Rhodes a crucial Rover for Lambert
AS a prolific goalscorer at club level for as long as anyone cares to remember, Jordan Rhodes’ sporadic appearances in a Scotland jersey are a source of some mystery.
Yet, if the Oldham-born striker has good reason to sense a lack of appreciation for his talents from Scotland manager Gordon Strachan, the same assuredly can’t be said of a midfielder to have worn the dark blue shirt with distinction in recent times.
Unveiled yesterday as the new manager of Blackburn Rovers, Paul Lambert does not have his troubles to seek. Sitting 16th in the Championship and 11 points away from the play-offs, the Lancashire club require a remarkable change of fortune if they are to leave their current environment behind come May.
The transfer embargo imposed for breaches of Financial Fair Play will certainly not help Lambert in that regard.
But in Rhodes (below), a player who has scored more than a goal in every two games for the club over a three-year period, Lambert believes he has not only an individual capable of dragging Rovers up by their bootstraps but one who could hold his own in just about any company.
‘His goalscoring is just incredible. It really is,’ said Lambert of the 25-year-old at his unveiling yesterday.
‘He’ll be every bit as important to me as (Christian) Benteke and (Grant) Holt were at Aston Villa and Norwich.
‘He will certainly be a massive player for me and the club.
‘If he can keep his goalscoring form going, and we’ll do all we can to help him, it will be interesting to see what happens.’
Rovers fans could certainly do with something to quicken their pulses. Since losing their top-flight status in 2012, the club hasn’t even troubled the play-offs, finishing 17th, eighth and ninth under the tutelages of Henning Berg, Michael Appleton and latterly Gary Bowyer. Assuredly, 1995 — when they won the English Premier League title — now feels like ancient history.
Given their current predicament, Lambert is understandably unwilling to promise the earth. Yet, he sincerely believes it is early enough in the season to build up a head of steam that could prove telling.
‘There are still a lot of games to be played,’ he added. ‘I know from my experience of it that if you do have a run, you can maybe sneak in.
‘We’re a wee bit off it at the minute, so we have to win games. If we can get the fans coming here (Ewood Park), we’ve got a chance of getting on that kind of run. ‘It will take time. We’ll have to assess everybody and how they perform. But I think it has the infrastructure here (of a Premier League club).’
As things stand, Lambert will have to make do with loan signings and free transfers should he want to add to his squad in January, such are the conditions of the embargo. Managing director Derek Shaw yesterday claimed Lambert would not necessarily have to sell a player in order for the ban to be lifted, but few at Ewood Park are anticipating the matter being resolved imminently.
For the new man at the helm, though, there is little point in losing time complaining.
‘The more people talk about the lack of money, there’s a negative thing on it because people can use that as an excuse,’ Lambert added.
‘The main thing for ourselves is to start winning games. Lack of money won’t necessarily make you lose games. But if you use it as an excuse, it’s always going to happen.
‘I never came into this not knowing what was happening. I know the situation and I’m comfortable with it. Now’s the time everyone has to stop the negativity. Let’s go and try to win games.
‘I can’t promise everything is going to just fall into place but we’ll give it everything.’
He’s been here before, of course, and graduated with honours.
Lambert truly arrived as a manager after moving from Colchester United to Norwich City, the back-to-back promotions he achieved at Carrow Road still the stand-out success on his CV. But he concedes gaining promotion at Rovers might not be so straight-forward, though.
‘Norwich was different because we had a momentum there going from League One into the Championship and then the Premier League,’ he recalled.
‘The lads were fantastic. We had a really good team and spirit. We will try to generate that here.
‘We also need the fans behind us. I’m sure if we get the team to entertain, they will come out and back us.’
Looking leaner and fitter from his time with Villa, Lambert has evidently put his hiatus from the game to good use.
Talks with a string of unnamed clubs went nowhere. But his thirst for knowledge and self-improvement took him on productive fact-finding trips to Real Madrid, back to his old club Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen.
‘Stepping back from the game was probably the best thing that happened to me,’ he said.
‘I’ve been to some great clubs, getting a different view on football and really enjoyed it. It was probably the most productive nine months I’ve had in football.’