[Archived] Jordan Rhodes

[Leonard Venkhater]

Everytime we hear something from twitter or from someone ITK we split into two groups.

1 believing the world is ending and the other saying its a pack of lies. I

nsults are fired back and forth and before you know it someone has left the message board.

I like hearing from people with some insight into the goings on at Rovers but thats all it can ever be an insight.

There has been an over reaction to almost every story this summer.

As for this story. Jordan will leave Rovers in the next 24 months but personally I can't believe we would let him go so late on in the window.

I could be very wrong but I hope not. If he goes we are up to our ears in s1%t, I think.

If he goes to Wigan then there are some hard questions which have to be asked and the answers better be bloody good.

Are you a family therapist? You have certainly named the pattern.

It's the vitriol and condemnation of others who love the same club, feel the same pain etc that bemuses me.

[West Yorks Rover]

I think still think he would score 40 with the right service, not many strikers around who can finish with either foot, with such aplomb.

[cn174]

There is always this assumption the we'd have been playing with ten men.

I didn't assume that. That's why I said the rest of the team and whoever else we would have bought. I just dont think that combination of other players would have scored 27 goals.

[Stuart]

There is always this assumption the we'd have been playing with ten men.

Given our alternatives, we may as well have been.

Or are you suggesting Goodwillie would have converted those chances that Rhodes did?

But no assumption that Kean & Shebby would've been in charge of spending.

Who bought Rhodes?

[briansol]

The Roberts who fired Wigan to promotion would improve our team overall. I like Rhodes, i just don't think he is the second coming and like many have said we have seen plenty better strikers leave.

The best way to put it is like this, he is probably the final piece of the jigsaw for a promotion winning side, sadly we don't have any other pieces.

Very true, but i think that's what we probably need right now. If as a team we scored 60 goals this year without Rhodes, compared to last years 55, would you accept selling him?

I get your point, but we would never scored 60 goals without Rhodes. Our biggest problem last year was being overrun in midfield, which resulted in hoofing the ball up without any quality. The Championship is a young man's game which we found out last year. You cannot carry old legs like Murphy or Gomes in this division. Good to see Bowyer is rectifying this by bringing in the type of players that can compete.

Another factor last year was nobody else chipping in goals, players like Judge and Marshall should hopefully improve this area.

[Amo]

Who bought Rhodes?

Shebby, by all accounts. He also landed us with a crate of Portuguese nobodies we'll have to pay off.

Would you trust him to invest £8m across the squad?

[roveranout]

One of a strikers main jobs is to hold the ball up and bring others into play, common sense really. Or strikers run the channels and move their team up the pitch. These are not strengths of Jordans.

Not all forwards can hold a ball up and not all strickers run into the channels etc....

All strikers are different and with regards to Rhodes then just like at Huddersfield he thrives on balls from out wide. We've not done that on a regular basis but he is still scoring goals. For his size and weight i think Rhodes does an half decent job of holding the ball up and when the balls punted in his direction then he'll work tirelessly to make sure he gets it.

[bob fleming]

I wouldn't trust Singh with eight quid Amarillo.

[blue_n_white99]

No but he possess one of the main characteristics that a lot of strikers who posses the strenghts you listed do NOT have. That is the ability to convert most of the very few chances he recieves, with ease. Most teams wouldn't trade that for the other but he lets bring back Jason Roberts instead of Jordan eh ? FFS !

+1

Goals win games, he scores loads of them. The others we have who can hold the ball up, lead the line etc./ etc etc. couldn't score in a brothel with a £50 notes sticking out of their pockets. A striker's main task is to score goals, JR does this by the bucket load, cut him some slack, because we will miss his contribution massively when he goes and are likely to be renamed Blackburn Nil without his contribution.

[roveranout]

I get your point, but we would never scored 60 goals without Rhodes. Our biggest problem last year was being overrun in midfield, which resulted in hoofing the ball up without any quality. The Championship is a young man's game which we found out last year. You cannot carry old legs like Murphy or Gomes in this division. Good to see Bowyer is rectifying this by bringing in the type of players that can compete.

Another factor last year was nobody else chipping in goals, players like Judge and Marshall should hopefully improve this area.

In all fairness we've been over run in midfield in 70% of the games this season and most of the old heads have gone.

[cn174]

Some numbers. Rhodes played in 48 games last season (in total he played 58 inc Hudds and Scotland)

I think this shows that when Rhodes did score it more often had a positive impact upon the game than not.

No of Games Result?

W D L

Did Rhodes Score? Yes 12 8 4

No 3 8 13

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

In all fairness we've been over run in midfield in 70% of the games this season and most of the old heads have gone.

