The strange implosion of Callum Robinson’s Cardiff City career as fans are left baffled
CALLUM ROBINSON’S stay at Cardiff City so far has been a turbulent ride.
It was a Hail Mary from Steve Morison on the final day of the summer transfer window in 2022, when the club had tried to sign a striker for months they finally managed to get the Republic of Ireland international through the door for £1.5m. Not an insignificant sum of money.
Almost two seasons on from that signing, well, it’s not gone according to plan, for one reason or another, for the forward. Here, we chronicle his time at Cardiff and what comes next...
Goalscoring start
Having come into a team which was struggling for goals, Robinson represented as close to a Championship-proven striker as Cardiff had during that 2022-23 season.
Morison, the man who brought him in, was sacked just three games after Robinson’s arrival, but his goals and assists helped Cardiff earn crucial points against Burnley, Blackburn, Wigan, Stoke City and Blackpool before Christmas.
The Bluebirds’ miserable run under Mark Hudson really ramped up then, though, and the club went three months without a victory. Robinson netted, alongside Perry Ng, in the 2-0 triumph over Birmingham City in the February to break that winless cycle following the appointment of Sabri Lamouchi, but he suffered a hamstring injury against Reading in February – many believe he should have been taken off as he was hobbling around in the last 10 minutes of that match – and the Bluebirds were staring down the barrel of relegation.
Fortunately, loan signing Sory Kaba enjoyed a white-hot run of form in front of goal and helped to keep the Bluebirds afloat. He was the only player to score more goals than Robinson’s seven last term.
Derby red
Robinson’s red card at Swansea was a big low point during that campaign, though.
Seven minutes into a derby clash against the club’s fiercest rivals, Robinson lashed out and threw the ball at Nathan Wood’s face, leaving the referee with only one option – to give him his marching orders.
Swansea won that match at a canter. They likely would have done regardless, given the gulf between the two teams at that point, but Robinson’s early dismissal certainly didn’t help matters. He needed to make it up to fans after that one.
Bulut throws down the gauntlet
Having missed the back end of that season, during which the club avoided relegation by the skin of their teeth, new manager Erol Bulut took the reins.
Robinson suffered a back injury during pre-season and struggled to really launch under the new manager, which immediately seemed to put him on the back foot this season.
Given Cardiff’s dearth of wing and striker options, Robinson was expected to play a major role for the Bluebirds this year, but he was reduced to cameo appearances owing not only to injury, but his work-rate off the ball, according to the manager. Bulut said in October that Robinson, and Rubin Colwill, would not start for Cardiff until his work off the ball matched his quality on it.
“Football is not only about scoring and playing offensive football. It’s with the ball and without ball. Some players like to play with the ball, I appreciate this, but without this they have to work for the team,” Bulut said when asked about Robinson.
“I have problems with some of my players so they have to change it. Both Callum and Rubin are included in this. It’s not enough or what I am expecting from them to be in the starting XI. I cannot play with 10 players. I need 11.
“We are not a team who has individual, high-class players to change a game, we need all 11 to be successful. If one isn’t included in the game against the ball, it means other players have to run and fight much more. It doesn’t make sense, everyone has to work.”
He added: “Robbo, he is quality. I like what he showed in pre-season, in the games, but if I see the last two games of Robinson, I cannot say that I am satisfied. I will also have a meeting with him, he just came today so I am going to have a meeting tomorrow to tell him what I am expecting of him. Sometimes players forget.
“Because I need him. I don’t have (Aaron) Ramsey. Rubin and Robbo can play there. Rubin is young, Robbo is experienced. But if Robbo wants to play he has to give everything for the team like other players. I won’t appreciate it if they don’t give everything for the team.”
Return to the fold
Bulut then afforded Robinson the chance from the off a week after those comments and the forward repaid him with a goal in the 4-0 demolition of Huddersfield.
