Left for £10m: West Brom struck gold selling star now worth millions less

He will be looking to get Josh Maja playing at full strength once more. The former Sunderland forward scored an absurd seven goals in the league before to going goalless in his team’s previous two league games.

While the West Midlands team was able to sell the talented shooter for a huge sum in 2019, he would equally want to see the former Baggies player back on the roster to share out the goal load.

Rodriguez’s time at West Brom

After making brief appearances as a star at Southampton, Jay Rodriguez would also sign with Hawthorns in 2017 for an exorbitant sum, paying a whooping £12 million to enter the edifice.

Three years later, after Rodriguez had further developed at St. Mary’s, the Baggies would make a move for the 6’1″ forward after he had scored a tremendously impressive 15 Premier League goals for the South Coast side from 33 league games during his breakout season for the Saints.

His second full season as a Baggie saw him dominate the Championship, and he would go on to be a hit in his new home as well, scoring 33 goals in 90 games.

During the 2018/19 campaign, Rodriguez would singlehandedly try to steer his side to promotion back up to the promised land of the top-flight by registering a sublime 22 strikes from 45 games, alongside the equally potent exploits of Dwight Gayle, only for West Brom to come up short in the playoff mix.

The West Midlands squad must have realised that Rodriguez was set to move on and that they would be helpless to prevent a top-flight team from snatching him up, since West Brom painfully missed out.

The former star would eventually return to Burnley in 2019, costing the Baggies the £12 million they had previously spent on the towering attacker as the Clarets finalised a £10 million transaction.

Now, however, that sad decision to offload him for less than his weighty £12m looks to have been the right call, as his value continues to tumble the more his playing days go on.

Rodriguez’s value in 2024

Football Transfers reports that the 35-year-old’s valuation has dropped to a significantly lower £839k as a result of his lack of playing time at Turf Moor during Scott Parker’s early reign.

For his league-chasing team, Rodriguez has only started two games this season. In his little time on the field, he has also contributed zero assists and zero goals.

Rodriguez’s goal record at Burnley since leaving West Brom
Season	Games played	Goals scored
24/25	6	0
23/24	21	2
22/23	28	10
21/22	29	2
20/21	31	1
19/20	36	8
Sourced by Transfermarkt

While Rodriguez did get off to a strong start during his first season back with the Clarets, scoring eight goals in 36 appearances in the 2019–20 campaign, it is evident that he has lost his way over the last two campaigns and is now starting to fade into the background under Parker.

So, while players like Maja and Tom Fellows try to instill fear in Championship defences going forward following their recent setback, the Baggies won’t be too disappointed with themselves that they were able to extract £10m from their former star when they did. They will also avoid talking about their former number 19.

When talking about his ascent through the ranks at Southampton in 2017, former Baggies manager Tony Pulis called him a “exceptional” talent. The 35-year-old’s playing days do appear to be coming to an end as his current team and his former team compete for promotion to the top flight.

Read more news on https://sportupdates.co.uk/