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.

Photo: Action Images

suffolkpoker added 10:37 - Oct 2 a great striker at our level. I would of loved a team with Rhodes and Wickham in it. Thanks Roy...
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hoppy added 10:41 - Oct 2 “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." Actually, I would say that wasn't the only mystery about him, but only Roy Keane knows what the answer to that other one is...
1

itfchorry added 11:22 - Oct 2 Clegg Out
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BrettenhamBlue added 11:38 - Oct 2 Good move Keane. Get rid of Rhodes and bring in Rory Fallon. Top class striker who would have been brilliant alongside Wickham, Counago etc. Not that we are bitter or anything lol
2

jas0999 added 12:11 - Oct 2 Even MM, someone who dislikes Roy Keane, has public ally stated that it wasn't Roys doing that Rhodes left the football club. Actions of a past manager and clegg.
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PhilTWTD added 12:27 - Oct 2 jas0999 Not sure he has and if he did I'm not sure he would have been right. I don't think anyone else wanted him to go, certainly not the academy staff who had worked with him or Jordan himself. Unfair to blame the chief executive as managers always have the last say in footballing matters and would assume ME negotiated the terms of the deal.
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Surco72 added 12:41 - Oct 2 Jas0999 even now still trying to defend Keane .Jordan has openly said he didn't want to leave and even phoned the club but the manager wanted him gone . Don't know what the big issue is anyway we signed Priskin as a replacement .....
4

Langdon_Blue added 12:59 - Oct 2 Joe Royle took 20 minutes to spot potential in a 15 year old Rhodes, while Roy Keane failed to spot virtually the finished article training right under his nose, day in day out. Well I am surprised!!
1

ChrisR added 13:26 - Oct 2 Great transfer work by Keane whose brilliant signings Priskin and Martin scored almost zero goals in hundreds of games and sells goal a game striker for peanuts , probably because he disliked his father I heard . To this day M Evans is reluctant to pay big money after getting stung like this.
1

jpring89 added 14:16 - Oct 2 Time to move on now i think
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OldClactonBlue added 15:11 - Oct 2 Well Keane admitted to me at a meeting, Supporters Club I think, that it was down to him and that he'd got it wrong. I had slightly more respect for him for that. Bitter, I will always be bitter about it! That decision set this club back enormously. I will never have any respect for Keane's opinion on football.
2

KINGCHAPPO added 15:18 - Oct 2 I did hear from a mate, that he left because his father Andy Rhodes had a falling out with Keane and was dismissed, so Jordan was sold. Not sure if totally true, but got to have some truth in there somewhere.
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muhrensleftfoot added 15:31 - Oct 2 I heard that Rhodes was in Huddersfield about to sign for them, but really didn't want to leave ITFC, so in a last minute attempt to discuss his future with Keane, he tried to phone him several times, but Keane refused to take the call, so he signed for Huddersfield. Could be true, could be a story .. only Rhodes and Keane know the facts
2

pumpee added 16:12 - Oct 2 *word....
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PhilTWTD added 16:15 - Oct 2 KINGCHAPPO Andy Rhodes left when Jim Magilton was manager. Muhrensleftfoot That is essentially what happened.
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Bergholtblue added 17:21 - Oct 2 Can't believe that we are still bleating on about this. Sometimes things happen for a reason. As others have pointed out if we had kept him we may never have got Fallon, Priskin, Chopra and all the other lame loanees we had. And where would we be now without them? (Financially secure, premiership?)
2

petersongoal added 17:24 - Oct 2 Just one of many reasons I'll never respect Roy Keane. What an idiot.
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TractorRoyNo1 added 18:54 - Oct 2 Evans said we had to cash - in on one of the kids. Who will make some money in the long run? We got big money for Wickham and Rhodes still hasn't played in the Premier. The business decision was right, the heart decision was bad.
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itfc1981 added 21:38 - Oct 2 Phil re Clegg this was prior to Evans taking a more hands on approach to play deals was it not? Anyways its still a f-eing embarrassment. TractorRoyNo1 Pele never played in the Premier either, see we can all talk bollox.
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runningout added 21:53 - Oct 2 it's not guaranteed he would have shone if he stayed with us longer... He's bound to score against Saturday though...
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Ipswich24 added 23:10 - Oct 2 What I never have or never will understand is why didn't we loan him out why sell such a promissing talent? That way he can leave do well and is still our player!
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PavlovsCat added 00:09 - Oct 3 KINGCHAPPO is spot on; I was at that meeting. It was certainly nothing to do with Rhodes' dad. Keane was solely to blame, and admitted that night he'd made a mistake. The one and only time I ever respected that madman. Oh, and the fact he liked dogs!
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algarvefan added 09:36 - Oct 3 I can't believe Roy Keane let Arnold Murhen go!
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bobble added 14:45 - Oct 3 if theres a really dumb move you can be sure the dark lord would do it....
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miltonmowbray added 00:13 - Oct 4 Keane - complete goon. I hear it was actually on his advice that Decca decided not to sign The Beatles.
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