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After signing for Blackburn Rovers in 2012, Jordan Rhodes has gone on to be one of the Championship’s most consistent performers, yet still hasn’t made the step up to the Premier League. Does he deserve the chance?
It’s a fair question and one that should be examined. Wherever Rhodes has played he has been a constant threat to opposing teams and has earned a reputation of being in the right place at the right time. Yet somehow, he remains a striker in the Championship, with managers higher up refusing to show faith in man’s ability.
This is not new for Rhodes. Despite impressive loan spells at League 2 clubs Brentford and Rochdale (scoring 11 goals in 24 appearances in the division), he was allowed to move on from parent club Ipswich, who were then managed by Roy Keane. The Irishman felt the young man didn’t have the potential to succeed as a championship striker, a belief not shared by everyone at the club.
He joined manager Lee Clark at Huddersfield Town in 2009 where he instantly became the fan favourite, finishing as the club’s top goal scorer with 23 goals and helping guide them to the play-offs that season. Along the way he even broke a football league record, scoring the fastest headed hat-trick in 8 minutes, a record that had been held by former Everton striker Dixie Dean since the 1930’s.
Following another season as top goal scorer with 22 goals in the 10/11 season, Rhodes became the league’s most wanted man, leading Huddersfield to promotion from League 1, scoring an incredible 40 goals in just 45 appearances.
His time at Huddersfield also saw him force his way into the international scene where after becoming the Scotland U21’s record goal scorer (eight goals in eight games), he proudly earned his first senior cap as a substitute in a 2-1 win over Cyprus. However since making the break into the Scotland team, Rhodes has once again found a coach who doesn’t believe in him, this time in the form of Gordon Strachan.
In his place, the likes of Steven Fletcher and Steven Naismith have been regulars for the international side, and between them they have scored just 14 goals from 66 appearances in their careers. According to Strachan, Rhodes doesn’t suit the style of play that he expects from his team and has not been given the chance to prove otherwise. But do the likes of Fletcher really deserve to be playing ahead of Rhodes just because he plays for Sunderland in the Premier League?
Fletcher signed for Sunderland in 2012, just as Rhodes did for Blackburn, and has scored only 23 goals in 101 appearances, whilst Rhodes scored 28 in just his first season. Yes, granted Sunderland were in higher division, playing against much stronger opposition, but you shouldn’t discredit the Championship, as any player will tell you (especially those who have been relegated into it), it’s not an easy league. Given the choice between the two, I know who’d be first on my team sheet.
At club level though, Rhodes has continued to be the star of the show and his importance to Blackburn shouldn’t go unnoticed. Without his goals in his first season, Rovers would have been relegated to League 1, but instead they survived by a mere 4 points.
He has gone on to excel in a team that has been distinctly average since their relegation and at the time of writing, he stands at 85 goals in 155 appearances, once again looking as though he could be crucial to Rovers’ season, as they currently sit in 18th position with only six points separating them from the relegation zone. He’s proven from day one he has the capabilities to take the Championship by storm just as he did League 1, so surely he can follow other strikers who have made that step up to the Premier League in the last couple of seasons.
Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo of Watford are both perfect examples of strikers carrying their impressive form into a higher division. Between them they have scored 20 goals in the league this season, with most of the second half yet to be played. Jamie Vardy, along with the rest of his Leicester team, have seen a huge improvement in form. The England frontman struggled to find the net in his first season in the championship in 2012/13, but fast forward three years, and he’s now currently the Premier League’s top goal scorer with 16 goals. These three players prove that there are Championship players, particularly strikers, who can make that jump, if teams are willing to offer them the chance.
There is an argument though, that these guys got to where they are because they were key to the system their teams deployed. If a team was to gamble on Rhodes, he would have to adapt his game, learn to play to their tactics and how then to exploit this tougher opposition’s weaknesses. Blackburn haven’t looked anything like a promotion team in their three and a half years in the Championship, so maybe his best chance, is to get to a big money move, to a strong team in that league, rather than one straight to Premier League, as none from there, seem to want to take the risk.
Even despite a move never materialising, the Rovers fans always seem to fear losing their prize asset when it comes to the transfer window. Last summer, Middlesbrough were reported to have made a £10million bid, only for it to be rejected, which allegedly infuriated Rhodes, who at the very least wanted to talk to the club about the potential move. He will be even more distraught when looking at the league table.
Other clubs, such as fellow Championship side Sheffield Wednesday had been rumoured to be interested, as well as Premier League strugglers Swansea, however these rumours have since disappeared. It seems that Rhodes will still be a Blackburn Rovers player come the end of the season, and who knows how much longer after that. He’s at risk at becoming another wasted talent, but if just one team plucked up the courage to make that offer, there will be few who predict that they will live to regret it.
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