FORMER CITY 'FLOP' IN DEMAND

The story of the Cardiff City flop who's now scoring for fun in the Bundesliga
By Jack Vittles


After scoring just once for Cardiff City the Austrian striker has netted 20 times in 30 matches this season

It's fair to say that Guido Burgstaller's time with Cardiff City was far from a success. But the striker is now finding the net with ease in Germany and has even landed himself a move to the Bundesliga, where he has continued his goalscoring form.

Signed in May 2014 on a three-year-deal, the Austrian was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's second signing of the summer after Spanish striker Javi Guerra. It was a summer of transfers that heralded a false dawn for Bluebirds fans as Solskjaer prepared for life back in the Championship after Premier League relegation.

Burgstaller signed for Cardiff on a three-year deal in May 2014 (Photo: Peter Thomas/Cardiff City FC)
Guerra, Kagisho Dikgacoi, Adam Le Fondre, and Federico Macheda were all singed in the summer of 2014 and went on to have a disappointing time at Cardiff City Stadium before being offloaded at no profit and having had little success.

The signs were that Cardiff had landed a solid if not spectacular striker for a reported £850,000 from Austrian side Rapid Wien. The then 25-year-old had just netted 11 goals in the Austrian Bundesliga and had scored 27 goals in 109 matches for Rapid across three seasons.

The Austrian international started on the bench for Cardiff's first match back in the Championship for two seasons and came on for Kenwyne Jones with 20 minutes to play. Burgstaller then followed that up by scoring just four minutes into his first Bluebirds start against Coventry in the Capital One Cup. Could the Bluebirds have landed themselves a good back-up option to Jones in attack?

But that was as good as it got for Burgstaller in south Wales. He started the next match in an ultra-attacking line up along side both Jones and Adam Le Fondre but was hooked after just 55 minutes. Burgstaller appeared just twice more for Cardiff, both times from the bench, with his final appearance coming in a 3-2 League Cup win against Port Vale.

With Solskjaer leaving in the September, Burgstaller found himself out of favour with new boss Russell Slade and left the club in January 2015.

Just four days later Burgstaller found himself back in demand and joined German second-tier side Nurnburg. The striker immediately rediscovered his scoring boots in Germany as he went on to scored six goals in 14 matches before the season finsihed.

He followed it up by rifling home 14 goals across 38 matches in his first full season in Bavaria. His form led to some Bundesliga clubs sniffing around the Bluebirds reject, but Burgstaller stayed with Nurnberg.

The decision paid off as the Austrian hit his stride and notched up 13 goals in a season that saw Nurnberg finish 3rd in Bundesliga 2. But it is this current season that has seen Burgstaller reach levels that Cardiff City fans would scarcely believe. A run of 14 goals in 16 matches made it almost inevitable that a top level club would come calling, and in January Burgstaller sealed his first move to the one of the 'Big 5' European leagues as he signed for Schalke.

The striker has signed with the Royal Blues until 2020 and at a fee of just €1.5m he is already proving a shrew signing. Burgstaller has scored six times in 12 matches for Schalke and has suffered defeat just twice since joining.

His two goals on Sunday saw Augsburg swept aside 3-0 and his rifled finish from the edge of the box gave Schalke a vital equaliser in their all-German Europa League tie with Borussia Monchengladbach last week.

Burgstaller scored a vital equaliser in Schalke's last 16 tie with Borussia Monchengladbach earlier this month but even those heights have not been his starring moment in a Schalke shirt to date. That moment came in his first appearance for the Bundesliga side. Thrown on as a sub at half time as Schalke were drawing at home with relegation threatened Ingolstadt, Burgstaller scored a 92nd minute winner to send over 50,000 fans into delirium. It was some way to announce himself on the big stage.

It's been quite a ride for the Austrian striker as he's gone from Cardiff City flop to a Bundesliga marksman, and we could be seeing him on these shores again in the future.

Southampton were reported to be interested in the striker last summer, and while the much improved Austrian decided to stay in Germany when making a move in January, it's hard to rule out a return to the UK and perhaps even the Premier League in the future.

Flop is harsh! More like never given a real chance !

I wonder how many of those "flops" would have performed under our current manager ?

Flop is harsh! More like never given a real chance !

I wonder how many of those "flops" would have performed under our current manager ?

