Days at City, life in a new California career
Earnshaw was right, something was happening. Cardiff catapulted themselves from Division Three to the Championship in just three seasons and the striker was on fire.
He couldn’t stop scoring, he was the club’s top scorer in three out of those four seasons and it wasn’t long before other top clubs came sniffing around.
Earnshaw enjoyed spells at West Brom, Norwich City, Derby County and Nottingham Forest, but the lure of his home club proved too much and eventually moved back in 2011.
But for a man so revered in this corner of the world, his homecoming was not the fairytale many would have hoped for.
Despite a strong start to that season, he was rarely used, with manager Malky Mackay preferring fellow Scot Kenny Miller to lead the line.
He is reticent to vent his frustrations about that time, but they peer through eventually.
“I just got on with it, professionally,” he explains. “I came in, very professionally, and played when I played.
“When I was told I was not playing, you’re never happy but you get on with it for the good of the team.
“It was short, but in the end there came a time where I wanted to challenge myself.
“I wanted to be able to experience different things and that’s when I moved. But, otherwise, everything was fine. I have no issues with everything around that.”
A challenge he didn’t bargain for, however, was what he would come to face in Tel Aviv.
Clearly frustrated by his lack of gametime in the Welsh capital, he sought opportunities elsewhere and former Manchester United midfielder Jordi Cruyff was the man who put the wheels in motion.
Cruyff was sporting director at Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv and convinced Earnshaw that was the place for him. And Earnshaw, keen to explore the world and take in new ideas, leapt at the chance.
But at that time, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was showing no signs of relenting. Late in 2012, Palestinian militants launched hundreds of rockets into Israeli territory, targeting Tel Aviv, and Earnshaw recalls the whole ordeal.
“Talk about experiences!” he begins. “I go over there, I’m there for maybe a month and there’s rockets flying into Tel Aviv for the first time.
“There were rockets flying across the skies for weeks. It wasn’t football, it was all so political. It was such a higher significance than football.
“In Gaza they were shooting rockets into Tel Aviv and the sirens would go off. I remember the first time it went off I had to run inside a building.
“It’s a really modern city and these things are happening.
“You’re training for football and all these things are happening. It’s crazy when you think about it.
“It settled down after a few weeks and you start to play football again. But the experience at Maccabi Tel Aviv helped me a lot for coaching.”
It provided Earnshaw with some perspective, but he believes the whole experience has changed him for the better.
“I felt like I experienced five or six years in a short period of time,” he says.
His coach in Tel Aviv, Oscar, had come straight from coaching at Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy and his fresh ideas prompted Earnshaw into going down the coaching path.
Oscar inspired others, too, Earnshaw’s contemporary at Maccabi Tel Aviv, Gonzalo Garcia, has just been appointed FC Twente coach in Holland.
But the Welshman knew he still had more to give on the pitch so upon his return to Cardiff in 2013, he engineered a move across the Atlantic.
He enjoyed a successful stint at Toronto before moving on to Chicago Fire and eventually settling down at Vancouver Whitecaps, playing under former Wales international Carl Robinson.
When Earnshaw hung up his boots, he convinced Robinson to allow him to join the coaching staff and he worked with the youth team there.
He has a much greater appreciation now of the importance of youth coaching. But, having himself come up through the ranks at Cardiff City, he kiboshed the notion that the Bluebirds are not doing enough to bring more young players through the system.
“With Cardiff, the coaches there are doing a great job. I got to spend a little bit of time with them for a few days over the last couple of years,” he says.
“James McCarthy showed me around. It won’t be long before players come through – and there are the players there. There is talent there and they’ve got good people trying to bring them through.
“I think it’s always nice to see a Welsh youngster or youth team product come through. But it’s not an easy job. It’s a longer process that’s needed.”
Earnshaw, who now coaches at US second-tier side Fresno FC, is enjoying his new life in California and tries to take in as much of it as possible.
However, he concedes coaching is a completely different beast to playing and gets little free time to soak it all up.
But he is serious about his new career and is excited at the prospect of where it might take him.
Fresno FC are doing well, they sit third in the Western Conference table and Earnshaw hopes he will taste success there.
He has no immediate plans to leave, but could he see himself coaching in the UK – perhaps even at Cardiff City – in the future?
“I wouldn’t say never, because football has taken me to different places, different countries I never thought I’d go.
“But somehow football has taken me around the world. It depends on opportunities and if things are right and challenging.
“I like challenges and being able to find solutions. That’s what I’ve been preparing for.
“We’ll see. I see in the UK and Europe some good clubs and, of course, you want to coach at different places. It’s natural to think that way.
“I’d never close the door to anything. If something did present itself I’d have to think about it.”