Blackburn Rovers will hold one regret in £8m Huddersfield Town deal | OneFootball

The striker cost a lot of money and played extremely well, but the deal won’t be without some regrets

In 2012, Blackburn Rovers gambled £8million on a 22-year-old Jordan Rhodes from Huddersfield Town.

It broke Rovers’ own transfer record, and made Rhodes the most expensive signing below the Premier League in England at the time.

The move was a big risk, but his performances for the club proved he was worth the money they paid.

Despite that, those at Blackburn will still hold one regret over the deal.

Blackburn spent heavily to bring Rhodes in

Rovers knew almost exactly what they were getting when they splashed the cash to bring Rhodes in.

Although he’d only played a handful of Championship games at that point, he was just coming off the back of a 35-goal season with Huddersfield Town in League One, a team he’d just helped to the second tier via the play-offs.

It was Blackburn’s first season back in the Championship after a consistent run of Premier League football, and they were determined to return as soon as possible, hence the big-money Rhodes move.

Manager at the time, Steven Kean, said of Rhodes: “Jordan is a top-class striker and we are absolutely delighted to bring him in.”

Rhodes hit the ground running

Any fears that Rhodes may take some time to adjust to a new club and a new league were quickly extinguished when the striker picked up three goals and an assist in his first three games.

It was to be the start of a successful season, with the young striker netting 26 goals and providing a further four assists in his debut Rovers season.

A great season? For Rhodes, yes. For Blackburn? Less so.

Even with Rhodes’ incredible contribution, the Lancashire club finished in 17th place, not a million miles from recording two relegations on the bounce. It wasn’t the season they’d hoped to have when they first spent all that money on the former Huddersfield man.

Blackburn will hold key regret over Rhodes

That first season told the story of Rhodes’ time at Blackburn on the whole.

He spent three full seasons at Ewood Park and netted over 20 Championship goals each time.

And, while Blackburn’s place in the league improved, with back-to-back finishes in 8th and 9th place, the rest of the squad couldn’t take advantage of Rhodes’ goals to propel the club back to the top tier.

Over ten years on from Rhodes’ arrival, Blackburn still hadn’t managed to return to the Premier League.

Finding a striker who can consistently net over 20 goals a season is rare, so those inside the club may be left wondering whether they passed up on their ticket back to the Premier League in Rhodes.

Those three seasons for Blackburn were Rhodes’ best in the Championship, going on to less successful spells with the likes of Sheffield Wednesday, and a return to Huddersfield.

Rhodes did the job he was brought in to do for Blackburn, but the rest of the club didn’t do enough to achieve the ultimate goal of promotion. When looking back through their history, Rovers may wonder whether they could have made more of one of the league’s top strikers, in the form of his life.