As someone old enough to remember his Dad playing in Scotland’s top flight, I can also remember just how prolific Jordan Rhodes was in the English lower leagues as a youngster when he first came through at Huddersfield Town.
The Sheffield Wednesday striker may have lost his way for a few years but, in terms of goal contributions, he is still leading the way in the all-time charts for the Championship, something which has been helped by his recent form – backing up my claims just a couple of weeks ago that he could be worth a punt in the summer – where he has four goals and an assist in his last five appearances.
I always felt Rhodes never really got a proper chance, I just thought he picked the wrong clubs after he left Blackburn Rovers and thought that he was often pigeonholed as being purely a goalscorer, but there is more to his game than that. He’s never been the most mobile, but he is good in the air and can bring others into play.
Vital Rangers Player of the Year 2020/21
Allan McGregor
Connor Goldson
James Tavernier
Steven Davis
He’s played just 450 minutes for Scotland which, when you consider he was at his peak when we couldn’t qualify for things, is a scandal, but again, the preference to play with just one striker who ran about a lot rather than one that gave you a better chance of scoring goals seemed to be the norm – that worked out well didn’t it?
To clarify, I’m not suggesting that Rhodes should be our first pick striker, but in a team that creates a lot of chances and gets a lot of crosses into the box – especially against bottom six teams – having a natural finisher would be a huge benefit, if Jermain Defoe does leave at the end of the season, there is a younger and more physical version capable of reproducing his numbers available for free and I, for one, would love to see what he could do in a Light Blue shirt given the chance.