When Saturday Comes have a frequent article entitled "The Strange Case of", Jason Byrne must be a story waiting to be written.
Always a gamble, he was signed by City, apparently via the connections of Peter Ridsdale, from Eircom in January for £100k. Apparently, he was the leading scorer for 4 seasons in Irish football and he's the cousin of Spurs Robbie Keane. Eyebrows were raised when it was discovered that City signed him a month before his 29th birthday when he had nil experience of this level of football.
It seemed like fantastic business however when Byrne scored a winner on his City debut coming off the bench late at Wolves' Molineux which was sweet justice on a day City fans were banned from attending. Ridsdale described it at the time as, "worth the fee for that goal alone",
However his only other appearance since was for an injury ravaged side at West Brom when he looked completely off the pace and he was subbed long before the end. It fitted with stories from Ireland that Byrne had been in decline before his arrival, injuries having taking some toll. That was 8 months ago.
Since that time he's never got close to the 16 and rarely featured in the reserves becoming so anonymous that many fans had wondered if he had left the club and they hadn't told us. In a side with woeful striking options, Byrne seems to have found himself ranked 8th out of 5 as Cardiff have tried other players out of position as forwards instead of contemplating the Irishman.
Truth is, Byrne has been affected by injuries. It scuppered his chances of an August move or loan when City would dearly loved to have done that. This week, he limped out of a reserve defeat at Swansea in midweek (a youthful City side losing 3-0 to a more experienced Jacks outfit, all the goals coming after a mass of substitutions). This is an injury that could impact on his chances of a January move or loan.
The only certainty is that, whatever Jason's future, it somehow has to be away from Cardiff City.
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