Blackburn Rovers were the winners from £17m Man City agreement: View | OneFootball

Roque Santa Cruz failed to recreate his Rovers form after moving to the big-spending title-chasers

As soon as he arrived at Ewood Park, Blackburn Rovers fans knew Roque Santa Cruz was going to be something special.

The Paraguayan was something of a goal-machine during his time in Lancashire, with the former Premier League champions thriving in the top flight with their prolific striker up top.

With Benni McCarthy and Jason Roberts alongside him, the recruit from Bayern Munich made quite the name for himself in a Rovers team for the ages, with the likes of Morten Gamst Pedersen, David Bentley and David Dunn adding to the plethora of Barclaysmen in the starting lineup.

A move to big-spending Manchester City failed to bring the best out of him though, with Blackburn sitting pretty with an eight-figure transfer fee as their departing striker misfired at Eastlands.

Roque Santa Cruz makes instant Blackburn Rovers impact

Santa Cruz moved to Blackburn from Bundesliga giants Bayern in the summer of 2007, with the then-Premier League outfit reportedly forking out £3.8 million for his services.

It didn’t take long for the new man to make an impact, with a debut goal coming just three minutes after being introduced against Middlesbrough on the opening weekend of the season, and proved to be a sign of things to come.

Top flight sides just couldn’t get to grips with the South American star, who was proving himself to be a threat in the air, as well as with his feet, and helping Rovers thrive as a result.

A 16-minute hat-trick - albeit in defeat to Wigan Athletic - only added to his reputation as Christmas arrived, with Santa bringing more than just the odd gift to the party over the festive period.

Eight goals in five games across all competitions saw the frontman continue to relish his role leading the Rovers line, before finishing the season as one of the most in-form forwards in the country.

It seemed to be a case of when, not if, the striker would score from March onwards, with eight goals in nine games helping his side to a seventh-placed finish, with a match-winning brace against Wigan Athletic and a further strike against Manchester United the pick of the bunch.

From that, the forward had become one of the most feared strikers in the division, although injuries in his second campaign with the club restricted him to just four goals in 20 appearances.

Blackburn Rovers were still the winners despite losing Roque Santa Cruz to Man City

Despite his recent injury record, Manchester City were eager to splash the cash in the summer of 2009, and made the Paraguayan something of a statement signing to show they meant business in the year to come.

Having recently become one of the richest clubs in world football thanks to the takeover from the Abu Dhabi United Group, City were luring all kinds of talent to the blue half of Manchester, with Rovers gifted £17 million for giving them a striker who was yet to discover his form from 12 months previous.

And so it proved in the year to follow, with the new arrival missing the start of the season due to his troublesome knee issues, with three goals in his first campaign with the club already proven the move to be a busted flush.

Not that City were overly fussed, with the likes of Robinho, Carlos Tevez and Craig Bellamy all at their disposal up top, this was a time when the club were only too happy to flex their muscles in the transfer market, with players arriving left, right and centre.

£17 million was just a drop in the ocean for the oil tycoons in charge, and it wasn’t long before Sant Cruz was back at Ewood Park, with a loan deal in January 2011 seeing him finish the campaign back on his old stomping ground.

While Rovers fans would have been fall off anticipation, what they saw was a shadow of the man who tore the league apart 18 months previous, and a career that was already in decline.

Real Betis and Malaga soon took a chance on the striker with successive loan deals, before the latter took him off City’s hands for free in 2013, with a return of three goals in 20 matches for City evidence of a deal gone wrong.

For the soon-to-be Premier League powerhouses it was a steep learning curve that money alone can’t buy success, but canny recruitment also has to be involved, while Rovers were left laughing all the way to the bank, with a crocked striker sold for big bucks.

No receipts, no money back guarantee; it was the Ewood Park side that got the better of that particular deal, with the evidence there in blue and white.