points.

Tanner, El Ghazi and Rubin Colwill all spurned glorious chances and Riza opted for a pragmatic approach with five defenders at the back despite Cardiff having taken the lead and asserted a spell of dominance.

Much to the dismay of travelling fans, they were pegged back by a header from Luke McNally 17 minutes from time and had to settle for a draw. However, Tanner's wonderstrike to fire his side into the lead has handed Cardiff some green shoots of positivity - and the winger is looking like more and more of a bargain by each passing game.

Ollie Tanner's performance for Cardiff City against Bristol City

Riza decided to elect an unchanged eleven from the side which returned their first victory after eight attempts against Millwall on Tuesday evening, which saw Tanner retain his starting spot.

His place in the side may just prove hard to wrestle away now. Tanner impressed in the 1-0 win over Millwall with his dogged determination, directness and relentless pressing out-of-possession, but his efforts were duly rewarded with a goal at Ashton Gate.

Tanner, who has a penchant for providing when it matters most on Derby Day, opened the scoring after 54 minutes with a delightful solo effort just over a year on from that torrential evening in the Welsh capital against Swansea - where he scored his first professional goal and then won the penalty to ensure a famous 2-0 victory for Cardiff.

After receiving the ball from Colwill, Tanner chopped inside from the right and then cut back in onto his right-foot, sending both Scott Twine and Anis Mehmeti the wrong way before firing an emphatic strike into the top corner. It was déjà vu for all the right reasons, as Tanner subsequently performed an impassioned knee-slide in front of the Cardiff end.

Indeed, Tanner will have felt disappointed in failing to score a second just moments after when Colwill played the ball across the box, though his effort waywardly fell far wide of the mark. Nonetheless, it marked yet another inspirational display from Tanner, who was electric all afternoon and has sought to disprove doubters after an inconsistent first full season with the club last time out.

The 22-year-old showed real promise on occasion but was often found wanting in the way of end product, with Bulut primarily utilising him as an impact substitute. Certain supporters had simply felt as though Tanner's reputation was living off his exploits from last season's South Wales Derby exploits, but those heroics have been repeated and they could yield even greater reward.

Cardiff City's Ollie Tanner signing is becoming a masterstroke

Tanner secured his first real taste of the professional game when Cardiff gambled by picking him from Isthmian League Premier Division outfit Lewes for a £50,000 outlay in the summer of 2022.

The winger had established his reputation as a burgeoning young talent within the non-league game, having scored 13 times across the previous season. According to reports, Cardiff successfully fought off competition from Brighton and Swansea for Tanner, who had also infamously come close to signing for Tottenham Hotspur just months earlier.

It appeared a real coup in many respects, and that is how the signing is currently transpiring. The gamble of signing a player with no previous professional experience, however, cannot be understated and Cardiff should be commended for doing so.

They took perhaps an even greater gamble by partially-entrusting Tanner in the first-team fold fresh off the back of a disastrous loan spell with York City during the second-half of the 2022/23 campaign, where he struck a rocky relationship with supporters and failed to score or assist from seven games.

But Tanner, who later opened up on his struggles with mental health while playing for the National League club, has successfully bounced back from adversity and is now staking his claim at Championship level.

With pace to burn, a diligent work-ethic and no shortage of confidence when operating at full throttle, the winger offers a fresh dimension to an often one-directional Cardiff side which sorely lacks dynamism and front-footedness.

The real challenges for Tanner are represented in consistency and continued end product development. He still tends to blow hot and cold - as do most Championship wingers, in all fairness, and his final ball requires further work, but the reality is that if the enigmatic forward was the finished article then he probably would not be a Cardiff player.

Just how long he remains at the Cardiff City Stadium will likely be defined by whether the areas of his game which remain lacking see tangible and consistent improvement. The intention, though, just as it would have been at the time, will surely be for Cardiff to eventually collect a handsome profit for Tanner.