[Archived] Rhodes- exit clause in contract

[3rdpillar]

Jordan's goals maybe keeping us in this league, but he was signed to score the goals to get us out of this league-#headtrip

+1000

[Howler]

Jordan's goals maybe keeping us in this league, but he was signed to score the goals to get us out of this league-#headtrip

True, but thats not really his fault is it? Blame the donkeys behind him.

How anyone can question if the the 3rd highest scorer in the division has been a good signing is a mystery. Proven goalscorers are rare and cost a premium.

Its not his fault he cost £8m. Best cost £3m. I would rather Rhodes than three players of Leon Best's quality.

Our real failing is not coaching him enough and developing his game outside the box, and not playing to his strengths by whipping in lots of crosses. Our wingers have been appalling all season.

[Eddie]

Agreed. £8m might have been a bit much for him, but what we have seen is the difference between buying some in the 2-4 range and buying someone in the 6-10 range. for 2-4 you might get a bargain, but you can just as easily get a dud. In Jordan Rhodes we bought goals. He's far from the complete player, but if he were we'd be talking about a £30m striker in the Champions League, not someone in the Championship.

With him in the side next season we know we will get 20+ goals from one player. The challenge will be improving the midfield so that we don't have to rely so heavily on one man taking his chances and so that we can also create more for him and allow him to play his natural game. There are plenty of problems with this current side, but Rhodes is not one of them.

[den]

Agreed. £8m might have been a bit much for him, but what we have seen is the difference between buying some in the 2-4 range and buying someone in the 6-10 range. for 2-4 you might get a bargain, but you can just as easily get a dud. In Jordan Rhodes we bought goals. He's far from the complete player, but if he were we'd be talking about a £30m striker in the Champions League, not someone in the Championship.

With him in the side next season we know we will get 20+ goals from one player. The challenge will be improving the midfield so that we don't have to rely so heavily on one man taking his chances and so that we can also create more for him and allow him to play his natural game. There are plenty of problems with this current side, but Rhodes is not one of them.

Well like it or not, Rhodes is one of the problems. You say "create more" chances for him Eddie, but that's exactly the point I made when I asked if people if they thought the answer to our problems is to ask rhodes to score 50 goals next season. Obviously he isn't going to do that. Asking someone to do that is ridiculous, but it is what some people argued for and still do.

Look, it's no good if we have one man scoring every game, if it's the only goal we score, the only chance we create, we're not able to keep hold of the ball up front meaning the opposition is dominating possession and thereby having control of the game - and the team is losing week after week - and that's what's been happening this season. IMO, we can't go 4-4-2, so the front man simply has to be able to not only link play, but be able to turn, create things for himself and others. We.ve had plenty of strikers over the entire history of the club who did that. Good players can do that. Flooding the midfield with players who can score 10/15 goals apiece is the other option, but two considerations here - firstly, can we afford them in this league on top of Rhodes and his wages (which, if he stays will no doubt be rising) and secondly, we still need the target man to help create the chances for these goal scoring midfielders.

It's not an easy one, but the idea that we keep hold of him next season and carry on as we are, while hoping everything is going to change doesn't seem the answer to me.

[Neil Weaver]

With him in the side next season we know we will get 20+ goals from one player. The challenge will be improving the midfield so that we don't have to rely so heavily on one man taking his chances and so that we can also create more for him and allow him to play his natural game. There are plenty of problems with this current side, but Rhodes is not one of them.

And if he's not here next season?

[M-K]

Agreed. £8m might have been a bit much for him, but what we have seen is the difference between buying some in the 2-4 range and buying someone in the 6-10 range. for 2-4 you might get a bargain, but you can just as easily get a dud.

It doesn't seem to make that much difference.

For 2-4m you might get Leon Best or Jason Roberts. Alternatively you could get Benni McCarthy or Roque Santa Cruz.

For 6-10m it could be a 20-goal striker but it could just as easily be Kalinic or Grabbi.

Blackburn's recent history doesn't show much correlation between higher transfer fees and better results. You might as well just toss a coin.

