Former Town boss Joe Royle says there’s more to former Town striker Jordan Rhodes’s game than just his remarkable goalscoring ability.
Royle paid Barnsley £5,000 for Rhodes, then 15, in March 2005 after his father Andy had joined his staff as goalkeeping-coach.
But the striker went on to make just 10 sub appearances and score one goal - pictured above against Cardiff at Portman Road in April 2008 - for the Town first team before being controversially sold to Huddersfield by then-manager Roy Keane in the summer of 2009 for a fee which, after top-ups and a sell-on following his £8 million move to Rovers in August 2012, climbed to just over £1 million.
The Scotland international frontman netted 87 goals in 129 starts and 19 appearances from the bench in all competitions for the Terriers and has scored 79 goals in 141 starts and 10 sub appearances for Blackburn.
This season he has notched five goals, all in the last four games, but Royle says the 25-year-old isn’t only about goals.
"I took his father, Andy, on as a goalkeeping coach and he mentioned his son was in the Barnsley Academy and would he be able to come down for a trial game,” Royle told the Lancashire Telegraph.
"After 20 minutes of the game, I said, ‘Yes, we’ll take him’. And as soon as he came to Ipswich he started scoring — and he’s never stopped since.
"Funnily enough I was chatting to John Aldridge a couple of months ago about strikers and he said that there was only one similar to himself, and I smiled and said straight away, ‘It’s Jordan’.
"If the ball comes off the post, off the goalkeeper, flashes across the box, he’s there. He’s also very clever in his movement. You find that when strikers score a lot of goals in the Championship it’s mostly because they’re big or because they are very quick. Jordan is quite different in that he’s clever.
"His movement in the box is up there with the best. He’s not slow either, by the way, he’s quicker than people realise. And while sometimes he may not head the ball as well outside of the box, if there’s a chance of a goal, he heads the ball very well.
"While I haven’t checked statistically, his goal record over the past five or six years must be up there with the best in the country.
"He’s also a lovely, dedicated kid, who lives the life of an athlete, and the only mystery is that no one has taken a punt on him yet from the top flight.
"I rather suspect it’s because Blackburn paid so much for him; it’s almost put golden handcuffs on him.
"But you do hear this silly thing, which always makes me smile, and which I don’t get too involved in when I hear it, but all he does is score goals.”
Former Kesgrave High School pupil Rhodes, who has said he’s a Town fan and is still close friends with Tommy Smith, one of the men charged with marking him at Ewood Park on Saturday, has a good record against the Blues, having netted four goals in his five games against them.
"Traditionally he scores against them — but then again, he scores against most clubs. It’s not personal, it’s what he does,” added Royle.