We will never know, but there were so many on the books, that even Neil Warnock would have had a job sifting through them!

Never a flop, more like never given a chance. It says it all, Russell Slade didn't rate him

hardly a flop.
just part of russ,s madhouse otherwise known as steadying the ship.
where most of the johnny foreigners were jetisoned over board .loaned out. or just ignored.

Strange how Russell Slade seems to be getting the blame? Guido Burgstaller was an OGS signing and he was the one who failed to play him. By the time RS got here in October 2014 it was obvious we were not going up and a massive cost cutting exercise was mounted. GB simply got caught up in the clear out rather than RS not giving him a chance.

With hindsight we should have kept him but I don't remember too many post's on here calling for his retention although Nubby's will probably claim he saw his potential when others didn't

Burgstaller was a recognized winger when he came to us but now seems to have converted into a striker and he looked decent in the glimpses he had with us but he was a Tan signing along with Guerra, Cala and Velikonja so was never going to be given a proper chance.

Strange how Russell Slade seems to be getting the blame? Guido Burgstaller was an OGS signing and he was the one who failed to play him. By the time RS got here in October 2014 it was obvious we were not going up and a massive cost cutting exercise was mounted. GB simply got caught up in the clear out rather than RS not giving him a chance.

With hindsight we should have kept him but I don't remember too many post's on here calling for his retention although Nubsy will probably claim he saw his potential when others didn't

we had 13 points from 10 games . 13pts from 9 if you wanted to credit RS with that car crash at Blackpool {his official status was advisor }. 13 from 10 is what Leeds got this season. Fulham who could well make play off were on 14 from 10 and preston who still have an outside chance of play offs were only on 10 from 10.. season. obviously .over .NO.
the clear out had zero to do with ability or Slade giving everyone an opportunity as NW has done.

Strange how Russell Slade seems to be getting the blame? Guido Burgstaller was an OGS signing and he was the one who failed to play him. By the time RS got here in October 2014 it was obvious we were not going up and a massive cost cutting exercise was mounted. GB simply got caught up in the clear out rather than RS not giving him a chance.

With hindsight we should have kept him but I don't remember too many post's on here calling for his retention although Nubsy will probably claim he saw his potential when others didn't

we had 13 points from 10 games . 13pts from 9 if you wanted to credit RS with that car crash at Blackpool {his official status was advisor }. 13 from 10 is what Leeds got this season. Fulham who could well make play off were on 14 from 10 and preston who still have an outside chance of play offs were only on 10 from 10.. season. obviously .over .NO.
the clear out had zero to do with ability or Slade giving everyone an opportunity as NW has done.

Sorry I can't see how the clear out couldn't have affected our season. As for the teams you mention unless I have missed something none of them have gone up yet

Why is it that every striker that comes here can not hit a cows arse with a banjo but when they leave turns into a goal scoring machine ? Why didn't we get Warnock years ago ?

Strange how Russell Slade seems to be getting the blame? Guido Burgstaller was an OGS signing and he was the one who failed to play him. By the time RS got here in October 2014 it was obvious we were not going up and a massive cost cutting exercise was mounted. GB simply got caught up in the clear out rather than RS not giving him a chance.

With hindsight we should have kept him but I don't remember too many post's on here calling for his retention although Nubsy will probably claim he saw his potential when others didn't

we had 13 points from 10 games . 13pts from 9 if you wanted to credit RS with that car crash at Blackpool {his official status was advisor }. 13 from 10 is what Leeds got this season. Fulham who could well make play off were on 14 from 10 and preston who still have an outside chance of play offs were only on 10 from 10.. season. obviously .over .NO.
the clear out had zero to do with ability or Slade giving everyone an opportunity as NW has done.

Sorry I can't see how the clear out couldn't have affected our season. As for the teams you mention unless I have missed

something none of them have gone up yet [/qu


my whole point was SLADE effected our season.
and no nobody has gone up yet but the teams ive mentoned stand a chance..NOT the season was already over when Slade arrived.
btw.a team that did get promoted, in fact as champions were BELOW us when Slade arrived.

Why is it that every striker that comes here can not hit a cows arse with a banjo but when they leave turns into a goal scoring machine ? Why didn't we get Warnock years ago ?