Not the games I have watched

[Speedie Dived]

+1

Goals win games, he scores loads of them. The others we have who can hold the ball up, lead the line etc./ etc etc. couldn't score in a brothel with a £50 notes sticking out of their pockets. A striker's main task is to score goals, JR does this by the bucket load, cut him some slack, because we will miss his contribution massively when he goes and are likely to be renamed Blackburn Nil.

Goals are a contributing factor towards winning games, obviously. But you have to have more than that in today's game.

Gone are the days of playing two up front week in, week out. Teams now setup without a striker in some instances, but more often than not, a lone striker.

Of the two promoted teams last year, Cardiff's top scorer had 10 and Hull City's had 9.

[SoldierMo]

One of a strikers main jobs is to hold the ball up and bring others into play, common sense really. Or strikers run the channels and move their team up the pitch. These are not strengths of Jordans.

Well name some strikers that can do that that would be playng or willing to move to championship for god sake the guy SCORES GOALS if he was the perfect striker he wouldnt be playng for us in the championship

[rhodie]

One of the main reasons everybody seems convinced we will sell Rhodes is financial, I don`t think that would affect any decision unless it was 14 million plus. I know everyone is banging on about FFP but the fact remains this year is a kind of dry run before it actually comes into full force, in other words their are no penalties yet for people that exceed their budgets. Apart from FFP being in force, why would we sell him unless we get a ridiculous offer and to be frank Wigan are not going to come up with that sort of money.

Rhodes would not force a move to Wigan because, simply put, it serves no purpose. Wigan are also going to have to adapt to the championship, loss of players, a new manager, and European football, they are not automatically guaranteed to get promotion this season, I wouldn`t be surprised if it didn`t take them a couple of years to adjust as well. He would be taking just as much, if not more of a gamble, joining them as staying with us.

When reading the forums of these clubs that are supposedly in for Rhodes, the fan speculation is that we are skint and have to sell, the reality is ( tin hat time ) we are wealthier or more likely to invest in our squad, as has been shown this summer with I think 12 players signed , even though some or most have been signed as freebies they still are getting paid small fortunes ( in comparison to me anyway).

Not disputing Mani overhearing a conversation on the training pitch about offloading Rhodes, but could it have have been a personal opinion of those trainers and not the manager, by all accounts Bowyer sees Rhodes as a vital cog in our machine.

The only scenario that I could see Rhodes leaving is if a prem team came in, even then it would have to be well in excess of the 10 million everyone seems to be bandying about. In that scenario from what I can gather if Rhodes requested a move they would let him go but it still won`t be on the cheap, not for as little as 10 million anyway.

[roversR4ever]

In all fairness we've been over run in midfield in 70% of the games this season and most of the old heads have gone.

Not sure I agree with you, possession this year has been a lot better. We seem to have suffered a high number of individual errors, maybe a bit of bad luck and at times not taking our chances, well until Barnsley. Strangely I am more confident about our chances now than I was last year when at beginning of season it was pretty obvious how lucky we had been.

I don't want us to lose Rhodes - to me Bowyer seems to be working out a way of playing him even with his weakness (lack of hold up play etc) but still trying to get him chances. Its starting to look like he wants a attacking midfielder to support Rhodes more (was using Rochina in that role until injured then Dunn recently and I suspect Judge maybe used). At the same time trying to improve the quality out wide in an attempt to get better final ball into Rhodes from out wide.

Its going to take time for the team to gel, you will get more silly mistakes as the team is younger, but at the same time as the season develops we may also be more competitive and even sneak into the playoffs (because of the age the team we may not be as tired as some come the end of the season). The team has been majorly overhauled and it is always going to take time.

Also we still haven't had Williamson or Evans play in the central midfield. (Lowe and Cairney are in my mind looking better and better as a midfield pairing). Marshalls signing make sense - allows the option of moving Judge into the Dunn role when Dunn tires or is injured. Hopefully improves the quality out wide as well.

The biggest hope I have is that at least there seems to be a method and consistency to Bowyers plans. There really wasn't much of that last year - will just have to see if the players have enough quality. Increasingly there is better balance and depth to the squad.

I can see why other teams fans might look us as a team trying to get promotion, we are rightly more pessimistic knowing how poor a state the club has been the last few years with Venkys and how easily it could be undone by them.

[K-Hod]

Saw in the paper today in Spain that Nixon is still writing that Wigan are after Rhodes and will sell McCarthy to finance it.

That man can´t have any coats left to turn.....