[tonygreenbank]

Jordan's goals maybe keeping us in this league, but he was signed to score the goals to get us out of this league-#headtrip

Ive spent an interesting 30 minutes reviewing the season so far( a perk of retirement!) and Jordan Rhodes has single-handedly earned Rovers 17 points in this division!

It would have been guaranteed relegation along with Bristol City.

His debut was the fourth match in also so his contribution could have been even greater.

If ever a player has proven value for money then surely its JR.

The lad comes in for some criticism on here about his movement, link up play and speed off the ball but the guy deserves a bit of credit as a goalscorer.

We still have 4 games to go with relegation still a possibility but Rhodes has done his bit; there are so many other scapegoats at Ewood.

[Gally]

I don't think his link up play is all that bad. He's not quick or strong enough to be a proper target man, but when he gets the ball played to his feet he finds another Rovers shirt more often than not, and his closing down is top class.

[LeChuck]

Interestingly neither Cardiff nor Hull have a goals scorer in double figures

It's not a requirement for getting out of the league, it's a team game.

A bit like under Allardyce where we didn't have a reliable goalscorer.

[diziet2]

So??? Lost for words are we Ben?

As I posted on the match thread last night, after the game....

--------------------------------------------------

http://www.brfcs.com/mb/index.php/topic/29342-new-article-blackburn-rovers-vs-huddersfield-town-tuesday-16-april-1945/?p=1403419

congratulations.. gutted.. not over yet, be Town will need a 2 results from the millwall, Barnsley and Bristol city games. you need one more result to be safe, should get it somewhere.

All the best

Depressed.

------------------------------------------------

[RevidgeBlue]

Well like it or not, Rhodes is one of the problems. You say "create more" chances for him Eddie, but that's exactly the point I made when I asked if people if they thought the answer to our problems is to ask rhodes to score 50 goals next season. Obviously he isn't going to do that. Asking someone to do that is ridiculous, but it is what some people argued for and still do.

Look, it's no good if we have one man scoring every game, if it's the only goal we score, the only chance we create, we're not able to keep hold of the ball up front meaning the opposition is dominating possession and thereby having control of the game - and the team is losing week after week - and that's what's been happening this season. IMO, we can't go 4-4-2, so the front man simply has to be able to not only link play, but be able to turn, create things for himself and others. We.ve had plenty of strikers over the entire history of the club who did that. Good players can do that. Flooding the midfield with players who can score 10/15 goals apiece is the other option, but two considerations here - firstly, can we afford them in this league on top of Rhodes and his wages (which, if he stays will no doubt be rising) and secondly, we still need the target man to help create the chances for these goal scoring midfielders.

It's not an easy one, but the idea that we keep hold of him next season and carry on as we are, while hoping everything is going to change doesn't seem the answer to me.

He really really isn't.

No-one but no-one is arguing the unrealistic view that the service should be improved to the extent that Rhodes score 50 goals. That was a hypothetical figure you yourself came up with and I replied by stating that in my view Rhodes scored 50 next season (or anyone else for that matter) we'd be doing rather well!

Ideally we need to keep Rhodes. Then we need to improve the service in to him. If he can score the 25 goals he has done this season that's fine, if he can get more so much the better. Then we need another striker who can pitch in with at least ten + goals, a Billy Sharp type if you will. And several other members of the team are going to have to do their bit by chipping in with goals if we are to be successful.

Then the midfielders need to up their game in the manner they did last night, that's where the problem with not bossing games has come from this season imo, at various times one or more of Lowe Murphy and Etuhu have been exceedingly poor. With Williamson and Jones in midfield you feel a bit more confident about getting a foothold in midfield. It's got nothing to do with Rhodes' supposed inability to hold the ball up.

The reality though is that we've been extremely lucky to have Rhodes this season in a side which has performed so badly. His goals may not have taken us up as we hoped when we signed him but they've kept us up (hopefully). So unfortunately It's fairly unlikely imo we'll have to worry about his 25 goals holding us back next season.

[Amo]

Yes, our 25 goal striker is one of our problems.

Go home, Den, you are drunk.

[Eddie]

Well like it or not, Rhodes is one of the problems. You say "create more" chances for him Eddie, but that's exactly the point I made when I asked if people if they thought the answer to our problems is to ask rhodes to score 50 goals next season. Obviously he isn't going to do that. Asking someone to do that is ridiculous, but it is what some people argued for and still do.

