At the time the appointment was made, no one said it was the wrong appointment.
The Spaniard's reign already feels a distant memory, a foggy haze of injuries and rows over transfer policy, but while Benítez does not deserve to carry the can for all that went wrong in the early part of the season, it is clear with hindsight that he was the wrong appointment.
"It would be wrong to get the wrong appointment, simply because we don't have the resources to do that.
"It was the wrong appointment for Cardiff and the wrong club for Solskjaer," said former Cardiff captain Jason Perry on BBC Radio Wales.
"It was the wrong appointment for Cardiff and the wrong club for Solskjaer," said Perry ahead of the Norwegian's departure.
13 14 Third, communication breakdown in the clinic/office (wrong appointment, wrong chart, missing information 15) and between the office and an outside entity (referrals not done, incorrect discharge 16).
Next, a lack of respect by GP or practice assistant was reported (8/78), followed by a delay in diagnosis (5/78), inappropriate drug prescribed (5/78) or inappropriate advice given (5/78) and a wrong appointment at the practice (5/78).
Other communication issues stemmed from poor administration such as letters not being sent; patients being sent details of the wrong appointment; conflicting information being given by healthcare professionals and information not being given in plain English.
And then we find during the treatment they are forgetting things, they are not going to their appointments, or they went to the wrong appointment… These are people who are not known to have dementia, but there are a lot of people out there who have memory problems…So we all think that we are treating patients who are fit…and they are not as fit as we think.
"There's nothing wrong with appointments with that kind of commitment but it does increase the likelihood of clear-outs when governments change and there is no doubt in my mind that that results in civil servants being a lot more cowed and craven". The civil service commissioners, however, were not invented to ensure permanent secretaries were courageous.
