[Archived] Jordan Rhodes

[den]

Hmmm, I'm not sure. He's not scored for a while but I am not knowledgeable enough to happily sell him and know another player we could bring in that is both cheaper, better all round and get you the same amount of goals. I'd have to scout a few players extensively before I'd risk it. After all DJ Campbell has had spells where he scored for fun at this level and look how that turned out.

Another player? A decent manager could bring in a number of players to improve the team for that kind of money.

[Guest Norbert]

So we'd bring in 2-3 players who will score as many goals if not more? One of whom would I presume be a striker. OK, so where are these players who can do that for £8m in combined fees and a total of £40,000 p/w wages? Possibly in the lower divisions or some poor country, but it would be tricky. Very tricky.

[den]

So we'd bring in 2-3 players who will score as many goals if not more? One of whom would I presume be a striker. OK, so where are these players who can do that for £8m in combined fees and a total of £40,000 p/w wages? Possibly in the lower divisions or some poor country, but it would be tricky. Very tricky.

2-3 players for £8m?

Any manager given that kind of budget should be able to improve the team considerably in this league. So my question is, if you don't sell Rhodes and there's no money available, what would you do next season? Carry on same as this?

[Tom]

The guy who's scored about half our goals since he arrived here is a luxury player? Personally think scoring goals in football is more of a necessity than a luxury.

Having said that I must admit my faith in Rhodes is beginning to wane slightly. For me its nothing about the type of player he is or his ability, I'm just convinced now that he really doesn't wanna be here. The sharpness and competitive edge seems to have gone from his game. Anyone remember the goal he scored away at Barnsley in the 3-1 win last season? It was sheer determination that let him get the best of that defender, find the yard of space and slot in it, was a great goal and crucially pretty much a one-man goal. Hasn't scored one of those for a long while it feels like.

He scored a similarly good goal In the recent loss to Birmingham

Ever since he's been here he's had patches of 4 or 5 games without a goal and then gets back in the scoring habit, I expect him to bag the winner on Saturday

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Let's not forget one thing.

Strachan is a mediocre manager at best.

Strachan's been good for Scotland though. From memory, Rhodes hasn't done much for Scotland at all barring a couple goals against Luxembourg, and his general contribution wasn't up to much in that game really.

Fletcher and McCormack have been good for Scotland in the past, Naismith not so much but he's a willing runner and can play on the wing. You won't find many Scotland fans who are unhappy that Rhodes hasn't been called up.

[Mike E]

So we'd bring in 2-3 players who will score as many goals if not more? One of whom would I presume be a striker. OK, so where are these players who can do that for £8m in combined fees and a total of £40,000 p/w wages? Possibly in the lower divisions or some poor country, but it would be tricky. Very tricky.

Convert some of that £8m to wages and I'd be expecting Bowyer to bag us about 6-7 players judging by how he fared this past January. Bowyer has proven himself pretty adept at this level in the transfer market.

Den: Tactically he's found a little wanting, but frankly I'd rather keep him and let him do his thing. Any experienced manager could (ofc) get us promoted. But they could easily get us relegated. Imo, it isn't about having an experienced manager, it's about having a manager that 'fits'. Bowyer, imo, 'fits' for us at the moment. I feel like we're progressing under him.

[Parsonblue]

2-3 players for £8m?

Any manager given that kind of budget should be able to improve the team considerably in this league. So my question is, if you don't sell Rhodes and there's no money available, what would you do next season? Carry on same as this?

Personally, I'm not convinced that anyone will pay anywhere near the sort of money we are looking to get for Rhodes. I thought he might have attracted bids in January when clubs are desperate and will pay silly money. In the summer managers have more time to shop around and it becomes a buyers market. Whatever happens with Rhodes I wouldn't want to see a change of manager. I'm more than happy with the way in which Gary is rebuilding on a limited budget. I don't believe that promotion is on the cards in the immediate future and believe that Gary can develop into a good manager whilst keeping the club handily placed in the Championship. In many ways I think he will do a similar job to Bob Saxton in keeping the club going on very little in the way of a transfer budget.

[den]

Convert some of that £8m to wages and I'd be expecting Bowyer to bag us about 6-7 players judging by how he fared this past January. Bowyer has proven himself pretty adept at this level in the transfer market.

Den: Tactically he's found a little wanting, but frankly I'd rather keep him and let him do his thing. Any experienced manager could (ofc) get us promoted. But they could easily get us relegated. Imo, it isn't about having an experienced manager, it's about having a manager that 'fits'. Bowyer, imo, 'fits' for us at the moment. I feel like we're progressing under him.

