Jordan Rhodes scores goals. But he’s not Huddersfield Town’s answer to their goalscoring problem
Jordan Rhodes’ mixed second spell at Huddersfield Town is at a temporary end while the striker is excelling at Blackpool on loan, but should the break clause in January be activated?
Brady Frost, Feature Writer
Twitter: @brady0894
Jordan Rhodes scores goals. At least that’s what he’s doing this season in League One for Blackpool. The 33-year-old striker, who joined The Seasiders on loan in August has netted six goals in seven matches. At the moment, it feels like a good way to doomscroll if you support Huddersfield Town is to check X at around 5pm on Saturday and see Rhodes has notched another while you’ve watched your team labour in front of goal.
The Terriers have only scored two or more goals in three league games this season and arrive at the October international break with a minus-seven goal difference. Their top scorer so far is Michał Helik with three goals. That’s only two off last season’s joint top scorers, Danny Ward, Jordan Rhodes and Matty Pearson. Not exactly prolific.
Town’s latest result, a 0-0 draw to bottom-of-the-table Sheffield Wednesday saw The Terriers have a front two of Josh Koroma and Delano Burgzorg, who have spent most of their careers as wingers or wide forwards but that’s where this team is at the moment. Danny Ward is injured, Kian Harratt has started just once in the league and Kyle Hudlin has averaged 14 minutes a game and never made a Championship start. Not a large range of striking options for former manager Neil Warnock and new boss Darren Moore so far this season.
The club and then manager Neil Warnock discussed how a striker was one of the key priorities in the summer transfer window and then before you know it, the window shut. Which, in hindsight makes the decision to loan out Jordan Rhodes before a replacement was found look foolish at best. Warnock wasn’t picking him though.
Under Neil last season, Rhodes played four times, only starting once in the season's final game against Reading when safety had already been secured. He was left out for most of pre-season and only played in the 3-2 defeat to Middlesbrough for 62 minutes before joining Blackpool two weeks later.
There wasn’t an outcry from the fanbase when he departed, most of the comments were to mention his legendary status, his past achievements from his first devastating spell or more recently his winner in the playoff semi-final second leg against Luton Town.
In typical Town fashion, where the (online) world seemed to end after not bringing in reinforcements up front, the team then scored six goals in their next three games, dispatching West Brom and Rotherham before drawing 2-2 against Stoke City in Neil Warnock’s final game. Moore comes in and the team are still unbeaten in five before a 4-1 defeat to Birmingham City and that Wednesday game has brought this question back up.
All of Jordan Rhodes’ 87 goals for Huddersfield Town in his first spell with the club.
For many supporters, it’s always felt like Huddersfield have the capability to be a ‘one and done’ team, if the opposition score when the team’s playing badly, that’s it, Town aren’t getting back into it. Who’s going to get The Terriers a goal? The last time they had a player score over 15 league goals for them was Karlan Grant in the 2018/19 season. Before that, Nahki Wells in 2015/16.
Danny Ward fired in 14 goals in the league during the playoff final run under Carlos Corberan. However, that season still feels like an asterisk, a statistical quirk in recent history where it’s league mediocrity for the club. Since their relegation from their Premier League in 2019, the only season where Huddersfield have finished with a positive goal difference is the 2021/22 campaign.
Look, Huddersfield Town haven’t been a club since 2019 that will spend 10m+ plus on a striker and the fans don’t expect that either. When you’re a team that’s not at the top of the pecking order, if you unearth a player that gets over 15 goals in a league season and is under 30, chances are they will be snapped up by a team with greater financial resources. That’s the way of the football pyramid and to credit the club, they have shown previously they can cash in on players if they attract a bigger club, but their problem has always been reinvesting it properly.
So despite the doom and gloom in front of goal, Jordan Rhodes is still not the answer to a toothless Town. If Darren Moore is the long-term project by the new ownership, then he needs to work on solutions until the next window and the board needs to get the right striker in for him. From the sounds of it, Rhodes isn’t the man.
Dom Howson, EFL Editor for Reach, covered Darren Moore’s Sheffield Wednesday and on our recent preview show, he highlighted what Town’s new gaffer is looking for. He said:
“From what I know about Darren Moore and where he’ll want to take this Huddersfield team, I don’t think Jordan Rhodes will fit into that. He’ll want them to be more dynamic and have more pace at the top end of the pitch and that isn’t going to be Jordan Rhodes.
“I fully expect and the noises we’re hearing are that they will be some money to spend in January, there will be a budget for Darren Moore to play with, and in all honesty, you can pretty much guess which position he’ll be targeting. That to me indicates that Town are going to go in a different direction to Rhodes. Unless they got a lot of injuries and Jordan keeps banging goals in then that does really leave Town with a decision to make, but if we don’t get those scenarios and they bring a striker in then that to me, is the end of the matter.”
The uncomfortable truth is that Jordan Rhodes isn’t seen as part of Huddersfield Town's plans and that’s a sentiment shared by the fans too. In our recent X poll, only 25% would bring him back, with 50% saying it depends on the transfer window in January. It’s not a resounding yes.
Plus, let’s think about what Jordan Rhodes wants. Would he want to return to a side to be a bit part player when he’s enjoying being one of the first names on the team sheet at Blackpool?
Since rejoining the club in the summer of 2021, Rhodes has had four different managers while with The Terriers in his second spell and none have seen him as the starting striker. Strangely, in the 22/23 season, he started 15 games in 34 appearances, the most since he returned to West Yorkshire but averaged just 43 minutes per game. Unfortunately, that’s arguably more an indication of the club’s failure in that season with managerial appointments and off-the-pitch troubles.
At 33 years old and his career approaching the tail end, you imagine he’ll want to get as much playing time as possible before he hangs up his boots. By all indications, Huddersfield Town is not the place for him to get those minutes.
It feels like a frustrating but unsurprising end for the Scottish striker’s time with The Terriers. Jordan Rhodes is quite rightly a legend of the club. He was an absolute goal machine for Huddersfield Town in his first stint, with 87 goals in 148 games. He was the first Town player to score back-to-back hat-tricks since the 1920s; he scored four against Sheffield Wednesday in a 4-4 draw, and five against Wycombe Wanderers in a 6-0 win. He won the League One Player of the Year and by the end of the 2011–12 season, Rhodes was the club’s and League One’s top scorer with 36 league goals. But you know all that, and even though the second time around isn’t as great, those achievements shouldn’t be glossed over. They’ve been celebrated before and will be again.
But, this is 2023 and Huddersfield Town have ambitious plans to reach the Premier League in three seasons. Whether that’s realised, we’ll wait and see but if that’s the aim, then Jordan Rhodes’ break clause shouldn’t be activated in January. His contract expires at the end of this season, there’ll be plenty of suitors and he’ll have the blessing of Town fans to go where he wants.
Jordan Rhodes will always be welcomed back to Huddersfield with open arms when his playing career finishes and his legacy with the club isn’t affected by his second spell. 97 goals for the club, iconic moments and by all accounts, a great representative for the club on and off the pitch but now it’s time for new starts for both parties.
