Cardiff City's 2017/18 promotion-winner had forgettable one-game Wolves spell: View | OneFootball

Cardiff City's 2017/18 promotion winner Nathaniel Mendez-Laing had a lesser-known spell with Wolves as a youngster

Nathaniel Mendez-Laing is perhaps best known for playing a pivotal role in the respective promotions of both Cardiff City and Derby County, and it can be easy to forget that he once played for Wolves.

The 32-year-old winger has undertaken something of a journeyman career, completing spells with eleven clubs. Mendez-Laing has only made more than 50 appearances for three of those, with his longest stays coming at Rochdale, Cardiff and Derby.

Currently with the Rams, Mendez-Laing's quality remains intact in spite of his age and Derby will hope his undoubted Championship know-how can keep them in the division this season.

Cardiff, meanwhile, can still recall extremely fond memories of Mendez-Laing blitzing down the right-hand flank at breakneck speed and helping them to achieve an improbable promotion to the Premier League in the 2017/18 season.

With that in mind, then, it can often be forgotten that Mendez-Laing was formerly a Wolves player - although it does make sense just why that tends to slip the memory.

Cardiff City hero Nathaniel Mendez-Laing's one-game Wolves spell

The speedy winger, who was born in Birmingham, graduated from the Wolves academy and made one appearance for the senior team.

All the way back in August 2009 and at the age of just 17 at the time, Mendez-Laing impressed in a League Cup victory over Swindon Town which proved to be his only ever game for the club at first-team level.

The then-prospect was named as the sponsor's man of the match for that affair, so it is something of a surprise that he never built upon his sole appearance for Wolves.

Rather ironically, future Bluebirds boss Mick McCarthy was managing the West Midlands outfit at the time and lauded Mendez-Laing's performance after the match.

"Nat did really well and he’d been doing well during pre-season,"McCarthy told the press.

"Nat did well, particularly on the occasions when he got the ball at his feet which is what he’s good at. If he gets the ball in open play and can take people on then he’s exciting."

The former England youth international eventually joined Peterborough United on a permanent deal in 2012 after spending time on loan with both Posh and Sheffield United.

He had the last laugh of sorts, though, scoring the winner in an emphatic, statement-sending 2-1 victory for Cardiff at Molineux at the start of the 2017/18 season.

Nathaniel Mendez-Laing was a promotion hero for Cardiff City in 2017/18

Mendez-Laing bounced around the Football League in the years that followed his Wolves exit but did enough during a two-year stint with Rochdale to convince Cardiff to take a punt on him in the summer of 2017, and Neil Warnock's show of faith was vindicated with immediate effect.

He scored four goals in as many games for Cardiff throughout August, inspiring the start which provided the platform for them to romp to a miraculous promotion under Warnock.

That rich vein of early-season form included the winner at Wolves and a brace in a 3-0 home victory over Aston Villa, helping to underline Cardiff's genuine promotion credentials.

The goals may have dried up from September onwards, but anyone who watched Cardiff's historic promotion campaign unfold will tell you with real confidence of the impact he had all year long.

Indeed, they quite possibly have not had a winger of such directness and dynamism on the right-hand side since his departure some four years ago.

Opposing full-backs were largely incapable of subduing Mendez-Laing, who married his natural pace and physical force with an excellent ball-carrying ability which allowed him to lead transitions, pin back opponents and evade challenges at will.

At full throttle, Mendez-Laing was exhilarating to watch and the impact he had in Cardiff's promotion - and the Premier League, too - just cannot be understated.

Mendez-Laing now captains Derby in the second-tier and he was perhaps even better for the Rams last season as they gained promotion from League One, scoring nine goals and laying on a further 16 assists.

In all honesty, though, you really would have been concerned if Mendez-Laing had failed to take sheer liberties at that level.

Mendez-Laing may have left Cardiff under a cloud, with the club terminating his contract after he had served two bans for cocaine use in 2020.

However, no goodwill was lost with supporters, who remembered his heroic status with the club by treating him to a round of applause during Cardiff's recent 1-0 defeat at Pride Park.