Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
Rhodes Amongst the Championship's Best
Saturday, 9th Feb 2013 06:00

Town boss Mick McCarthy rates former Blues frontman Jordan Rhodes as one of the top goalscorers in the Championship. Blackburn striker Rhodes, 23, faces his old club for the first time today when the Blues are in action at Ewood Park.

“He’s a goalscorer, there’s no question about that,” McCarthy said. “Somebody said to me ‘They got that right, signing him’.

“I said, ‘Well, he did cost £8 million and bundles of money a week!’. So far, so good, they have. But for that kind of money you’ve got to do it in the Premier League.

“We watched their game with Bristol City last week and it was a bit like ours, there wasn’t a lot in it. Two goals from Jordan Rhodes was the difference.

“He’s certainly a predator. The two goals he got last week were excellent, from not having that much in the game. In terms of being a goalscorer, he’s up there with the best in the Championship.

“He’s one to watch on Saturday,” the Town manager added. “Actually, he’s not one to watch, he’s one to stop!”

Whether Rhodes will make it in the Premier League may depend on which club he is with, McCarthy believes: “It remains to be seen. You get in a team that gets promoted and suddenly the goalscorer that’s been scoring all the goals ends up having to do a little bit more, a bit more defending, you don’t have as much of the ball, you don’t get as many crosses, as many passes and you don’t score as many goals by default.

“If he goes and plays for one of the top teams, who knows? But, finishers like him can generally do it anywhere.”

He says the Scotland international was on his radar when he was manager of Wolves but that he wouldn’t have spent the size of fee Blackburn paid for him: “Everybody was looking at him, but we were never going to spend £8 million on him.”

Former manager Roy Keane sold Rhodes to Huddersfield in the summer of 2009 - “It was a chance I took after receiving an offer which was good for the club” — after he had made only 10 Town sub appearances, scoring one goal, for a fee which, with a 10% sell-on from his switch to Blackburn, moved close to £1.5 million.

http://www.twtd.co.uk/images/news/1394.jpg>
Rhodes nets his only senior goal for Town in the 1-1 home draw with Cardiff on April 9th 2008

McCarthy admitted that he’s not fully aware of the the ins and outs of Rhodes’s controversial exit but says it’s easy to judge these situations with hindsight: “I don’t really know Jordan, I know his old man [former Town keeper-coach] Andy better, I played at Barnsley with him. He’s got a remarkable goalscoring record, certainly.

“I have to know the full circumstances of it. From what I hear, it seems to me that Connor Wickham had come on to the scene as well and was Jordan Rhodes scoring all the goals here that he’s scoring now?

“It would be easy for me to join in, in hindsight, somebody having scored all those goals, but from what I gather there was a move set up for him not really from the management. He wasn’t getting a game, Connor Wickham came on the scene and then there was a move set up.

“I don’t know. Roy Keane was here and I don’t know how many times Roy had even seen him. I don’t know the circumstances.

“But it’s always the same when somebody leaves a club and then does well, everybody wants to point the finger at the bloke who got shot of him or sold him. I’m not going to join in because there’ll be more to it than meets the eye, believe me.”

Former Blues loanee DJ Campbell joined Blackburn on a similar basis for the remainder of the season yesterday but McCarthy’s not sure whether the QPR man will go straight into the Blackburn team: “He’s still our leading goalscorer but I don’t know whether he’s certain [to play].

"I’m sure Jordan Rhodes will be playing, whether [Rovers manager Michael Appleton] plays those two together or not I don’t know.”

He says there are similarities between Campbell and Rhodes: “He’s another you don’t really see for a lot of the game. He’s not one of those that will be knocking people around, winning headers about the place or dictating proceedings, you might not see him.

“DJ was very similar. I think in the Charlton game DJ missed a penalty, he didn’t really have a lot in the game, then scored a great goal having missed a couple of chances.

“And I think Jordan Rhodes is the same, they’re a little bit ghost-like. You don’t see them, you don’t pick them up but they always have that happy knack of putting the ball in the net, which is a real threat.”

Speaking as a former centre-half, McCarthy says that type of player isn’t easy to deal with: “Those kind of guys, they can be horrible to play against because you think you’re doing great, they’ve not had a kick and you’re dominating proceedings and suddenly you find you’re one down and the guy who has scored is the guy who has not had a kick, it was probably his first one.

"They just have a happy knack of finding space and time and room in the box and scoring.”


Photo: Action Images



Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.



bontcho added 06:55 - Feb 9
Still upsetting. MM is right about hindsight but Town fans were up in arms at the time and were proven correct.
0

TractorMan added 07:10 - Feb 9
As Mick says it was always going to be Rhodes or Wickham who left and we got £800k for Rhodes and £8.1m for Wickham, with more to come.