I wonder if Neil could have made a silk purse out of Corny. I wouldn't bet against it

Why is it that every striker that comes here can not hit a cows arse with a banjo but when they leave turns into a goal scoring machine ? Why didn't we get Warnock years ago ?

I wonder if Neil could have made a silk purse out of Corny. I wouldn't bet against it

Well, he appears to have made a racehorse out of a seaside donkey!

Strange how Russell Slade seems to be getting the blame? Guido Burgstaller was an OGS signing and he was the one who failed to play him. By the time RS got here in October 2014 it was obvious we were not going up and a massive cost cutting exercise was mounted. GB simply got caught up in the clear out rather than RS not giving him a chance.

With hindsight we should have kept him but I don't remember too many post's on here calling for his retention although Nubsy will probably claim he saw his potential when others didn't

we had 13 points from 10 games . 13pts from 9 if you wanted to credit RS with that car crash at Blackpool {his official status was advisor }. 13 from 10 is what Leeds got this season. Fulham who could well make play off were on 14 from 10 and preston who still have an outside chance of play offs were only on 10 from 10.. season. obviously .over .NO.
the clear out had zero to do with ability or Slade giving everyone an opportunity as NW has done.

Sorry I can't see how the clear out couldn't have affected our season. As for the teams you mention unless I have missed

something none of them have gone up yet [/qu


my whole point was SLADE effected our season.
and no nobody has gone up yet but the teams ive mentoned stand a chance..NOT the season was already over when Slade arrived.
btw.a team that did get promoted, in fact as champions were BELOW us when Slade arrived.

Of course Slade affected our season we finished higher than when he arrived

Agree with the person who questioned whether he was a flop or not at city.. never really given a chance. Our club was so screwed up at the time... a player could start a game or come on as a sub and look brilliant and then banished to the reserves for the rest of the season.

Interesting that he is a out and out striker these days. While at City people referred to him as a winger. He never played up front for us.

No point in crying over spilled milk but he is one of the few players I wish we had seen more of.

Strange how Russell Slade seems to be getting the blame? Guido Burgstaller was an OGS signing and he was the one who failed to play him. By the time RS got here in October 2014 it was obvious we were not going up and a massive cost cutting exercise was mounted. GB simply got caught up in the clear out rather than RS not giving him a chance.

With hindsight we should have kept him but I don't remember too many post's on here calling for his retention although Nubsy will probably claim he saw his potential when others didn't

we had 13 points from 10 games . 13pts from 9 if you wanted to credit RS with that car crash at Blackpool {his official status was advisor }. 13 from 10 is what Leeds got this season. Fulham who could well make play off were on 14 from 10 and preston who still have an outside chance of play offs were only on 10 from 10.. season. obviously .over .NO.
the clear out had zero to do with ability or Slade giving everyone an opportunity as NW has done.

Sorry I can't see how the clear out couldn't have affected our season. As for the teams you mention unless I have missed

something none of them have gone up yet [/qu


my whole point was SLADE effected our season.
and no nobody has gone up yet but the teams ive mentoned stand a chance..NOT the season was already over when Slade arrived.
btw.a team that did get promoted, in fact as champions were BELOW us when Slade arrived.

Of course Slade affected our season we finished higher than when he arrived

yes your correct. the season was over. bournemouth didnt go up as champs. but russ was fab and improved us.

Why is it that every striker that comes here can not hit a cows arse with a banjo but when they leave turns into a goal scoring machine ? Why didn't we get Warnock years ago ?

I wonder if Neil could have made a silk purse out of Corny. I wouldn't bet against it

Probably but still wouldn't be worth 7m and 45k a week

Strange how Russell Slade seems to be getting the blame? Guido Burgstaller was an OGS signing and he was the one who failed to play him. By the time RS got here in October 2014 it was obvious we were not going up and a massive cost cutting exercise was mounted. GB simply got caught up in the clear out rather than RS not giving him a chance.

With hindsight we should have kept him but I don't remember too many post's on here calling for his retention although Nubby's will probably claim he saw his potential when others didn't

If your still going on about me backing Zohore why don't you search my posts on him? Two posters backed up my statement on that thread.
I'm not trying to gain points for being the clever bollocks of the forum, I'll leave that to condescending know-it-all toss pots like yourself.