ROQUE Santa Cruz arrived at Ewood Park in the summer of 2007 as world football’s mystery man after an injury-plagued eight years of unfulfilled potential.

His talent was never in doubt, with a host of European teams constantly tracking the Paraguayan striker, but only Mark Hughes and Blackburn Rovers were prepared to take a gamble on a player whose injury record threatened to destroy his rise to the top.

His goal to game ratio spoke for itself at Bayern Munich but many were uncertain whether he would ever shake off his injury woes to become the player his ability deserved – surely a concern for Manchester City fans?

As the former Ewood Park darling now prepares for his next step to stardom, a £17-£18million move to big spenders Manchester City, Rovers’ money-men will understandably be patting themselves on the back for a ‘good bit of business’ having forked out just £3.5m two years ago.

Especially considering Santa Cruz’s impact in East Lancashire over the past 10 months has been limited to say the least as his injury worries returned – making Hughes’ bold move as big a gamble as bringing him to England two years ago, if not bigger.

Just six goals in 21 starts meant ‘Roque mania’ had all but disappeared by the time Sam Allardyce’s men were sealing Premier League survival in May and his constant pleas to allow him to leave Ewood have done little for his reputation.

His huge price tag is just a drop in the ocean for City but for Rovers it is money that could not be turned down.

If Allardyce is able to spend whatever chunk of it he gets wisely, come September it could be a case of Roque who?

No player is bigger than a football club and, while Santa Cruz will go down as one of the best players to have ever pulled on a Rovers shirt, a club legend he most certainly is not.