When Crystal Palace signed Jordan Ayew on a permanent basis back in the summer, it felt undeserved on the Ghanaian's behalf.

The former Aston Villa striker had netted just one Premier League goal for the Eagles during his season-long loan from Swansea throughout the 2018/19 campaign, but nevertheless, Roy Hodgson and co had seen enough from the forward to take a gamble on him.

In truth, at just £2.5m it wasn't a massive risk, although it was still a bold call given how underwhelming he had performed while on loan.

However, Crystal Palace's Sporting Director Dougie Freedman is probably jumping for joy that he did sign Ayew permanently, and in such shrewd fashion given the lowly fee.

Since becoming a Palace player on a full-time basis, and also taking the No.9 shirt from Alexander Sorloth, the former Lorient striker has looked like a completely different attacker to the goal-shy figure we saw last term.

He has netted an impressive eight Premier League goals to stand out as the south Londoners' top scorer, but his strikes have been worth their weight in gold in terms of points.

Almost all of his efforts have been match-winners, or failing that, equalisers - Ayew had won Crystal Palace 12 points alone after his goal dispatched Brighton recently, and he then made that 14 points when scoring another winner against Watford the following week.

It just begs the question - what would've happened if Palace hadn't signed the 27-year-old?

Well, for one, the Eagles' campaign would look extremely different.

Take those 14 points away from Hodgson's men, and they'd be languishing on the same amount of points as 19th-placed Aston Villa, who have 25 to their name - Palace would be nowhere near the comfort of their current spot in 11th without Ayew.

The club's summer shrewdness in completing a bargain deal for the Ghana international has truly paid dividends.

Did he really play for us?! No Palace fan has managed to name all of these obscure Eagles signings....

In other news, this Crystal Palace man has been one of the shrewdest investments in the Steve Parish era...