Rangers must have been left with considerable transfer regret when they made a £4 million profit on Martyn Waghorn after only one season in the Championship.

When then-Tractor Boys manager Mick McCarthy spent an estimated £1 million to lure the forward to Portman Road, the Glaswegian giants would have felt they got the better bargain.

Rangers had just strengthened their own attacking options by signing Colombian Alfredo Morelos from HJK Helsinki two months before, pushing Waghorn down the pecking order in a strikeforce that already comprised Kenny Miller and Ryan Hardie.

Given that Waghorn only scored three league goals the previous time he played in the second division, with Wigan Athletic in 14/15, there may have been little anticipation for him to deliver immediately in Suffolk.

But less than a year later, Derby County came calling with a £5 million bid that might potentially reach £7.5 million – so how did that happen?

How Rangers gave Ipswich Town transfer gold with Martyn Waghorn.

To be fair, two years at Rangers had converted him from a journeyman striker battling around the EFL to a genuine menace in front of goal, although that began in the Scottish second tier.

After a 28-goal season in 2015/16 helped Rangers return to the Premiership, the Scottish club rejuvenated Waghorn’s career when no one else looked interested.

To provide some context, the Gers moved in to sign the striker and his Wigan teammate James Tavernier in a double deal for an undisclosed amount, which is likely to have been pennies.

McCarthy’s side ended mid-table the season before Waghorn’s arrival, when he scored seven Scottish Premiership goals, thus it was only natural that the ex-Latic would simply ‘do a job’ and nothing exceptional.

However, six goals in his first six starts set the tone for one of the most productive individual seasons by an Ipswich attacker in recent memory – a feat only surpassed by Conor Chaplin in League One, who scored 26 in 22/23.

A brace in a dramatic 4-3 victory over Millwall, only eight days after joining, proclaimed his arrival emphatically, while the winner at Barnsley endeared him to Tractor Boys fans even further.

By October, he was averaging one goal per 81 minutes, according to a tweet from Sky Bet on X.

His 16 league goals made him the clear top scorer at Portman Road, and his 11 assists indicated a player whose impact extended far beyond his own finishing. He obviously earned the money they gave him.

Martyn Waghorn never scored 16 league goals in a season again after leaving Ipswich Town.

Regarding his departure from Suffolk, Waghorn revealed on an episode of the Under The Cosh Podcast that some Town players were handed “life-changing” agreements to stay at the club, something he felt he should have received.

McCarthy had been replaced by Paul Hurst by that point, and Waghorn stated in the aforementioned Podcast that he told the former Shrewsbury Town manager that he “wanted to move”.

Waghorn went on to score 13 goals for Derby in all competitions in 18/19, helping the Rams to the Championship play-off final, where he only appeared as a substitute for just over 20 minutes as they lost to Aston Villa. If they had made it over the line, you can assume that every Derby supporter would have agreed that he was a “absolute snip at £5m.”

Ultimately, his initial stint at Pride Park proved fruitful, as he scored another 12 in the Championship the following season – but in his seven seasons after leaving Ipswich, which included spells at Coventry City and Huddersfield, as well as a return to the Rams, he never managed to equal that tally of 16.

Ipswich’s choice not to offer Waghorn the money he wanted and sell meant they did the right thing in the long run, and Rangers were solely responsible for the initial transfer.

The 35-year-old striker stepped out of retirement on December 28th to join former teammate David Nugent at Anstey Nomads, where the latter is a player-coach.