[Archived] Jordan Rhodes

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

I think Rhodes was worth pretty much what we paid for him. A 22 year old guaranteed to score 25-30 goals a season at this level for about the next 10 seasons? Overall worth £8m for me. If Rhodes stays at Rovers for the rest of his career, he'll surpass Garner by at least 100 goals. And if he doesn't we'll make more/all/most of our money back.

As for the doubts about his ability, well I think you have to allow for the circumstances somewhat. Rovers are a lightweight team in a physical league, and in games without Hanley especially I've seen many teams bully us this season, to the extent that you can tell its a deliberate tactic they've worked on the week leading up. Huddersfield kicked and elbowed us all first half at the Galpharm the other week until Williamson grabbed it by the scruff of the neck (played a blinder that game). And when Rovers are bullied, Rhodes is positively victimised.

He scores half our goals and plays in a position with no protection, he may as well have a giant bullseye on his back. This season I've seen him kicked, punched, elbowed, shoved, half-strangled, practically molested, forearmed in the face etc etc. A lot of strikers get this to an extent because refs let defenders get away with murder these days (speaking as a defender in my own 11-a-side team). But Rhodes gets it on another level. He's the Adnan Januzaj of the Championship, but unfortunately we don't have the power of Man Utd to demand protection for him.

[Stuart]

Good post SKH

[dingles staying down 4ever]

I think Rhodes was worth pretty much what we paid for him. A 22 year old guaranteed to score 25-30 goals a season at this level for about the next 10 seasons? Overall worth £8m for me. If Rhodes stays at Rovers for the rest of his career, he'll surpass Garner by at least 100 goals. And if he doesn't we'll make more/all/most of our money back.

As for the doubts about his ability, well I think you have to allow for the circumstances somewhat. Rovers are a lightweight team in a physical league, and in games without Hanley especially I've seen many teams bully us this season, to the extent that you can tell its a deliberate tactic they've worked on the week leading up. Huddersfield kicked and elbowed us all first half at the Galpharm the other week until Williamson grabbed it by the scruff of the neck (played a blinder that game). And when Rovers are bullied, Rhodes is positively victimised.

He scores half our goals and plays in a position with no protection, he may as well have a giant bullseye on his back. This season I've seen him kicked, punched, elbowed, shoved, half-strangled, practically molested, forearmed in the face etc etc. A lot of strikers get this to an extent because refs let defenders get away with murder these days (speaking as a defender in my own 11-a-side team). But Rhodes gets it on another level. He's the Adnan Januzaj of the Championship, but unfortunately we don't have the power of Man Utd to demand protection for him.

If Rovers were still on the premiership gravy train then £8 million is worth taking a punt on. Rovers fell off it and as such they should of started cutting their cloth to fit then. The expectations were high when Rovers paid premiership prices.

For the same money we could have bought an Italian second division striker....oops we've already done that

[donis1410]

It never seizes to amaze me at how we seem to concentrate on teh negatives at this club rather than the positive, we are starting to become just as bad as Norwich City fans!!!!

Yes there is a great deal of history with success at this club, but there has also been failure and reconstruction at different times. We need to accept that we are currently at the beginning of the latter and to be scrutinizing a player who has pretty much carried us with goals the past two seasons is ridiculous!!!! Yes there have been games where he has gone missing due to the tactics of the opposition but since we signed Rudy this has given us the physical threat to counteract this and to allow Rhodes to find his goal scoring touch again.

[Roverthechimp]

Good point Cabbage. I guess if he had come through the ranks people would be more willing to overlook his weaknesses.

Yep - we are a forgiving bunch towards our own products, endlessly singing their praises and encouraging them...

Rhodes has delivered what was expected - 20 - 30 goals a season. His fee was high but if you add up the cost of Best, Campbell and Goodwillie (plus some others whose names i have blocked out from my memory) then he is providing fair value.

Is he going to be playing champions league football anytime soon - i doubt it. Will he be a championship/lower premier league striker for the next 10 years (barring injury) - definitely.