In hindsight, yes it was wrong but we could never keep both and Wickham was judged to be the better prospect
0

bigolconnor added 08:15 - Feb 9
We should have tried our hardest to keep both of them as "we didn't need to sell". Then we wouldn't have had the money to bring in the dross that has come in the previous two years. Maybe then we would have had to come up with coaching and managerial decisions rather than chomping through 73 squad members trying to find the golden child. Oh hindsight.

And was that Mick telling us all that it wasn't Roy's fault? Quick to throw blame with a lack of facts the fickle football fan.
0

gypo added 08:56 - Feb 9
Dwelling on our history is most of the fans problems on here.
0

Michael11 added 09:21 - Feb 9
It's so gutting to think of Rhodes and DJ up front but after today we should move on, he'll play against us today and even if he scores a hat-trick there's nothing that we can do to change the past! I think we have a bright future with MM and TC so hopefully this will all be put to bed!
0

Ipswich24 added 09:21 - Feb 9
Phil do you know what the deal is with Wickham, when will we get more instalments?
Is it a sell on fee? Is it appearances?
0

Mark added 09:21 - Feb 9
It was terrible news when we sold Rhodes and most fans knew then that it was a mistake. We did not NEED to sell, as the up front amount was very little and let's remember that Keane blew over £10M on players that have nearly all since left on free transfers (or pay offs).

We must invest in youth and hold onto the decent ones as long as we can. Wickham was different as an offer starting at £8M was too good to turn town, but selling Rhodes for peanuts (at the time, I know we since got some sell on money) was madness.
0

MattinLondon added 09:59 - Feb 9
@Te=ractorMan

In hindsight, yes it was wrong but we could never keep both and Wickham was judged to be the better prospect

No offence but I just don't understand this argument - are you saying that we can only have one good youngster at any one time?
0

warwickblue added 10:31 - Feb 9
I'm just thankful that we now have someone in charge who makes the sort of sensible, rational and balanced comments we see above from MM.
0

itfc1981 added 11:11 - Feb 9
Rhodes = God
0

itfc1981 added 11:14 - Feb 9
Foresight as nothing to do with hindsight!

40 goals in youth and resers when he left means a blind man could see his ability
0

Jon_456 added 11:27 - Feb 9
i wonder if magilton had stayed we would have kept them and use our youth like we used to. nevermind, we'll learn to hold on to our future prospects hopefully
0

Wickets added 11:41 - Feb 9
The handling of the Rhodes situation was and is indefensable, sorry Mick! now lets move on hopefully we have learned a very tough lesson.
0

MattinLondon added 11:51 - Feb 9
Well said Wickets
0

ldnj added 11:59 - Feb 9
I don't agree one needed to be sold. They were both young, great prospects, on low wages. Why not develop them for the first team which would (presumably) help their value ? What really rankles was the low fee and the paltry sell-on clause. I can still not believe it was only 10% as you hear of young lower/non-league players with 20-25% sell-ons. That to me was the poorest part of the whole business, not benefiting enough from the potential future value of a player who clearly had potential given the number of goals scored at all levels (inc. Championship for Ipswich).

Unfortunately you have to accept that good youngsters will probably leave, therefore from a business perspective you want to maximise their worth.

0

jas0999 added 12:09 - Feb 9
I honestly believe it is now time to draw a line under this. As MM rightly points out 'there will be more than meets the eye' with this. None of us know the circumstances behind the sale - we will probably never know. There have always been many rumours. Bottom line is it's time to move on.
0

Bluecynic added 12:39 - Feb 9
Why on earth couldn't Rhodes have gone on a Season's loan somewhere? Or Wickham?
0

Ipswichbusiness added 14:18 - Feb 9
Rhodes and Wickham would have been a cracking forward pair. However, it wasn't to be. When you are in the lower half of the Championship and a Premiership club comes in with an £8 million offer it is very hard to stop the player leaving. The Rhodes deal is much harder to explain.
0

Berts_chin added 14:52 - Feb 9
Tale at the time was that Rhodes' move was all lined up after his training ground spat with Magilton. Allegedly the same incident led to Andy Rhodes moving on.
If true, it would point to there being some substance in McCarthy's comments.
However, when the move went through the fee quoted appeared pitiful and nothing since has made it look otherwise.
0

itfcjc added 17:25 - Feb 10
He's not a goal scorer just ask Roy Keane
0

dirtydingusmagee added 15:21 - Feb 11
well Roy werent that Keane ! ggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
0


You need to login in order to post your comments

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls

About Us Contact Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Cookies Advertising
© TWTD 1995-2024