Vincent Tan must’ve laughed to the Cardiff City bank at West Brom’s expense | OneFootball

Cardiff City laughed all the way to the bank by getting West Brom to pay £8m for Kenneth Zohore in the summer of 2019.

In the summer of 2019, Cardiff City received an offer for striker Kenneth Zohore that they couldn’t possibly turn down.

The Bluebirds had just come off the back of relegation from the Premier League, but were competitive in the top-flight despite being written off before a ball was even kicked.

Cardiff finished just two points shy of 17th-placed Brighton and well clear of fellow relegated duo Huddersfield Town and big-spending Fulham, and after that, expectations were naturally high within the Welsh capital to make an immediate return to the promised land under Neil Warnock.

Meanwhile, Cardiff received a huge boost to their coffers to help bolster the playing squad and try to achieve that goal, as West Brom conducted the signing of Zohore for a reported fee of £8m.

At the time, the Danish forward was declining during the latter stages of his spell at the Cardiff City Stadium, while his application had been questioned by Warnock leading up to his departure.

And after how his time at West Brom unfolded, owner Vincent Tan would have been laughing all the way to the bank, with Cardiff making an unforeseen profit on the £1m fee they originally paid.

Kenneth Zohore’s career at Cardiff City

While Cardiff City could hardly refuse the £8m offer they received from West Brom in 2019, they would have been looking for more than double that price given Zohore’s opening two years in the Welsh capital.

Zohore made his breakthrough during the 2016-17 season following the arrival of Neil Warnock that October. Zohore exploded into life during the second half of the campaign, scoring 12 goals and notching five assists in 29 Championship appearances.

Zohore’s intelligent link-up play, explosive speed, quick feet, clinical eye for goal and upper-body strength allowed him to content with the rough and tumble of Championship football, and he was simply too much for opposition defenders to handle.

Naturally, Cardiff pulled out all the stops to get him to remain with the club, rejecting a submitted bid from Hull City and insisting he was not for sale under any circumstances - with Warnock even claiming £30 million would be required for his signature after rebuffing Everton's approach.

But despite all those efforts, Zohore would fail to kick on for the Bluebirds and be the Premier League-in-waiting star that they thought he would amount to.

The striker still played an important role in their promotion to the Premier League in the 2017/18 season by scoring nine goals and registering five assists, combining to devastating effect with the likes of Junior Hoilett and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.

However, he did not exactly rip the division apart as many had envisaged, with periods of inconsistency cropping up throughout the season that left many of the Cardiff faithful frustrated.

In the top-flight, Zohore was handed just seven starts across the entire season, with Warnock openly criticising the Dane’s application, while injuries also played a part in his demise.

There was hope that a return to the Championship would see Zohore reignite himself and be a major part of Cardiff having another shot at returning to the Premier League, but Zohore was then shipped off to The Hawthorns, although many couldn’t have argued with the price tag given he had such a below-par campaign.

All connected with Cardiff City would have been scratching their heads as to how West Brom were willingly paying £8m for Kenneth Zohore, and they were certainly seeing the funny side given how his spell in the Black Country unfolded.

Injuries ravaged his opening season, with a calf problem limiting him to just 17 appearances in the Championship, with three goals an underwhelming return – particularly as two of the strikes were from the penalty spot against Derby County and Reading.

The Baggies did secure promotion to the Premier League that season but Zohore failed to contribute anything meaningful, earning just 653 minutes of action. His poor performances saw him earn a loan move back to the second-tier with Millwall.

He returned to the club the following term, but only made two appearances for the Baggies, before another frustrating loan spell with Danish Superliga side Odense forced West Brom’s hand into terminating his contract in January 2023, to the delight of Albion supporters.

In his four years in the blue and white stripes, Zohore only played 23 matches in all competitions. His five goals in total were an abysmal return for a striker who costed such a hefty price.

Zohore wasn’t favoured under any regime, while both injury issues and a failure to convince his bosses in training led to him being one of Albion’s worst-ever signings in their history.

Looking back on it, Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan would have been delighted to see Zohore have such a torrid time at West Brom, particularly after collecting such a sizeable fee and profit on a player who had flattered to deceive in the latter stages of his career in Wales.

Cardiff made the Baggies look so silly in those negotiations, with Albion clearly not doing their full due diligence on the Dane, and it would be far from surprising to see the Bluebirds unable to get as good a deal like that again for the remainder of their existence.