I feel like we're meandering Mike.

It's all so aimless. We need to get out of this league, finances dictate that. The longer it takes, the harder it will get. The owners are meandering, as is the manager. There's no urgency or plan from either. If the owners are rich enough to see off the present debts, - and they won't pay those off and leave themselves skint will they, then where's the ambition to employ the best manager and sign the best players? It wouldn't cost in the tens of millions in this league, would it. On the other hand, if they can't pay the debts off, we're screwed.

As for the manager, yes he's doing OK. But will he get us out of this league? You don't need years to build a team that can get into the play offs. Dyche at Burnley didn't need it, neither did Howard Kendall. What's Bowyers plan? Where do the 15 players he's signed fit into this apparent long term plan?

I won't go on any more about this, but I see no urgency. I don't see anyone with an inkling of what needs to be done.

[patrickvalery]

Den, i've sat and typed two replies to your post but in the end scrapped both because you're right. What's the point?

In the end you just have to make a choice and give it time to play out. I guess the club have decided Bowyer is their man and cutting it short would take them back to square one. Whether you or I agree with that is, as you say, pointless and its futile to discuss it. They obviously buy into the 'stability = success' ethos. There are examples which prove it to be correct and there are examples which prove the contrary. What are we to do about it? Sod all.

[West Yorks Rover]

If/when we sell Rhodes, I doubt we'd get much profit, and most of the money will probably be used to pay debts or whatever.

I wonder how much we still owe Hudds for Rhodes, I think it was at least £6m last summer, maybe paid another £1m, who knows ?

Frightening with his value dwindling !

[thenodrog]

Any manager given that kind of budget should be able to improve the team considerably in this league. So my question is, if you don't sell Rhodes and there's no money available, what would you do next season? Carry on same as this?

Until the day that JR packs his boots in his kit bag and walks through the door without a backward glance as a free agent! All this talk of making money / breaking even on JR is just stupid talk. Pie in the sky. Check out these scenarios...

1. Unless he improves his game, his strength, his pace and his stamina dramatically and attracts a Premier League club then the 8m is a complete and total non starter. Even worse for him is that no one out of the Prem will ever be able to paqy him 50% of his current salary.

2. If he stays at the level he is and manages to contribute 15-20 goals in the Championship per season then the max we can expect is 2-3m absolute tops. Championship clubs simply don't have that sort of money to fritter on transfer fees and massive wages.

3. Worst case scanario ... he simply strolls through matches, stays out of 50:50's, keeps himself injury free and simply lets runs his contract run down, whereupon he walks away for nowt and we will have seen 16million (or 2/3 years total club revenue) go down the Swanny.

The probability is I feel with the latter.

[Blue blood]

I feel like we're meandering Mike.

It's all so aimless. We need to get out of this league, finances dictate that. The longer it takes, the harder it will get. The owners are meandering, as is the manager. There's no urgency or plan from either. If the owners are rich enough to see off the present debts, - and they won't pay those off and leave themselves skint will they, then where's the ambition to employ the best manager and sign the best players? It wouldn't cost in the tens of millions in this league, would it. On the other hand, if they can't pay the debts off, we're screwed.

As for the manager, yes he's doing OK. But will he get us out of this league? You don't need years to build a team that can get into the play offs. Dyche at Burnley didn't need it, neither did Howard Kendall. What's Bowyers plan? Where do the 15 players he's signed fit into this apparent long term plan?

I won't go on any more about this, but I see no urgency. I don't see anyone with an inkling of what needs to be done.

Excellent post.

I think what makes this all the more frustrating is that it wouldn't take too much for us to actually get out of this league.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

I feel like we're meandering Mike.

It's all so aimless. We need to get out of this league, finances dictate that. The longer it takes, the harder it will get. The owners are meandering, as is the manager. There's no urgency or plan from either. If the owners are rich enough to see off the present debts, - and they won't pay those off and leave themselves skint will they, then where's the ambition to employ the best manager and sign the best players? It wouldn't cost in the tens of millions in this league, would it. On the other hand, if they can't pay the debts off, we're screwed.

As for the manager, yes he's doing OK. But will he get us out of this league? You don't need years to build a team that can get into the play offs. Dyche at Burnley didn't need it, neither did Howard Kendall. What's Bowyers plan? Where do the 15 players he's signed fit into this apparent long term plan?