[briansol]

Saw in the paper today in Spain that Nixon is still writing that Wigan are after Rhodes and will sell McCarthy to finance it.

That man can´t have any coats left to turn.....

You're way behind. Now he's claiming that Wigan are after another striker just as good as Rhodes but at half the price and wages.

[K-Hod]

You're way behind. Now he's claiming that Wigan are after another striker just as good as Rhodes but at half the price and wages.

Ha, give me a break I´m on my hols and managed to get some free wi-fi.

[RevidgeBlue]

Very true, but i think that's what we probably need right now. If as a team we scored 60 goals this year without Rhodes, compared to last years 55, would you accept selling him?

Not having a go at you particularly as this seems to be the view of the "I'm not bothered if we sell Rhodes" camp but where the hell are you going to get 60 goals from out of a squad that without Rhodes contributed a miserly 27 goals between them last season. It just ain't happening in my book, I know we've signed a number of new players but I don't see anyone yet who looks like they're going to be too prolific.

The time when you might start to feel a bit more comfortable with the idea of losing Rhodes is when you've got 5 or 6 players in the side who have proven they can bag 8-10 goals a season on a regular basis. Other than Rhodes we haven't got one player even in that bracket imo.

[davulsukur]

Certainly not when our next highest goal scorer was Scott Dann with 5.

[Mani]

Mani: You said Best all the way... Suddenly in your last post you say King. After last match and cobsidering he looks to be first XI. You reckon we will sell the Norwegian?

I didn't pal...it was only one conversation and in it he said that best, king and Dann had ego problems and that he wouldn't be surprised if they weren't moved on...

If King plays like that every week I don't think they will sell him tbh...but I don't know

[Mani]

To add to these many comments regarding finances and how skint we are albeit we have just spent another £1m, how many times in the LET and by Glen Mullan and by Kamy have they stated in the last two/three weeks the Owners (venkys) still want to pump money into the club even with the Fair play rules, and they have also got some financial gurus from London looking at ways of getting around the Fair play bunkum who are also looking after Paris St germain's finances , so I don't think we are at all skint as some would make out, unless of course the gentlemen i mentioned are telling fibs, and for sure they are not.

You are exactly right...I also mentioned that the coaching staff did not feel that money was a major issue and got shot down on this thread.

Q - Do you think Venkys have ever refused to sign a cheque?

A - No, the purse strings have been tightened by others at the club in line with FFP

It's NOT about the money...it probably should be but that's not what people at the club know or believe.

The players signed so far are at the request of GB rightly or wrongly

[EgyptianPete]

I didn't pal...it was only one conversation and in it he said that best, king and Dann had ego problems and that he wouldn't be surprised if they weren't moved on...

If King plays like that every week I don't think they will sell him tbh...but I don't know

Hi Mani, i don't dispute anything you have said as it is for the benefit of all of us on here, So when ego's are mentioned it kinda irks me as all footballers have some kind of ego, it's up to the manager to man manage that, (big Sam as an example) i get the impression that team GB also are beginning to get Ego's, we can't keep getting rid or freezing players out just because they may have an egotistical opinion of themselves, normally the rest of the team take the p---ss and that puts an end to it,

Maybe GB should use the players Ego to get the best out of them, now that's man management.

You are exactly right...I also mentioned that the coaching staff did not feel that money was a major issue and got shot down on this thread.

Q - Do you think Venkys have ever refused to sign a cheque?

A - No, the purse strings have been tightened by others at the club in line with FFP

It's NOT about the money...it probably should be but that's not what people at the club know or believe.

The players signed so far are at the request of GB rightly or wrongly

Excellent we are getting somewhere from someone who actually has an insight to the actual goings on at Ewood. thanks

[Speedie Dived]

Not having a go at you particularly as this seems to be the view of the "I'm not bothered if we sell Rhodes" camp but where the hell are you going to get 60 goals from out of a squad that without Rhodes contributed a miserly 27 goals between them last season. It just ain't happening in my book, I know we've signed a number of new players but I don't see anyone yet who looks like they're going to be too prolific.

The time when you might start to feel a bit more comfortable with the idea of losing Rhodes is when you've got 5 or 6 players in the side who have proven they can bag 8-10 goals a season on a regular basis. Other than Rhodes we haven't got one player even in that bracket imo.

You are gambling that the players you bring in contribute to that figure and make the players around them better. I can see both sides of the argument, it seems stupid to remove that amount of goals, yet his overall play is not of that high a standard.

I am of the mind set that if you can sell one and bring in 2 (both quality) then that's how you should operate, only way we can improve as we don't have the income otherwise to do it.