Cardiff City deal for ex-Valencia striker was one to forget: View | OneFootball

Cardiff City found themselves preparing for life back in the Championship during the summer of 2014.

The Bluebirds had just been relegated from the Premier League, after a single season in the top-flight of English football.

It was subsequently a busy period for the club from the Welsh capital during the 2014 summer transfer window.

In total, no fewer than ten new players were added to the senior squad at Cardiff during that particular period, as the club aimed to bounce back in the 2014/15 campaign.

One of those who was brought into what was at the time, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side, was striker Javi Guerra.

Spanish striker arrived at Cardiff City with an impressive record

One of the first additions Cardiff made during that particular summer window, was Guerra himself.

The striker joined the Bluebirds on a free transfer, following the expiration of his contract with Real Vallodolid.

With the exception of a brief spell in Portugal ten years earlier, that move to the Welsh capital marked the first time that Guerra had played outside of Spain in his senior career.

He had previously turned out for the likes of Valencia and Levante, and arrived at Cardiff with an impressive goalscoring record.

Guerra had twice won promotion from the Spanish second-tier by this point, and joined the Bluebirds after a campaign in which he scored 15 goals in 37 La Liga games for Vallodolid.

Yet despite that, things worked out far less well for the Spaniard, during his time in the Welsh capital.

Guerra could repeat Spanish success with the Bluebirds

Having completed his move to Cardiff City, the Spanish striker was unable to establish himself in the first-team with the club.

During his first half-a-season with the Bluebirds, he made just three substitute appearances in the Championship, and two starts in the League Cup.

He was unable to find the net in that time, and by the 2015 January transfer window, Guerra found himself back in Spain, just a few months after he had joined Cardiff.

This temporary move saw him join Malaga, where he was able to enjoy an impressive spell, scoring five goals in 13 league games as they finished ninth in the Spanish top-flight.

However, that would not be a catalyst for improvement upon his return to Cardiff in the summer of 2015.

Instead, Guerra admitted at that point that he was keen to return to Spain on a permanent basis, while claiming that he had found it hard to adapt to life in English football, and that Cardiff had not shown faith in him.

Just a few weeks later, the striker would indeed get his wish, as he returned to Spain to join Rayo Vallecano on a permanent deal.

Guerra would then remain with the club for the next four years, during which time he would again win a promotion from the second-tier to top-flight of Spanish football.

Indeed, the striker would again produce a solid scoring record during his spell with Vallecano, scoring 24 goals in 93 appearances in total, before retiring once his time with the club ended in 2019.

That will no doubt leave Cardiff wondering what might have been had Guerra managed to adapt to football in the English system, the way he did in Spain.

Instead, with the striker having found his impact for the Bluebirds so limited, you could almost forgive even those connected with the club, for remembering little about his time there as it is.