Why is he at Rovers - the money and what that represented at the time which was a relegated premier league club throwing money at players to try for promotion (yes i know but i don't want to debate how anyone could take our "manager" and our "global advisor" seriously but money talks...)

[thenodrog]

Good post SKH

Until one compares 8m with our turnover once the parachute payments are gone.

[Tom]

He does get a fair bit if a clattering but he's a bit of a tart as well, a slight touch and he's on the deck giving it Kalinic!

Problem being it rubs this leagues shoddy refs up the wrong way and then gives the centre halves free reign to kick him for the rest of the game knowing the ref will likely ignore it

[ABBEY]

No one had a problem with Duff's going over .

[AggyBlue]

No one had a problem with Duff's going over .

Some of us did.

Anyway, you might be interested to know my youngest had a Mile High Stadium tour today, got himself a Manning shirt too

[chaddyrovers]

Is there any news on Rhodes injury?

fit to play. same goes for Gestede.

[Majiball]

Thanks Chaddy.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

No one had a problem with Duff's going over .

Difference is that if you are going to do it, you've got to do it and get the free kick. Duff knew how to do it, Bellamy knew how to do it and Shearer learnt off a master with Dalglish.

If you are not going to win free kicks then all you are doing is hand possession back to the other team cheaply. Rhodes has a to either to learn when to fall and when to stand or b toughen up.

At present it seems the word amongst refs is that Rhodes goes down to easily so even when fouls are committed he does not get them.

[Tom]

There's another!

Reckon its a hattrick day

[Tom]

I cursed him

[Parsonblue]

Rhodes went over very easily on several occasion today and I thought it counted against him when he was actually fouled. The referees seem to have got him down as a player who will go to ground easily and hence they tend to ignore real fouls against him.

[arbitro]

Rhodes went over very easily on several occasion today and I thought it counted against him when he was actually fouled. The referees seem to have got him down as a player who will go to ground easily and hence they tend to ignore real fouls against him.

I think Rhodes has become a real target for some defenders and some of the recent fouls on him have been borderline red cards. He is getting very little protection from referees. Now for players going down easy Gestede should have been sent off today for two blatant acts of simulation.

[Tom]

That's poor from Rudy he's big enough to take a kicking

[Waggy76]

Without Rhodes , we would be in the 1st Division ...

[Ricky]

Or we could have signed McCormack for a fraction of the price and had more goals.... It's exactly the same logic as you are putting forward. If we didn't have Rhodes we wouldn't have played every game with 10 men, we would have played someone else there who may have scored the same, more, or less goals. We just don't know.

[Stuart]

Ricky, if the deal was "Rhodes or nothing", would you have taken him - weaknesses included - or not?

[Ricky]

Of course. I think Rhodes is a great finisher and more importantly someone who wants to improve and who also wants to achieve things with Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

It just seems an easy thing to say that without him we'd be in league one. There is no evidence of this. The logic that seems to be out forward to back this up relys on us playing all of the games with 10 men and nobody playing instead of Rhodes.

I also don't agree with people who claim that his value has doubled since we purchased him.

[roverandout]

I really cant see him being here next season, his goalscoring record is too impressive and im sure most managers will judge him on his goals and not his weaknesses.

[J*B]

Anyone at the game yesterday think Rhodes going absolutely mental at Hanley and Keane after Sheff Weds second game told a real story?

For those that wernt there - Williamson had the ball in the centre circle awaiting kick off while Rhodes told the defenders what they should have been doing rather than what they where doing. He was probably waiting for a minute or so.

Might be very paranoid, but all I could think was "he knows he's better than them, he knows they will cock up". Can't see him being happy to spend another year in the Championship next season.

[Waggy76]

I think Rhodes is a good player , who we paid over the odds for ...

25yrs ago yesterday Simon Garner broke the Rovers goalscoring record ...

How much , would he be worth today ?

I know who I would prefer ...

Theres only one Simon Garner !

[roverandout]

football is a totally different game now, wasn't garner a heavy drinker or am I wrong? the pace of the game would be too much for him I think