Blackburn Rovers struck gold with £2.5m transfer - he flopped at West Ham though | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers struck gold in the transfer market in 2006 with a deal to sign a Champions League winner

Blackburn Rovers sealed a brilliant transfer from Porto in the summer of 2006 when they signed Benni McCarthy.

It was reported by the Guardian that the deal cost £2.5 million with the Portuguese giants after he helped them to the league title that campaign. The Lancashire outfit won the race to his signature amid pursuits from rivals Aston Villa, Everton, Middlesbrough and West Ham.

The Hammers got their man in the end, signing him from Blackburn in the January 2010 transfer window.

But his impact at Ewood Park was far greater than what he managed with the London outfit, with Rovers getting the best of his time in England.

Benni McCarthy’s importance to Blackburn

McCarthy spent three-and-a-half seasons with Blackburn before he made that switch to Upton Park.

The forward immediately cemented himself as a key part of Mark Hughes’ side when he arrived in 2006, starting in 36 of their 38 Premier League games that season.

The then-28-year-old was easily the top scorer in the team, bagging a very impressive 18 goals as Blackburn finished 10th in the table, with the next best in the side finding the back of the net just seven times.

McCarthy’s record of 18 was in fact the second best in the entire division, with only Chelsea’s Didier Drogba out-scoring him, meaning he struck more frequently than the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Nicolas Anelka and Robin van Persie.

While the forward didn’t hit those heights again, he still remained an important part of the team over the next two campaigns, scoring another 18 times in that period.

He featured 31 times in the 2007/08 season as Blackburn earned a seventh-place finish, a result they’ve yet to better in the years since.

Fitness issues did plague the end of his time at Ewood Park, with McCarthy playing 28 and 14 times in the season-and-a-half before his move to West Ham.

The South Africa international only started seven times in 2009/10, with the move to London being completed on deadline day of the winter market.

Benni McCarthy’s West Ham struggles

McCarthy’s fitness issues proved a real barrier to success at West Ham, where he was unable to feature regularly during his 18 months at the club.

The striker made just five appearances in the remainder of 2009/10, including only two starts, and he did not find the back of the net once.

Another six games for West Ham in the league in the following campaign all came as a substitute, with the then-32-year-old again unable to get his name on the scoresheet.

This was an abysmal campaign for the Hammers, who finished rock bottom of the Premier League table on their way to relegation to the Championship.

The signing of McCarthy was emblematic of a team unable to keep pace in the Premier League and in the transfer market.

While West Ham managed to bounce back the following year under Sam Allardyce, McCarthy played no part in their play-off success, with the player moving to South Africa to end his career with the Orlando Pirates.

The forward’s best years in England took place at Blackburn, with the club striking gold on his signature before cashing in right as he hit a downward slope.