Back in 2010, Wolves moved to negotiate the signing of Burnley striker Steven Fletcher, who had just netted eight Premier League goals for the Clarets as they unfortunately suffered relegation to the Championship.
Nevertheless, Mick McCarthy was impressed – Jez Moxey even said that the forward was one of the boss’ main targets for that summer of 2010.
After £6.5m had swapped hands, the Scottish striker moved from Turf Moor to Molineux, and the rest is history.
Fletcher spent four years in the Midlands, scoring 24 goals in 67 appearances along with eight assists.
To this day, the ex-Marseille forward sits second in Wolves’ all-time top Premier League scorers chart, only behind Raul Jimenez who has 26 goals to his 22 strikes.
Impressively, Wolves’ shrewd move is made to look all the more wise by the fact that Fletcher only cost them £270.8k per every goal he scored, which makes him a fine value-for-money capture.
Eventually, the former Hibernian striker left Molineux to join Sunderland after the club were relegated to the Championship under Terry Connor, following the departure of McCarthy.
While that brought a sad ending to his ultimately impressive stint at Wolves, Moxey did receive £14m for their talisman, which netted them a cool £7.5m profit for a player who had done what he was signed to do.
His 12 Premier League goals that year may not have been enough to keep the club in the top-flight, although he certainly did his part and Moxey can have no complaints over this deal from a business sense – Fletcher was signed, he thrived and then earned Wolves a tidy profit.
For true Wolves fans only: How much did each of these players cost?
There simply can be no arguments over the shrewdness of this deal.
Wolves presumably would’ve liked to have enjoyed Fletcher’s talents in the Premier League for longer than they did, although aside from relegation, the club moved the Scotsman on in an almost ideal manner.
In other news, this 2008 Wolves signing proved to be an absolute bargain…