Look, it's no good if we have one man scoring every game, if it's the only goal we score, the only chance we create, we're not able to keep hold of the ball up front meaning the opposition is dominating possession and thereby having control of the game - and the team is losing week after week - and that's what's been happening this season. IMO, we can't go 4-4-2, so the front man simply has to be able to not only link play, but be able to turn, create things for himself and others. We.ve had plenty of strikers over the entire history of the club who did that. Good players can do that. Flooding the midfield with players who can score 10/15 goals apiece is the other option, but two considerations here - firstly, can we afford them in this league on top of Rhodes and his wages (which, if he stays will no doubt be rising) and secondly, we still need the target man to help create the chances for these goal scoring midfielders.

It's not an easy one, but the idea that we keep hold of him next season and carry on as we are, while hoping everything is going to change doesn't seem the answer to me.

I'd love it if we could get Ibrahimovic up front, but that just isn't going to happen.

Rhodes guarantees goals and, the last time I checked, that tends to help you win football matches.

We have had an appalling midfield all season and an error prone back four, but Rhodes has been reliable in his ability to grab goals. He's not the best all-round forward on the planet, but to say he is part of the problem is crazy.

If we can build a midfield that can compete for the ball and retain possession then we won't rely on Rhodes to single handedly lead the line. More often than not he is isolated and outnumbered and he's not supposed to be out there as a target man.

We SHOULD be one of the best teams in this division and, with that in mind, we should be able to have a player in the team who can hang around the box and take his chances when they come to him. There's no reason why we should be settling for the idea that we need either a big target man or raw pace up front because we need to rely on our ability to hit teams on the break. Get a stable midfield partnership, start to win the midfield battle and get him some support up front and Rhodes will be an important part of our team next season.

[diziet2]

seeing as your not universally keen on young Jordan, any chance of a buy-back option? ideally for the last 3 games of the season? Surely Shebby (a man with vision that lad!) will see that it makes sense. Help lower your running costs... lend-lease scheme?... go on you know you want too...

[Tardyrover]

He's my player of the season, who's yours! ?? !

[Salgado Is A Hero]

I don't think his link up play is all that bad. He's not quick or strong enough to be a proper target man, but when he gets the ball played to his feet he finds another Rovers shirt more often than not, and his closing down is top class.

Agreed. Defoe has been playing the lone-striker role pretty well this season but I doubt he'd be much use if they hoofed the ball up to him. For us and for Scotland, Rhodes can bring others into play when balls are played into his feet. He's young so his strength can be developed, and he will get better at holding the ball up, but it's the tactics that have been the problem this season.

I'd like to see another striker next to him for the rest of the season. As Best isn't fully fit, we should give Goodwillie the chance.

[Jimmy612]

Compiled an interesting little list of the top scorers in the Championship in the last 5-6 years. Interestingly not many have scored as many as 24 - often with around 22 goals per season. Just thought it was interesting to consider how much was spent on strikers in the Championship in recent years (exception being Phillips (1997)).

Anyway, list is below. How many do we think are/have been as good as or better than Rhodes. I think it also could show just how difficult it is to break into the PL, even if you score 20+ goals in the Championship - Look at how many have been a success in the PL. Might it be an indication that unless you are an all round player -the PL could be a very difficult place to play your football?

Also included age of purchase in the brackets - just for fairness sake. It does not represent the number of goals they scored!

Glen Murray – free (29)

Charlie Austin – Undisclosed (21)

Marlon King - 500,000 (24)

Rickie Lambert - 1million (27)

Grant Holt – Undisclosed (27)

Kevin Doyle – £117,000 (21)

Jamie Cureton – Free (30)

Michael Chopra - £500,000 (23)

Kevin Philips - £350,000 (23)

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake – 1.5million (22)

Jason Scotland – 25,000 (28)

Ross McCormack – Free (21)

Nicky Maynard - £2.25m (21)

Shane Long – Free (18)

Danny Graham - £200,000 (23)

Scott Sinclair – 500,000 (rising to £1m)

Ricardo Vaz te – Undisclosed (25)

Jordan Rhodes- £8million (22)

Matt Jansen -4.1million (21)

Louis Saha - 2million (21)

[den]

Agreed. Defoe has been playing the lone-striker role pretty well this season but I doubt he'd be much use if they hoofed the ball up to him. For us and for Scotland, Rhodes can bring others into play when balls are played into his feet. He's young so his strength can be developed, and he will get better at holding the ball up, but it's the tactics that have been the problem this season.

