' Was he a success or a failure ? '

My opinion on Gary Medel, He was as we know a very expensive signing.
I thought Medel played well the first half of the season, but the second half of the season he mostly went missing.

I have been told by another City player that the last 3 months of the season it was as though he didnt want to be here anymore and his mind was else where.

So my verdict over all, a failure for City.


Should Chile World Cup star Gary Medel be considered a Cardiff City success or failure?

Wednesday Jun 18, 2014

BY SCOTTJOHNSON

Gary Medel is very much the man of the moment. After he became the first Bluebird to appear at a World Cup since 1958, he is now preparing to attempt to knock holders Spain out of the World Cup. But was he a success?


While Gary Medel joins his impressive Chile side in battle at the World Cup, there is now enough distance, in terms of both time elapsed and geography, with which to assess his season at Cardiff City rationally.

If you were to canvass supporters, it is likely that you would get an array of different opinions. He has proven to be a worthy successor to Stephen McPhail in terms of being one of the great divisive Cardiff midfielders.

Medel arrived boasting a reputation that was like catnip for football fans. Tales of his intimidating disciplinary record, police using tasers to control him and crashing his car while asleep at the wheel ensured his cult hero status before he stepped on the pitch. In reality, Cardiff fans never really saw the ferocious side of El Pitbull, who instead proved to be disciplined and economical.



' Gary Medel watch: 9 things we've learned about Medel and Chile at the World Cup '

At one stage, Cardiff were statistically the nicest team in Europe and certainly could have done with a bit more bite, but Medel remained muzzled, collecting only six yellow cards all season. That was a strength rather than a weakness in the first few months of the campaign, when Medel was quickly established as Cardiff’s most important player. Taking ownership of the team, he patrolled the area between midfield and defence with distinction, culminating in his masterclass at Fulham. But it didn’t last.

The arrival of winter saw Medel’s influence wane and whether or not that is coincidental is open to debate. Maybe the sheer number of games caught up with him. At Sevilla, he was also accustomed to maintaining possession rather than chasing it. As captain in a World Cup year, he also travelled a lot, with three trips to and from Chile plus Geneva and Colombia within the space of about six months.

With a lack of a winter break to also factor in, Medel started to look leggy and off the pace. Not exactly built for the speed and tempo of the Premier League, maybe a downturn in performances was always inevitable. When Medel played well, so did Cardiff, and Cardiff didn’t play very well very often in 2014. Either he failed to inspire Cardiff, despite his best efforts, or went missing when he was needed the most.

For me, Medel has to be considered a flop and there are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, like so many of their summer signings, Cardiff paid over the odds. Sevilla were in a perilous financial position and Medel was being hawked around Europe for a fraction of what Cardiff paid. His price would have been largely irrelevant if he had justified the outlay on the pitch, but in far too many games he went missing.

When smaller clubs splash out, their season is destined to be defined by their biggest purchases. It is no coincidence that all three relegated sides saw their marquee signings flop, with Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Konstantinos Mitroglou also disappointing at Norwich and Fulham respectively.

The debate raged again over the weekend when Medel recorded impressive passing stats in Chile’s slightly fortuitous win over Australia. But passing stats can be misleading. Medel operates as a third centre back for his country and there is a big difference between passing out of defence and passing through midfield.

Some have previously floated the idea of him fulfilling this role for Cardiff, when they briefly experimented with a similar formation, but Australia’s goal provided the necessary evidence to highlight why this would have been a bad idea. Tim Cahill, who thrived in English football and in fairness has a great leap, towered above the five foot seven Medel to head a consolation goal.



He may not face a barrage of crosses at international level, but you can be sure that he would have been targeted by every Holt, Crouch and Carroll in the Premier League.

It is unlikely that Medel will play for Cardiff again and I hope that an impressive showing in Brazil will enable Cardiff to recoup as much of their expenditure as possible, rather than loan him out, as has been mooted. When I reflect on Cardiff’s single Premier League season in future, my thoughts will forever be entwined with the fortunes of Medel; after an exciting opening few months, the remainder was largely disappointing.

If that is right about his "head not being here", then overall FAILURE for the money paid is all that can be said

Agree that a very good start for the City soon became average and then almost invisible

Started well first 6 games then went downhill

Considering all the stories about him being a battler, pitbull and all that nonsence, I never seen much of it in the last 2-3 months of the season.As for the start of the season I dont think he done his job totally there either.He was bought as a defensive midfielder to break up attacks, but he did not do enough of that for me.He played well in our first 15 games then seemed to tire quickly, maybe the pace of the premiership caught him out.He was good on the ball and kept possession well, allthough he never made many killer passes,Something McPhail used to get murdered for.If we can get our money back or somewhere near it id move him on now coz his heart wont be here after the world cup.

Considering all the stories about him being a battler, pitbull and all that nonsence, I never seen much of it in the last 2-3 months of the season.As for the start of the season I dont think he done his job totally there either.He was bought as a defensive midfielder to break up attacks, but he did not do enough of that for me.He played well in our first 15 games then seemed to tire quickly, maybe the pace of the premiership caught him out.He was good on the ball and kept possession well, allthough he never made many killer passes,Something McPhail used to get murdered for.If we can get our money back or somewhere near it id move him on now coz his heart wont be here after the world cup.

