Cardiff city manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stated that he is extremely delighted with the signing of Adam le Fondre so much so that he has compared the striker with himself at Manchester United. Solskjaer is regarded as one of the great players to have represented United in the last decade. He may not have started most matches for United, but the Norwegian was more than happy with a place on the bench and to create an impact in the last few minutes of the match.
The club only recently managed to sign Federico Macheda on a free transfer from United. Now, they have completed their second signing of the summer by bringing in Fondre for around £ 2.5 million from Reading. After completing the signing, the club manager stated that he is confident that the new signings will hold the club in good shape going into the new Championship season. Cardiff will be hoping to get promoted back to the Premier league in the first instance. They will continue to receive parachute payments, which will be of major assistance, for the next four years.
The size of the parachute payments, though, reduces considerably after the second year, thus putting Cardiff at a disadvantage compared to the newly relegated teams. “I think we’ve got a bit of a steal with Adam. He’s proven, he’s experienced and he’s a natural goal-scorer, that’s what he’s about,” said the Cardiff manager. “Having been a goal-scorer myself I can see a lot of similarities between myself and Adam. Perhaps he doesn’t want the tag, but like me he has been known to come on and score a lot of goals as a sub – of course like I did. You can see he’s a natural in front of goal.”
Cardiff start the new campaign with an away match against Blackburn Rovers.