Rhodes has had a difficult few years; in August, he signed a loan with Blackpool after losing favour at Huddersfield under previous manager Neil Warnock.
Since moving to Bloomfield Road, Rhodes has been playing quite well, and he will be eager to assist the Seasiders in getting back into the Championship on their first try this season.
The striker’s contract with Huddersfield expires in the summer, and Terriers fans will always remember him with fondness for his contributions during his two stints at the stadium.
Rhodes was allowed to depart Tractor Boys in July 2009 for a sum of £350,000, and it was a move the Irishman would come to regret. Rhodes had previously played for Ipswich Town before moving to Huddersfield.
Roy Keane on Jordan Rhodes leaving Ipswich Town
Prior to moving to Huddersfield, Rhodes played on loan at Oxford United, Rochdale, and Brentford. He was a product of the Ipswich academy and scored once in ten games for the team.
In 2014, Keane acknowledged that he should not have approved Rhodes’ departure, but he maintained that the choice had been taken by the club.
In his book The Second Half, Keane remarked, “I still get criticised for selling Jordan, and I have to accept that,” which the Lancashire Telegraph cited.
“But the club made the decision as well. We paid (an initial) £350,000 to move him down a tier to Huddersfield, where he immediately began to score goals.
Thank God we had a sell-on option because they sold him to Blackburn for £8 million. I believe I was the one who proposed it.
The mistake myself and the staff made with Jordan was, we discussed what he couldn’t do rather than what he could do.
After leaving Portman Road, Rhodes said that Keane was motivated by his former boss’s lack of faith in him, and his prolific play at Huddersfield surely proved the manager wrong.
Rhodes joined Huddersfield while the team was relegated to League One. Despite the Terriers’ multiple attempts to gain promotion to the Championship, Rhodes was a regular goal scorer.
During the 2011–12 season, when the Terriers won promotion, the 34-year-old had his best season ever. In 45 games, he scored an amazing 39 goals, including two hat-tricks, four against Sheffield Wednesday, and even five against Wycombe Wanderers.
After promotion, Rhodes left Huddersfield to sign an £8 million contract with Blackburn Rovers. If his on-field exploits weren’t irritating enough for Ipswich, the Tractor Boys would have been thrilled to get that kind of money, especially when Marcus Evans owned the team and spending was tight.
When Rhodes went on loan from Sheffield Wednesday to Norwich City in July 2018, it was just one more blow for Ipswich supporters. In 40 games, Rhodes netted nine goals and made one assist to help the Canaries win the Championship.
After being released by Wednesday in 2021, Rhodes played for Huddersfield once more. Although he didn’t play much, he did score a vital goal in the play-off semi-final second leg against Luton Town in 2022 to guarantee the Terriers’ trip to the championship.
On their path to promotion from League One, Ipswich recruited attackers George Hirst and Nathan Broadhead in January, despite rumours that they were willing to bring Rhodes back to the team on loan.
Under Kieran McKenna’s direction, the Tractor Boys are presently aiming for a Premier League comeback, but fans will surely question what may have happened if Rhodes had not been transferred.
