Cardiff City will always wonder what if about ill-fated 2014 Man Utd transfer agreement: View | OneFootball

Wilfried Zaha was signed to save Cardiff City from relegation in the 2013/14 Premier League term but it never worked out

Cardiff City's disastrous, red-tarnished 2013/14 Premier League campaign perennially begs more questions than it has answers for - and Wilfried Zaha's five-month spell with the club ought to be considered one of the most pressing.

Having previously spent years in the top-flight of English football many moons prior to its glamourous 1992 inception, Cardiff finally achieved their inaugural and long-awaited promotion to the Premier League in the 2012/13 campaign as champions.

A historic achievement in the club's history, however, had a bright red stain. Of course, Cardiff were in the midst of their controversial - to put it lightly, at least - rebrand under Vincent Tan, who deemed the colour's association with luck in his native Malaysia as ample reason to rob City of their beloved blue.

Naturally, then, that is exactly why the promotion season itself and the subsequent venure into parts unknown were not fully embraced by supporters. Indeed, many decided to boycoot some of the most successful years in Cardiff's recent history in protest of Tan and his ill-fated rebrand decision, with regular protests also being waged against the unpopular Malaysian owner.

Tan's doomed relationship with supporters reached a new low when Malky Mackay, who had masterminded Cardiff's promotion in the first place, was relieved of his duties heading into the January window and with the team narrowly above the relegation zone. That said, though, the darker reasons behind Mackay's dismissal did later emerge, leaving no reasonable opposition to the decision that the club simply had to make at the time.

Nonetheless, Ole Gunnar Solskjær was soon elected to the dugout.

The former Manchester United frontman conducted something of a raid on the Red Devils, utilising his connections at Old Trafford to bring in Fabio Da Silva and, of course, Zaha himself, while Mats Møller Dæhli also signed just six months after leaving the reigning Premier League champions.

Fabio and Dæhli each arrived with justifiable excitement although it paled in comparison to the reception that met the arrival of Zaha, who, despite enduring a tough stint with United, had been among the most promising young players in the country and already boasted two caps for the England senior team at the age of 21.

Wilfried Zaha was a Cardiff City transfer flop

The early signs pointed to vindication of Zaha's rich potential, with the winger coming off the bench to put in a terrific individual performance and inspire a 2-1 victory over relegation rivals Norwich City on his debut.

He had, after all, joined United for £15m only a year earlier, before being loaned back to Crystal Palace for the remainder of the season, and was still regarded as a precocious talent. Akin to a number of Cardiff's signings that season, his appeared to be an inspired one.

Such feelings soon expired, however, with Zaha's performances deteriorating at a quickening pace and in line with those of his teammates. Warning signs were prompted when Zaha was hooked at the interval in a harrowing 4-0 home defeat to Hull City later in February, which saw him demoted to the bench as an unused substitute for the next two outings.

His Cardiff career never recovered.

In the eyes of many supporters, the nadir of his disastrous spell in the Welsh capital arrived at home to Crystal Palace that April. Hauled off after just over an hour on the clock, Zaha was met with overwhelming boos by his own supporters, dissatisfied with his inability to live up to his potential and save the side as he had been expected to.

The defeat to Palace, where Zaha would go on to enjoy a stellar top-flight career, put Cardiff six points adrift of survival and, with still a month to play, all but consigned them to the drop. Dazzling and direct throughout his career, Zaha often looked distant and disheartened during his days at Cardiff.

It felt to supporters as though he had never wanted to join the Bluebirds in the first place and, when you look at the trajectory his career has taken since, that was probably the case all along.

Wilfried Zaha's success leaves Cardiff City with questions

There have been few signings met with higher anticipation at the Welsh club than that of Zaha, which, combined with the success he has gone on to enjoy since the fateful 2013/14 campaign, begs real questions.

Zaha wound up back on loan with Palace the following season before signing on permanently at Selhurst Park in 2015, where he gradually transitioned into the side's leading talisman and, perhaps, the finest player outside of the Premier League's so-called 'big-six' for quite some time.

A dribbling dynamo, Zaha routinely took liberties against top-flight, top-class full-backs, plundered home the goals to continually keep the Eagles afloat and saw himself incessantly linked with England and Europe's elite each summer.

There is a school of thought that Zaha would have enjoyed an even better career had he decided to make the step-up from being a big fish in a small pond at Palace, and although it always appeared as though he would, such a move never materialised.

But, having scored 68 goals from just over 300 Premier League appearances and earned 30 caps and counting for the Ivory Coast national team after switching international allegiances, the veteran forward has still had a fine career in the game.

He is right up there among Palace's record appearance makers and goalscorers and has more to give at Galatasaray, whom he currently represents alongside former Norwich City midfield star Gabriel Sara.

It will be intriguing to see if Zaha ever makes a return to England - but if he does, you can bet on a frosty reception at the Cardiff City Stadium, should the opportunity occur.