Robinson also chipped in with a goal and an assist in the home defeat by Norwich a couple of weeks later. He spent about six weeks in the starting XI leading up to Christmas last year, before hitting another bump in the road.
Robinson, among others it has to be said, dropped a dreadful performance in the 4-0 FA Cup defeat by
Sheffield Wednesday on January 6 and it left Bulut, and supporters, seething.
Lengthy absence
Robinson has played just 25 minutes of football since that woeful outing at Hillsborough in January.
Bulut cited both injury and illness during that time period, which saw him not included in a matchday squad for more than two months.
Considering Cardiff have struggled, once again, to score goals, having someone who has proven he can find the back of the net at this level, and play in a number of different positions, out of the side was a big loss.
Let’s not forget that Cardiff don’t spend money lightly, either, so having a £1.5m forward in your ranks but seeing him play only half-seasons is less than ideal.
Disciplinary issues
Last week, after Robinson had been on the bench for games against Coventry City and Hull City over the Easter weekend, he was curiously omitted from the matchday 20 for the
away trip to Birmingham City.
When asked after the game why he, and Mahlon Romeo, were not in the team for the win over Blues, Bulut said: “They are not injured. It’s a disciplinary penalty from my side.
“We don’t need to speak about this. It is internal that we cleared it. I spoke with the player. I said at the start of the season, discipline and respect are the most important things for me. They were a little bit away from that. That’s why they were not with us.”
Understandably, that caused a stir among supporters and elicited some strong reactions from fans. And of course we aren’t privy to internal disciplinary matters, but Robinson will likely be frustrated by being unable to reply or argue his side, such is the nature of the game. Our interview with Lee Tomlin springs to mind with regards to frustration over a lack of right to reply to managers’ comments. It’s easy to have your opinion coloured having heard just one perspective or side of an argument.
Nevertheless, after last Saturday’s 3-1 defeat by Millwall, Bulut said Robinson was cleared to play again, saying: “With Robbo, we had a talk, so he knows what mistake he did, he accepted it, so when everything is OK he can also be back with the team.”
Fans baffled at recent illness
It was a surprise, then, to hear that Robinson is a doubt for Saturday’s home match against Southampton.
Bulut revealed Cardiff could be without as many as 12 players for the clash against the Saints this weekend due to a number of fresh injuries and illnesses.
Josh Bowler and Robinson were thought to have come down with an illness, which Bulut said started on Wednesday and was relayed to him on Thursday morning by medical staff.
Of course, fans were particularly baffled because Robinson had posted on Instagram that he was at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night to watch his good friend Jack Grealish take on Real Madrid in the Champions League.
It’s always difficult to say for certain, but this most recent twist, in particular, appears to suggest there could be more going on beneath the surface. Bulut has not definitively ruled out Bowler and Robinson for the weekend and said they would be monitored ahead of the match, but it would not be a big surprise to see the Irishman miss another match.
What next?
As we trundle towards the end of Robinson’s
second campaign in a Cardiff shirt, the inevitable question is: What’s next?
At the end of last season, Robinson was literally Cardiff’s most valuable asset, valued at £.3.34m. A year on, his value has almost halved to £1.88m, according to Transfermarkt, and he is now the club’s seventhhighest valued player and has another year left on his contract.
The problem, for want of a better word, is Robinson has 49 Championship goals to his name, as well as six in the Premier League. Of all Cardiff’s permanently signed players, he is the best scorer they have at this level. Can they really afford to throw that away? Certainly not without replacing him with someone of equal or better quality, which won’t be cheap.
Bulut admitted last week that some players might be happy if he wasn’t kept on after these final three games, if they don’t play as much as they expect or don’t like his tactics or his forthright nature, and it’s not out of the realms of possibility that Robinson falls into that category.
But the forward is an asset and a player who Cardiff can and should really be using. Having someone like Robinson out of the squad for the majority of a season is doing no one – the club nor the player – any good and a solution must be found this summer, one way or the other.