Why oh why oh why oh why did Keane sell him, probably one of the most ridiculous decisions in managerial history, although could probably be contested by many more made by himself!!! Have seen many articles that relate to this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2054043/Manchester-United-watch-Jordan-Rhodes.html I also find the last sentence particularly depressing!! A little over 2 years ago they were both playing for us and the argument was after Rhodes was sold, was that we could not really accomodate both of them in our team and it was one over the other, how idiotic!!! I wonder if we put a buy back clause in???
I must apologise however for using a Daily Mail article, something I thought I would never do!!! I'm ashamed!!!
from what i know (which isn't a lot i'm sure) rhodes had a massive falling out at town towards the end of his stay (not sure why) and feels bitter towards the club. whether he was forced out or felt isolated or whatever, he was never going to stay. he's been linked with norwich too - i'm sure that'll cheer you up!
Good player but can anyone really take this story seriously? He may be playing at a lower level then he should but I dont think anybody will say he currently deserves to be playing alongside the likes of Hernandez, Berbatov, Rooney etc
That was Andy Rhodes, Jordan's father (and Town's ex-goalkeeping coach) he had a massive personal falling out with Keane during his time. For all reports Jordan actually liked it here but Keane was stuck with a choice on which promising youngster to keep and who to let go for his own development as he wouldn't get into our first team. By all accounts we have quite a big sell on % for him so either way our 2 youngsters would make us quite a bit of wedge.
Didn't his dad get moved along as a goalkeeper coach so he wanted to move north to his family? Either way, as good as he's been for Huddersfield, I don't think he's anyway near Manchester United standard.
Actually, it was Magilton that Andy Rhodes had a falling out with, due to the fact that Jordan wasn't getting enough game time with the first team. I don't think Jordan had any issues with the club, more to do with the manager at the time. I still quite don't understand why we couldn't keep both Jordan and Connor at that time and loaned one out to gain experience! If i remember rightly there were rumours to be quite a hefty sell-on clause in the contract.
I think its hard to judge if he will make it at a higher level but at every level he has played at he has scored hatfuls of goals. He probably has one of the best goal/match ratio's around!!! I think that was the problem I had when we sold him. That season he would have definitely got a large amount of games for us, because at the time of his sale I think we only had him, lisbie and Counago on our books as strikers!! He played alot in our pre-season, and looked our most lively striker, then gets sold for what was it an initial 200k!!! We'd been crying out for years for a natural goal scorer as so called 20 goal a season striker and here we had a striker who had scored hatfuls of goals at whatever level he had played at, scored lots of goals in league 2 on loan and was named league 2 player of the season at the age of 19. We had limited numbers of strikers none of which were seen as the long term future of the club and none who had a decent goal scoring record, so we sell this player for 200k to Huddersfield, without even giving him the chance to prove himself!! That is absolutely ridiculous. Looking at his game play, to me he doesn't look like a Man Utd player at all but then I would say that about someone like Darren Bent. But both just seem to have the knack of being able to score goals, being in the right place at the right time. Natural homegrown Goal scorers are in short supply, I would be bold enough to say that he would score goals in anyteam he played in!!! He may not be the best player in the world but I've rarely if ever heard of someone with such a good scoring record, until he does step up a level, there's not much more he can do to prove himself. And I don't think Keane was stuck with the choice between the 2, I think that's what he got in his head but I doubt he was under any pressure to sell him. He was under pressure to sell but he'd just bought Healey for 210K which is more than we sold him for and I can't imagine Rhodes was on very high wages. It just seems a idiotic decision which ever way you look at it!!!
It is indeed all water under the bridge but we are having a debate on here about it and it still absolutely riles me how idiotic this club were under Keane and how many supporters bought it. If you don't want to discuss it fair enough don't comment but the past will always get brought up and debated and tbf its better than alot of the other nonsense thats written on here sometimes!!!
Fair point but it doesn't change anything does it! Rhodes has moved on and so have we. I was more gutted about Connor being sold in the summer. We cant live our lives on ifs and maybes!
No but lets remember one big thing that I don't think people take into account alot of time on here, these boards are about debate and discussion they have no(or limited) impact on what actually happens at the club. We cannot change anything by writing it on these boards, but that is not what they are for. Whether people discuss things that have happened in the past it does not matter, its a discussion, a debate and I would also say alot of the discussion on here is about ifs and maybes otherwise we wouldn't have anything to discuss!!!
I'm next to him the school photo, maybe something to show the grand children if he goes onto bigger and better things than Huddersfield!
If Man Utd do get Rhodes for £5 Million as suggested we get a very nice 50% sell on clause so that's £2.5 Million in the bank! Lovely Jubbly! Perhaps Clegg is no mug afterall!
I don't know the ins and outs of what went on but I feel that Jordan moving on had more to do with his father than Keane. I think his father wanted more game time for Jordan and because Keane liked Connor more he couldn't guarantee that so Rhodes was sold. I'm not sticking up for Keane, he made a lot of stupid decisions whilst in charge, but I just have the feeling that this one was more forced out of him than we know.
Keane had the choice of who to develop, Wickham or Rhodes. He SEMI chose wisely, Rhodes should have had a full season out on loan to see what he was capable of. Sadly they were both at the same time, and it was an absolute no brainer to go with Wickham.
Totally agree with this comment. We had two potentially brilliant youngsters at the club who played in the same position. It would have been incredibly hard to keep both of them happy so we sacrificed Rhodes to keep Wickham. Personally I prefere Rhodes but I can see Keanes logic on this which is probably the only thing during his tenure which I can agree on!
That may have been the case but I just don't see why we couldn't accomodate both. For a start Rhodes that season seemed destined to start quite a few games, as he had played alot in preseason, whereas wickham still wasn't going to be playing much until last season really. I just think we certainly could have waited, at least given him 1 season of football to see if he makes the grade, if not then fair enough sell him. But he didn't even get given a chance. If both of them proved good enough, I'm sure they would have both had decent playing time and we may not have then needed to purchase other strikers. They are also both completely different types of player and I think could probably complement each others style. Rhodes is more of a natural goal scorer whereas wickhams game play and skill is much better. I just don't buy the excuse that it was one or the other particularly at that point anyway. Maybe after a year or 2 it may have been a problem but deal with it then not before either has proved themselves. And now we have neither which is so frustrating. The prospect of having a forward line that includes the 2 is mouthwatering especially considering their age. I'm dissapointed that Wickham is no longer with us but I can fully understand the club selling him as we have got a very good price for him but just the whole debarcle surrounding Rhodes was ridiclous. There were 3 major decisions in Keanes tenure that just strikes of ridicule and I'm pretty sure that 99 out of 100 managers would not have made the same decision, thats selling rhodes for a miniscule price without giving him a chance despite his amazing goal ratio at every other level he'd played at and we only had Lisbie and Counago on our books as strikers, at the time Keane had accepted an offer for Pablo and for years we had been looking for a natural goalscorer the 20 goal a season man, so when one turns up from our youth system we sell him!! the other 2 were getting rid of Bryan Klug(now at tottenham) and David Wright(who was our best performer that season), without getting another RB in. Another underlying factor with these decisions I think was that Keane detested people who were to closely connected to ITFC and were as he described "in their comfort zone", although not the main reason, I think this played a part!!!
