Snoddy’s no toy town plastic cash signing ..he bends it better than Roo, Payet & Hazard

for leaving for West Ham. The Scotland man is a gamechanger worth his weight in gold.

The Tigers have been toothless this season and if it wasn’t for him they would be on course to set records for the lowest points tally in Premier League history.

Snodgrass either scored or laid on half of City’s 20 goals. He also has the best free-kick record of anyone in the top flight in recent years. Better than Wayne Rooney, Dimitri Payet, Eden Hazard, you name it. Those stats make it clear why West Ham wanted him so badly – and make you wonder why more c lubs weren’t in for him. He’s the difference between relegation and safety, between a mid-table finish and a push for Europe. Snodgrass is top class and you’d go a long way to find a player more deserving of a break like this. It wasn’t so long ago he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get back playing again. The horror knee injury he suffered on day one of the 2014-15 season wasn’t your run-of-the-mill job – it was career-threatening.

There were serious doubts he would ever recover. Warning sirens were going off when no one would put a timescale on his comeback.

Footballers are creatures of habit, institutionalised to the point where they are more like squaddies.

They like to know the when and wheres all of the time – when pre-season starts, when the cup tie is being held, when they can expect to be back playing.

Snodgrass had none of that. It was nine months at least... then maybe a year... then half-past who knows when.

It was a similar nightmare to the one Gordon had to endure – only he had the benefit of having a club insured to the hilt.

Early on in Snodgrass’ rehab he was wheeled out by some sponsors to promote something or other. He sat with reporters, shared a few jokes and put a brave face on it.

Players are used to doing that. When they’re injured they have a go-to list of clichés they can use. Snodgrass had a bash at using them but he wasn’t fooling anyone.

It was hard to watch as he was clearly a guy in pain – and not just from his wounded knee.

He admitted himself it wasn’t as if he’d be heading to a food bank any time soon, no matter what.

But there was a guy at the peak of his career facing up to the real possibility he was going to be on the scrapheap, left wondering what might have been.

It was a dark time so no one should grudge the ex-Livingston kid his moment of light.

A happy Snodgrass in top form is a major asset for Scotland. We could have done with him in the second half of the last campaign, that’s for sure.

At 29 he’ll be vital in the next one, especially when several experienced members of the squad will probably be off into the sunset by then.

There will be plenty of transfers in the next 48 hours that will have us shaking our heads. But Snoddy heading to the Hammers is one that deserves to raise a smile.