I won't go on any more about this, but I see no urgency. I don't see anyone with an inkling of what needs to be done.

100% agree. Being saying this since the start of last season. There's no time to build a team and I'm not convinced there's a need to build one. There certainly wasn't last season when we already had one of the strongest squads in the league. All we've ever lacked is a half-decent manager to get the best out of them. Kean looked like he could have got us in the play-offs last season for god's sake, it was there on a plate if only Venkys would hire someone with a proven track record. Its nowhere near on a plate now but they should still do it.

[OJRovers]

I think there has been urgency in getting rid of the wrong type of players (Murphy, Best etc) and bringing in a lot of young, hungry players. We have seen a massive overhaul of the squad since this time last year.

Its only going to be next season where we see some real stability (hopefully) in that we'll have a settled squad and a settled manager for the first time since venkys madness began.

[T.J.Newton]

As stupid as it sounds, but if Rhodes doesn't score at least say 22 goals this season, then would that be considered a poor season from him? considering the reason we paid so much + a massive salary for him is because he was supposed to guarantee us closer to 30 a season.

[Tom]

His shot on the turn was a great effort

It'll come for both him and Rudy

[Bucksrover]

His battling put conway in for his goal yesterday.

Agree with the above post - him and rudy will do well.

[JAL]

His battling put conway in for his goal yesterday.

Agree with the above post - him and rudy will do well.

He looked like he was dispossesed with some poor ball control to show for it in the lead up to Rovers goal.

[Bucksrover]

He looked like he was dispossesed with some poor ball control to show for it in the lead up to Rovers goal.

Indeed. But if he let's the ball out of his control and then sets up a goal every game that'll do me.

[USABlue]

Is it coincidental that Jordan now seems to be doing better in other aspects of his game but now cant buy a goal. Isnt the saying be careful what you wish for

[Tom]

I think its a myth

I personally don't think he's been doing much better in other aspects it's just am easy argument to make to defend his lack of goals. He got a couple of nice assists but not much else has changed.

His hold up play in general for me is poor still and he barely competes for headers, I'm not worried as the goals will come back its just a dry spell

He needs to work on heading though he's missed loads recently

[Jimmy612]

I think its a myth

I personally don't think he's been doing much better in other aspects it's just am easy argument to make to defend his lack of goals. He got a couple of nice assists but not much else has changed.

His hold up play in general for me is poor still and he barely competes for headers, I'm not worried as the goals will come back its just a dry spell

He needs to work on heading though he's missed loads recently

Correct. It's very easy for people to say 'He's doing the ugly things now so you got what you wanted'. It's complete garbage because with his back to goal he's still as poor as ever he was. We desperately need him to start firing again because if he's not scoring he is dangerously close to being a waste of a shirt.

All will be forgotten if he bags the winner against the Dingles

[Jimmy612]

His battling put conway in for his goal yesterday.

Agree with the above post - him and rudy will do well.

Blimey, have you watched it again Bucks? An awful first touch which fortunately rebounded off the defender into Lowe's feet, followed by a lack of judgement to let the ball run past him and to their defender. Fortunately (again) Conway had already arrived.

I like a lot of what Rhodes does and fair play to him for chasing the ball out from the corner (as you would expect from any forward), but please let's not re-write history. The goal was created by two poor pieces of play by JR.

Oh and credit where it's due. He put in a fantastic shot on the turn which was well saved by their keeper.

That was a great bit of play by the way, Robbo to Gestede and a terrific shot on the turn. Hoofball eh? who'd have it

[Bucksrover]

Blimey, have you watched it again Bucks? An awful first touch which fortunately rebounded off the defender into Lowe's feet, followed by a lack of judgement to let the ball run past him and to their defender. Fortunately (again) Conway had already arrived.

I like a lot of what Rhodes does and fair play to him for chasing the ball out from the corner (as you would expect from any forward), but please let's not re-write history. The goal was created by two poor pieces of play by JR.

Oh and credit where it's due. He put in a fantastic shot on the turn which was well saved by their keeper.

That was a great bit of play by the way, Robbo to Gestede and a terrific shot on the turn. Hoofball eh? who'd have it

Agree that it wasn't a great example of skill - but I admired his tenacity - he kept scrapping and throwing himself after the ball, and ultimately it created the chance for the goal.

Paul Dickov'esque

[thenodrog]

may as well use this...........

http://www.brfcs.com/mb/index.php/topic/30079-formation-and-tactics/?p=1490412