Rangers handed Ipswich Town a goalscorer and £4m profit…
Martyn Waghorn was a consistent striker at Portman Road, earning the Tractor Boys a sizable fee as a result.
Martyn Waghorn has over 100 goals in his career and has been a constant on the scoresheet in the EFL for the past decade and a half, with ten different clubs making use of his skills.
The attacker began his football career with Sunderland and has since played for a number of clubs before joining Derby County in League One.
This is his second stint with the Rams, having transferred to Pride Park from Ipswich Town in the summer of 2018 for a fee of around £5 million.
That was at a time when the striker was at the height of his powers, having established himself as a top-tier striker with a goal-laden period at Rangers in Scotland, allowing Town to capitalize on his prolific nature in front of goal both on the pitch and in the pocket.
Ipswich Town landed a bargain when signing Martyn Waghorn from Rangers
Waghorn, who came through the ranks at Sunderland as a youth, enjoyed loan periods at Charlton Athletic and Leicester City and was already demonstrating his innate knack to reach the back of the goal while still a teenager.
In 2010, the Foxes paid £3 million for the striker after he scored 12 goals in 43 league outings. However, he struggled after making the move permanent, leading to a loan move to Millwall before leaving for Wigan Athletic.
After such a promising start to his career, the forward was struggling for form at the DW Stadium, so it must have been a huge relief for Rangers to come knocking in the summer of 2015, with the Glasgow club commanding his services as they climbed back up the Scottish football ladder.
The Ibrox club had been demoted to the fourth level for financial problems and was back in the second tier when they called Waghorn, allowing the frontman to have the most productive season of his career to date once he moved north of the border.
After a 28-goal season, his stock skyrocketed over the next season, and he added another 16 goals upon his team’s promotion to the first flight, demonstrating his clinical ability as a striker.
Ipswich paid a reputed £1 million for him in the summer of 2017, and he quickly rewarded their investment with a stellar season in front of goal.
Waghorn scored 16 goals in his debut season, making him the club’s leading scorer in the league. Mick McCarthy’s side finished in mid-table.
In his first three league matches, he scored four goals, including a brace against Millwall that led to a 4-3 victory and the winning goal away to Barnsley on his EFL debut.
Waghorn was frequently the man to save the Suffolk side with key scores; whether he was blasting away from the backline or pouncing on a stray ball in the box, he was always ready to score.
Ipswich Town were once a regular Championship also-ran, with 17 consecutive seasons of mid-table results before moving to League One in 2019.
The Tractor Boys were a far cry from today, with only a single play-off campaign to show for 14 years of work in the second division, leaving top players like Waghorn open to being picked off by rivals with loftier goals.
Ipswich Town made a substantial profit on Martyn Waghorn.Half a decade ago, Derby County aimed to improve on their previous season’s unsuccessful play-off campaign. They identified Town’s striker as the key player for the next season.
With a £5 million fee on the table, it appeared to be a tremendous profit from only one year of investment in the goal-getter, leaving the Tractor Boys keen to cash in and thank Waghorn for the memories.
They scored a lot of goals and made a lot of money, so Ipswich will consider the situation a success.
Derby County’s play-off campaign ended in defeat, despite Waghorn’s 13 goals in the season-ending match at Wembley Stadium.
The front-man had stints at Coventry City and Huddersfield Town before returning to County at the age of 33 last summer. He initially arrived on trial for Craig Forsyth’s testimonial and impressed Paul Warne in the dugout.
Waghorn was never as productive as he was after leaving Portman Road, but his one and only season in Suffolk provided the Tractor Boys with a good return for their money.
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