Here we are almost at the halfway stage with 27 points from 21 games, but how many more points would we have accumulated had we kept 23 year old Jordan Rhodes?
OK, some will argue that we were right to take the £8 million quid on offer, but on the other hand, if we'd kept him his goals could have been the difference between spending a year or two in the Premiership, or remaining in the Championship, in which case the £8 million would have been small fry, when compared to the £80 million or so on offer in the top league.
Rhodes has a phenomenal scoring record which has seen him amass 136 goals in his 251 games career to date. He's already netted 38 goals in 63 games for Blackburn, including 13 goals in 21 league games this season to date.
So, in my humble opinion had we kept him, his league goals would have been worth at least an additional 8 points and we would have been sitting pretty in a play off place on 35 points, instead of languishing in mid table.
As I often said to his doubters whilst he was at Town, goal scorers are like gold dust and when any club gets their hands on one, they should stick to them like sh-t to blanket and think longer term, although our Chairman Hoyle says we have always been a "selling club", in which case I reckon he's happy to see us remain in the second tier for eternity.
Anyhow, what are your thoughts on this subject?
SHOULD WE HAVE KEPT RHODES?
posted on 21/12/13
Of course I wish Rhodes was still here, but languishing in mid table isn't too bad. Look at the team who we beat in that amazing final in 2012, league one is very tough this year.
posted on 21/12/13
A good decision at the time and the club have leaped forwards under robins, but not a theme I would like to continue!
We can compete with any team in this division now, and would like deano to back robins and lead us to the next level....robins is a jem and shud be backed to the hilt
the football we play now is light years ahead of what we are used to
in robins we trust
posted on 21/12/13
If it was that simple, wouldn't Blackburn be top of the league?
posted on 22/12/13
"could have " is the key word Mirf...all speculation. BUT..if we had Rhodes we wouldn't have Vaughan..and how many goals has Vaughan scored this season...? 10.
So on your reckoning we'd have 3 more goals but £7.4m less....
Hardly a strong argument really is it ?
posted on 22/12/13
Have to agree with Marco and Jacko, two very good valid points.
Mr Hoyle has to back Robins, otherwise, when another club comes knocking, he'll be off faster than sheite off a shovel!
posted on 22/12/13
Should we have kept Jordan Rhodes?
Most definitely not Mirf, you seem to forget that he didn't want to play for us anymore and £8million was and still is a ridiculous amount of money for him
posted on 22/12/13
Fair comment Wakey BUT would he have left Town had we matched the salary on offer at Blackburn - I think not.
Plus had we had Rhodes in our team against Reading and Brighton, I reckon we'd have now been on 29 points, because he would have surely put the penalty away and a few of the other chances we missed.
As for the £8 million fee, I see Blackburn's manager rates him very highly and appears to be expecting a Premiership team to take a punt on him in the near future, and he won't be moving for less than the fee they paid for him.
So, whether he wanted to leave Town or not, I still reckon any team should stick like glue to such a prolific striker, who finds the back of the net once every two games.
posted on 22/12/13
Would we have matched his wages that Blackburn were offering....most definitely not.
Our highest earner is Vaughan who is on 12k week
Rhodes is on somewhere between 35/40k week
posted on 22/12/13
We are a better team with Vaughan in than we would be with Rhodes in. Better all round player IMO. We would have lost with Rhodes instead of Vaughan yesterday - defending starts up front. We'd have beaten Reading with Vaughan playing, never mind Rhodes - in fact we'd have beaten Reading with any reasonably competent Championship forward. We also wouldn't have signed Hogg - who is becoming really important to us.
posted on 22/12/13
Yo! We did have Rhodes and Vaughan in the same team and i understand a fee already agreed with Norwich for the end of the season.
If you believe what Hoyle says he had no intention of selling Rhodes at that time. He didn't believe anyone would match our valuation.
So Vaughan and Rhodes was a definate possibility and i agree Mirf we would have been in a stronger postion now and a player worth at least the same as we sold him for.