Oh not the tactics excuse again. Our problems over the past two and a half years are down to selling good players while buying tripe.

Yakubu did fine amid all the hoofball claims. There again, he's a far superior player to Rhodes and that isn't criticising Rhodes.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

Yes, our 25 goal striker is one of our problems.

Go home, Den, you are drunk.

Couldn't agree more, drunk or insane, one of the two.

Rhodes has scored 51% of our league goals this season. 51%!! FIVETY ONE FLIPPIN PERCENT! Its astonishing in my opinion, I didn't even know that was realistically possible at a club until this season. The guy is the very definition of a one-man team and he's saved Rovers from finishing about 5 points below Bristol City. And I honestly think that would have happened, 5 different managers, underperforming, uncaring players, psychotic owners, a hired clown parading around sticking his nose in all season, in every respect but the quality of our striker, we thoroughly deserved to finish bottom.

Jordan Rhodes has been a bastion of professionalism, ability, honesty and hard work amongst a torrid season of incompetence, deception and buffoonery. In my opinion he's the only thing thats stopped us breaking records for being the worst performing newly relegated club in english football history.

I've no idea why anyone would want to play down his vital, well beyond vital, contribution this season. But to actually lay blame on him...the mind boggles.

[M-K]

Rhodes has scored 51% of our league goals this season. 51%!! FIVETY ONE FLIPPIN PERCENT! Its astonishing in my opinion, I didn't even know that was realistically possible at a club until this season. The guy is the very definition of a one-man team and he's saved Rovers from finishing about 5 points below Bristol City.

It's not that long ago people here were making fun of the 'he scores when he wants' chant, i.e. that he want to score two in this game, two in that game and then none at all for a couple of months.

Also, he cost 33% more than Javier Hernandez. Damn right he should be able to score a few at the stinky end of the second division.

[RevidgeBlue]

Jimmy you've unearthed a list there of 20 or so of the most successful Championship strikers over the last 10-12 years.

How many haven't been so successful? Far more I'd imagine and that's the point with Rhodes. We were looking at going into the season without a recognised front line striker after Best's injury (unless you include Goodwillie who has flopped to date). We needed guaranteed goals, concluded Rhodes was the best available chance of giving us that and he has delivered.

The alternative Steve Kean was looking at was Simon Cox. I've just checked on wiki and he cost Forest 2m and has scored 4 goals in 36 appearances. He might have represented a more normal fee by Championship standards but who got the better deal out of those 2? Us by a mile I'd say.

In the unlikely event Rhodes is still with us next season and scores another 25 goals, would that affect your view of his value for money ratio at all ?

Finally out of your list I'd say off the top of my head many of those have gone on to do rather well in the Premiership.

[LDRover]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, he's only value for money if we get promoted or if we make money on his sale.

Neither will happen.

[gumboots]

Who cares about value for money? I love watching him score and anyway value for money might be just keeping us up.

[jim mk2]

Poor footballer but knows how to score in the lower divisions. I don't think he has the pace or physical strength to thrive in the top flight but the sheer number of his goals means a Premier League outfit might take a gamble (Sam's West Ham have been mooted). Young British players command a significant premium in the PL transfer market so I would expect us to make a good profit on our £8m in the event of a sale.

[K-Hod]

Poor footballer but knows how to score in the lower divisions. I don't think he has the pace or physical strength to thrive in the top flight but the sheer number of his goals means a Premier League outfit might take a gamble (Sam's West Ham have been mooted). Young British players command a significant premium in the PL transfer market so I would expect us to make a good profit on our £8m in the event of a sale.

I agree.

He's still very raw, but at 23, he's got time on his side, to develop all the areas of his game that aren't anywhere near as polished as his goalscoring.