Never more than the Saturday just gone have three goals in Yorkshire created such a ripple of discontent and debate in Suffolk. Jordan Rhodes's fantastic hat-trick and along with it a piece of history has re-ignited the debate as to why Jordan was sold in the summer to Huddersfield.

The day it was announced Ipswich had accepted a bid for Rhodes there was a niggling doubt in my mind that it may come back and bite us on the proverbial you know what. Since then we have struggled for goals, a good presence up front, a player who can hold the ball up and when needed give as good as the defender gives. So why was Rhodes sold?

Money

The most obvious reason to sell Rhodes would have been to generate revenue for Keane to spend; however with Evans investment I thought the days of Town selling their best talent was over. But the moment a bid is received for arguably our best academy player since Bent we agree and off he goes. Are the finances so poor that we need to sell our brightest young prospect? The £8 million spending since has proved we our financially secure and backed by Evans so the phrase “sell before we buy” cannot apply. As a young player his wages would have been low and we seem happy to pay players such as Delaney and Priskin a damn sight more and I would rather they went first. So money was not a factor in this transfer.

Roy Keane

I would like to think that RK has the final say on which players come and go, so at some point Keane must have said to Evans etc Rhodes can go. This is what I find hard to believe, Rhodes last season was really starting to be a presence in our team and cause opposition defenders problems. Yes, I understand as a striker he didn’t set the goal charts alight for us, but nor are any of our current strikers of whom one cost £1.2 million and is on a damn sight higher wage than Rhodes would have been on (back to the money issue). After Rhodes departure Keane really began talking up the prospect of young Connor Wickham, whom I am sure will in the future be a good player for us. However, Rhodes I believe was a good couple of years' development above Wickham with the loan spell he had at Brentford which really bought Rhodes on, just ask any Brentford fan. I find it difficult to accept that Rhodes was behind Wickham in the pecking order and that Keane didn’t rate Rhodes high enough to keep him at the team and in the first team squad.

First Team Opportunities

One other reason why Jordan may of wanted to leave was to secure first team football. The loan at Brentford would have whetted his appetite for the first team and if Ipswich couldn’t guarantee him this he may have thought a drop down the leagues was beneficial to his career. If I was Keane and this was JR's reason then instead of selling our best talent another loan should have been arranged and not selling the family silver.

Basically, we will never know the real reason Jordan left and I am second guessing, but I do feel it was not financially related and that either a) RK and him fell out or b) a third party influence swayed the player's mind.

One final item that may have swayed it for Jordan was when he returned to Playford Road after discussing the move. As we know Jordan was set to turn the move down but no one from Ipswich tried to persuade him to stay. Why? This was one of our brightest young prospects who the fans enjoyed seeing play.

Finally these stats say it much better than I can:

Jordan Rhodes – Played 16 Scored 11 Priskin – Played 11 Scored 2 Stead – Could play all year and would still not score.

Huddersfield - Top six Ipswich - 24th

So Mr Keane and Mr Evans – WHY? And I hope we have a sell on clause because this boy is going to make it to the Premier League before we do.

bluewein added 19:30 - Oct 14 Gotta agree with the goals at a lower league level theory. JR scored a hatful last season in league 2, then Clark signed him up for league 1. Hardly a massive gap between those two leagues, is there?! Note the amount of teams who get promoted from league 2 to 1 and win promotion streight away, or are there or there about. (Yeovil, Doncaster, Peterbourgh, Walsall to name but a few.) It is frustrating, I agree, that a hot prospect was sold unexpectedly, but moaning about it really dosn't make a difference. No-one will EVER know why he went, as is the way of football, and all this toss about him being at a prem club come january...FORGET IT!! Beckford, Lambert, Cox, Jackson, they've all been prolific in league 1 and supposed to be that good, what's happened to them... Beckford:- Poor attitude, big headed. Lambert:- That good he went to....Southampton (another L 1 club!!!) Cox:- Really banging them in for WBA....uummm Jackson:- Offers in the summer? Any offers at all!!!? Not saying this is Rhodes future, but those 4 strikers are just a handful of players who showed that they will be gamble's that no1 wants to take, and the same will be of Rhodes. No prem team will pay big money for a 20 year old who's scored goals for fun in league 1. Best of luck to him, but seriously guy's, let it go!!!

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dirtydingusmagee added 19:51 - Oct 14 I thought putting the young guns out on loan was to give them experience,he was doing well ,he should have been given a chance to prove himself back home,history now, but i reckon it will be egg on Keane's face .
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Bluetone added 19:53 - Oct 14 If the departure of Rhodes leads to the departure of Keane then he will serve a last beneficial service to the Town.
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WickedBlue added 19:56 - Oct 14 Actually yes he would but Garvan has not been performing for us so far this season. And I am a fan of his, I think he has great potential but he hasn't reached it. Garvan said he was going to get his head down and work to get back in RK plans....good managemnet in my point of view. As for D Wright I can not explain what has happened there but oviously something has. I did note it all kicked off when DDD said about his 'Ipswich mole' but that could just me put 2+2 and getting 5. But considering the problems with the back line I am surprised he hasn't been played. As I have said many time, if I were RK I would play Rossi...McA...Delaney...D.Wright but who the hell am I?

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tractor_seagull added 20:49 - Oct 14 i was gutted the day that Jordan was sold.. i had great belief that he would really start to do it this year.. Magilton probably farmed him out to get experience, and he grasped it with both hands!! My mate is a Brentford fan and he was amazed, he saw a star in Rhodes, and not in Bowditch! I wish him luck and just hope we can turn things around and get 3 pts against the swans.. then we won't feel so bad about it all! up the town!

