Is there a Rhodes to redemption for ex-Town star?
FOOTBALL has a storyline, or at least we convince ourselves it does. Whenever you see one of your former players’ names on the opposition teamsheet, you know what’s going to happen. It often doesn’t, but this isn’t the kind of knowledge that comes out of logic and reason.
That actually came true for Town away to Sheffield Wednesday as two former Terriers combined to open the scoring for the hosts, with Jordan Rhodes playing a ball in behind Naby Sarr for Josh Windass to sprint onto and put past Ryan Schofield.
But it might prove to only be the penultimate step in a much longer and much more interesting story arc.
His call to adventure came in the move from Ipswich to Huddersfield in 2009, and with his incredible 87 goals in 148 appearances over three years for the Terriers he crossed the threshold from promising raw talent to genuine Football League sensation. An inevitable big-money move to Blackburn followed.
And then came the challenges. His subsequent move to
Middlesbrough just didn’t work out, with their promotion to the Premier League proving a step too far for Rhodes. But Hillsborough has unquestionably been his abyss. A transfer that seemingly made sense for everyone at the time has been little short of a disaster, with Rhodes earning big wages to score just 14 goals in 84 games.
If a touted summer move back to Town is to stand a chance of proving fruitful for either the club or the player, Rhodes is going to need to prove he has learned valuable lessons from his difficult period and can come out the other side better for it.
After four underwhelming years, Rhodes has left it too late to redeem his reputation with Wednesday fans, but he has shown some signs over the last few weeks that he is not a complete busted flush.
This is real life, and a few good recent outings do not erase the fact that Rhodes’ performances and goal return have been sub-par over the past five years.
Bringing Rhodes back would be more of a gamble for Town than it would be for the striker. But as that Wednesday goal showed, sometimes those neat and tidy narrative structures can become reality.