I think he was okay at breaking up attacks but ended up having no real outlet to give the ball to and from december onwards with us mostly defending from the 18 yard box he became ineffective.
put him in a top six premier side and i think you would see his quality come through. never worth the money though

For what he cost,defiantly a failure,seen players over the years who cost nothing,contribute more than medel

Medel did ok for a £3m signing. You have to remember he wasn't surrounded by confident experienced players.

HOWEVER - He just wasn't worth the money for what he did. It's a bit like using a Ferrari for the school run every day. It may have a fantastic top speed, aerodynamics and looks to die for, but it wouldn't be fit for purpose.

Gary Medel will do well in a top side in my opinion. That may go against the theory that if you pay, he should play, but in the real world, he was seeing the writing on the wall from about half way through. Wrong, but there you go.

I think the fact we paid 11m for him and we are now looking at offers in the region of 4-6m says it all.

He was ok, he ran around a lot. I always felt he was reacting to situations rather than cutting them out earlier. not quick enough in his mind and his fitness was pretty poor. He was bound to look better in Malkys team as he had 10 other players defending around him. I always felt I was expecting more from Medel but instead of going forward he went backwards. Not a bad player but a silly purchase when money could have been spent better.

Medel started 34 of the 38 PL games last season and only 2 players (Marshall & Caulker) played in more games. In the games he started he was subbed 11 times which was the same number as Peter Odemwingie, add to that no goals and no assists and it's those sort of stats which demonstrate his importance to the team or rather how ineffective he was.

Compare his appearances and overall time on the pitch (2870) to say Peter Whittingham, who started 30 games and was only subbed twice playing in total 2664 minutes. Also when you consider Whitts managed 3 goals and 7 assists then despite being one of our most maligned players, in my opinion, Whitts contributed far more than Gary Medel.

In my opinion Gary Medel was a failure for us and when you consider the money he cost an expensive failure and is another to add to the list of "Big" money signings, Cornelius and Odenwingie are others, which highlight the failings of MM & IM in the transfer market.

Get what we can for him because we certainly cannot afford to have him on the books earning what he does as a Championship club.

medel is a very good player if in a better team! simple fact is we didnt play a game that suited is roll, having said that other players suffered same fate, its no coinsident that he was highly praised in la leaga circles, it was nore suited to his style. was he worth it definately not, was he failure? think system he was in made him a failure!

Class player, way too good for us.

Failure. Overweight, no stamina, doesn't get close enough to the opposition, limited range of passing and is chasing shadows.

And that isn't even factoring we paid 11m and we could get 4m back for a "world class player" who is only being chased by 2 teams.

Failure overall unfortunately, but he just isn't cut out for English football.

Will show his true form in Spain though, possibly he should go back tk Seville now they've sold Rackitic to Barcelona, even though they play differently.

For the money we payed he was a failure

Failure.

was always selected.......never our worse player on the park ........so a success.

not worth 11million, but thats a different question...

Failure

Not what the team needed IMO

Failure what exactly did he do?

Definitely a failure.

Bet his mind was well "in it" when he collected his pay packet every month.

Was never a dominant figure in any game he played.

Defensive midfielder? Have a look at the number of goals we conceded to see how successful he was in that role.

Every pass was sideways or backwards.

Always showed for the ball but never did anything with it.

Massive waste of money.

For the money - failure.

If that is right about his "head not being here", then overall FAILURE for the money paid is all that can be said

Agree that a very good start for the City soon became average and then almost invisible

You can say that about the whole team. The drastic transformation in managers and playing styles half way through the season didn't do Gary or the rest of the team any favours and was the reason we got relegated imo.

Should have been playing for a better team under a better manager. Oles constant chopping and changing didnt help him or the rest of the players.

Massive failure but to the dickheads, arse lickers and football hipsters having a foreign name, a cool nickname, being South American and former la liga player = quality. He was unift for starters.

The club was a failure in our Premier League season. The timing and handling of Malky's sacking and the ongoing PR disaster surrounding Tan and his re-brand was the failure. We were this years joke club in the Premier League and were destined to under perform.

Why label one single individual in a failing team/club a failure? Our fans go way over the top with the critisism of players in a herd mentaity. This is a case in point.

Big failure. Let's get him off our books as soon as possible.

Massive failure but to the dickheads, arse lickers and football hipsters having a foreign name, a cool nickname, being South American and former la liga player = quality. He was unift for starters.

Spot on, huge failure. If his name was Keith Smith from Arbroath then he would be slammed on here a lot more often and a lot earlier than it took to slam Medel.

Ridiculous money for someone of his limited quality.

Funny thing is, one good game here and there and all the idiots come back out of the woodwork "world class etc".

If that is right about his "head not being here", then overall FAILURE for the money paid is all that can be said

Agree that a very good start for the City soon became average and then almost invisible

Fair do's...a success last night!

Well done Chile! Adios Espana!

He was never the right fit for us. If Medel was playing in the saints or jacks team he'd have flourished. Instead he was signed by a hoofball club. The ball constantly coming back at him non stop all game. We never kept the ball for large periods like Chile can do, he never had the players around him pressing with high intensity. Funny how he lasts the full 90 for Chile but couldnt last 60+ for Cardiff that tells you everything.

He was ultimately a failure of a signing, Malky failed when he signed him and didnt set the team up and tactics around him. He is streets ahead of any player we had or will have for the forseeable future, he was the player we should have moulded our team around.

He will go back to spain no doubt, he will get back to being the player he was when we signed him. Best of luck to him. We didnt deserve him.

For 11m yes

Was the other player Craig Bellamy?