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Lightningboy added 22:20 - Oct 14 Rhodes was hardly given much of a chance here really was he?..Jim brought him on here and there which was fine as he was only 17/18 and just breaking into the team but for Keane to get rid without having seen him play at league level is beyond me...why didn't we just loan him out for the season?..were we that desperate for the cash?...I said the day he was sold that he'd get 25 goals+ this season all be it at league 1 level..at this rate it could be 30+ and another big mistake on this club (or Keane's) part. I am expecting a very BIG turn around this saturday - a quarter of the way into what was supposed to be a succesful season and bottom is nowhere near acceptable..another defeat and it'll be time for all you Roy Keane fans to start pulling your heads out of his sand-pit.

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yorkshirebluehd7 added 22:23 - Oct 14 i live in huddersfield while still been a itfc fan, it baffeles me how well rhodes is doing my mates also cant beleve this was the same with gary roberts aswell. and from a insider of huddersfield they are preparing a bid for garven next year watch out he will be there next star player
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patrickswell added 22:26 - Oct 14 We missed a huge opportunity last season by not keeping him on our bench and blooding him regularly from there. God knows, there were enough games where we could have done with a goal threat coming from the bench. As to why people are getting upset about Rhodes's transfer, well it's not brain surgery is it. A home grown product is already into double figures for the season, while our expensive replacements have 1 league goal between them. The fact that nobody bothered to return Rhodes's calls no doubt served to fire him up. Huddersfield must be grateful to us for sending him on with a point or two to prove.

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devontractorboy added 22:55 - Oct 14 Great article spot on, worse mistake Keane has made IMO But as many of you have said time to move on....now where the hell are these loan signings???????????????????????
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BlueBoots added 02:31 - Oct 15 Don't even have to think about this one - I would have Priskin ahead of Rhodes in my team anyday. Anyone that thinks scoring a few goals against rotten League 1/2 defences is a benchmark for quality clearly knows nothing about football (I'm pushing 40 and a fat knacker, but I'd back myself to score at least 1 goal against Exeter with the right service). Priskin is a fantastic finisher, has lots of flair and guile about him, and WILL score lots of goals in a Town shirt. His lack of goals so far this season is a) symptomatic of the team underperforming as a whole, and b) due to being in and out of the side with RK's early season tinkering.

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Facefacts added 08:30 - Oct 15 Thanks for the link to the timesonline article, I hadn't seen that before. Interesting quote from Sunderland player 'Keane's man management skills are non existent'. I can understand that this might lead to one or two problems, eg. chatback from any player = 'you can leave the club' (not spoken to the player, but over the phone to his agent). Jim Magilton seemed to handle the Amsterdam affair aftermath badly in early 2007 and that was probably a man management shortfall also. As a response to this blog, we should be speculating on how we are going to scrape the first win of the season, from where we are now. In our present league position, forget the past, whoever the manager is, and it's now Roy Keane, we need to win some football matches urgently. Whatever it takes.

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itfc1981 added 10:14 - Oct 15 The sam parkin thing buggs me, the argument goes, he came here and did shite after banging in league 1 goals, rhodes the other way round, people say its a big gap between the lower leagues and the championship, yet why then is it Parkin was shite on his return to the lower leagues, surley he showed have been scoreing again? no, I think you'll find he had found his 'club' at swindon where everything went for him. yet out side of that club he's been rubish at whateva league he has played in.

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WeWereZombies added 10:23 - Oct 15 jas0999...good point, the only thing missing from the blog, was the Andy Rhodes issue. Perhaps something went on that still rankles with the club even through a change of owner, chief executive and manager. But I always hope that Ipswich are a bigger club than that and would refrain from heaping the sins of the father upon the son. I think it is more likely that it is Roy Keane's similarity to Margaret Thatcher that is to blame - bombastic character with no attention to detail and therefore no thorough leading to grave errors of judgement.

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onlybluesandhorses added 11:42 - Oct 15 The sale of Rhodes is symptomatic of a large change at the Club. We now have an owner and chief exec with no previous experience in football and, together with the manager, no previous connection with the Club's history and culture which includes developing its own players. Clegg said that "high performance sport is in his DNA". Well giving a chance to our young prospects is in the Club's DNA and that of its supporters. Being chief exec of Ipswich Town is about more than a "business model" Mr Clegg. To sell a player of such promise without assessing his true value by giving him a chance sticks up two fingers both to the Academy and the fans. It also seems to have been a big mistake, as all fans suspected at the time. Money clearly was not the issue since we have spent heavily since then on Edwards and Leadbitter. It is clear that Rhodes did not want to leave and not just the fans of Huddersfield and Brentford think RK is insane. The other more immediate concern is that the sale of Rhodes suggests that RK is no judge of a player. Oh dear.

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ItfcFtw added 13:24 - Oct 15 I played with jordan at skoool and i can safely say hes gonna be worldclass! Shame are managers a D!k
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Help added 13:29 - Oct 15 Interesting blog. Like so many things that have happened since ME & also RK arrived. They dont seem to make sense. However I would like to pick you up on the opening line of First Team oppotunities. From what I understand JR never wanted to leave. he was asked to leave by RK shall we say. As really good name says. I understand some players, not just JR and RK may have had a falling out and as boss he made the ultimate decision, and some of those players were moved on. For those of you who like Conner. In his brief stint so far what has he done in the team. Only score goals at lower level. no different to Rhodes.

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dobbie73 added 18:38 - Oct 15 "I think it is more likely that it is Roy Keane's similarity to Margaret Thatcher that is to blame - bombastic character with no attention to detail and therefore no thorough leading to grave errors of judgement." WeWereZombies - so not the bouffant barnet, big handbag, chiffon dress and intense hatred of Communists then? Lol.
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