It was inevitable, it took a while to conclude, but Cedric Roussel has finally left to return to Belguim.
Having completed a season long loan, his obvious desire not to return was starting to turn nasty with some unsavoury comments being aimed towards us.
The fact is that he cost us £1.53 million then proved a success in the Belgian league and was once again in the international reckoning. Therefore, his value should be equivalent to what we paid.
However, I’d be surprised if we even got a third of the orginal transfer fee. The big factor was Roussel deciding not to ask for the remainder of his contract at Wolves to be paid up.
As Roussel had already publicly declared that clauses in his contract meant he would earn more as we were in the Premiership this could have saved us £1million.
I don’t know whether it is a sarcastic tongue-in-cheek final remark but I doubt he left with the parting words “I wish them well in the future”.
To be honest it was a disasterous transfer for Wolves brought on by Coventry’s inability to pay for the Robbie Keane transfer. Therefore, Roussel seemed the best option as a repayment.
However, he looked out of shape and headless whenever he played. Not getting a decent run in the team didn’t help but I doubt many will remember his last substitute appearance in the Gillingham F.A. Cup defeat in January 2002.
For the record, Roussell start 11 games and was a playing substitute in 18 other games with a return of just 2 goals.
At the end of the day it was better to ship him out and stop him from disrupting the Premier league preparations. Also it will free a bit more cash to bring in the latest transfer rumours.
Let’s make sure we use the money wisely to bring in a top-quality centre forward.