At the peak of his form, Sam Allardyce was teased into slapping an £8 million valuation on Michael Ricketts.

He'd scored in five successive games - four as a member of the starting line-up - and finally seemed to have shaken off that "super-sub" label he had quickly grown to despise.

That he was on the bench for the next 11 of the 26 games he was available for suggested otherwise.

There is no getting away from the fact that only nine of Ricketts' 22 goals this season - 19 of which have come in the League - have been scored when he has started a game. Seven of his first eight were scored after he'd been sent on to use his pace and power to unhinge defences, often when opponents were tiring or had become complacent or over-confident.

Such is the enigma that it Michael Ricketts. Given the service and the encouragement that saw him convert Bo Hansen's defence-splitting pass at Barnsley for what, at the time, was a crucial matchwinner last week, there are few in the game to match the Brummie six-footer, who cost Wanderers a ridiculously modest £250,000 down payment on a £400,000 final fee when they prised him away from Walsall last summer.

Allardyce had seen something special in the athletic striker who, although top scoring for the Saddlers (he only started 21 League games and netted 11 goals - two against Wanderers), had hardly caused a stampede of suitors banging on Ray Graydon's door.

But this summer, if Wanderers were to simply hint that they were prepared to consider selling, it would be a different story altogether.

Ricketts might not be the finished article - if he hadn't had so many lacklustre displays he wouldn't have been relegated to the subs' bench so often - but his performances have led to comparisons with Emile Heskey and the speed, power and skill he has shown in destroying defences when he has been on his game cannot be ignored.

Every professional striker lives and dies by his scoring record and 22 goals to date make Ricketts one of the most marketable commodities outside the Premiership.