Blackburn Rovers signed Rudy Gestede from Cardiff City for a fee of £200k in the 2013/14 season and his exploits from his time at Ewood Park would ensure he’d leave a lasting legacy as one of the club’s finest pieces of transfer business.
Under the pretence of a low-risk gamble, Rovers lured the Benin international to Ewood Park with the hope that he would develop into a lethal target for former Blackburn manager Gary Bowyer in the Championship, and that is exactly what happened.
After becoming one of Blackburn’s most effective forwards in recent memory, Gestede dominated the sky at Ewood Park for two seasons, scoring over 30 goals.
When Rovers finally decided to sell him in 2015 for a reported £6 million, they did so knowing that they had closed one of their better deals in a long time.
Gestede formed deadly duo at Ewood Park
As far as striking duos go, there weren’t many partnerships that were feared greater across the Championship between 2013 and 2015 than Jordan Rhodes and Gestede.
With Gestede’s aerial dominance and Rhodes’ predatory ability in and around the box, each of their respective games complemented the others with deadly consequences for the opposition.
Before Gestede left to join Aston Villa in the Premier League in 2015, the two scored 79 goals between them in the two seasons they were sharing the Ewood Park surface.
In 72 games, he recorded 35 goals and 10 assists, cemented his status as one of Blackburn’s most potent marksmen in recent memory. Opposing defenders often found Gestede to be too much to handle, and whole game plans were designed to try and counteract his success.
Rhodes would stay with Rovers until February 2016, before signing for Middlesbrough, foreshadowing a future career decision the Benin striker would make too.
Gestede struggled to replicate Blackburn impact elsewhere
Gestede may have earned a dream move to the Premier League with Aston Villa but his career would soon take an unexpected decline that will no doubt have had the big striker feeling like he’d slipped into a nightmare.
Just two seasons after arriving at Villa Park, Gestede walked out the exit door after scoring 10 goals in 55 appearances in all competitions, earning yet another chance to prove himself at top-flight level with Middlesbrough in January 2017.
That rarely worked, and even when it did, Rhodes was usually available to punish teams in any case. Pick your poison during their reign in Lancashire, that’s exactly what happened.
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