"Nothing but a failure" - Eight-figure deal still source of Sheffield Wednesday frustration | OneFootball

The striker moved to Hillsborough in 2017 but never made an impact.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Sheffield Wednesday's spending over the course of the late 2010s landed them in financial trouble in the 2020/21 season.

The Owls were deducted 12 points for breaking spending rules in the Championship, and although this was later reduced to six, they were still relegated on the final day of the campaign after a 3-3 draw against Derby County.

Sheffield Wednesday had said in their accounts that they sold their stadium, Hillsborough, in the 2017/18 season, when in fact it happened a year earlier, and this was why they were charged.

Nevertheless, the club spent plenty of money in the same time frame on players, without much success, reaching the Championship play-offs just twice in the 2010s. However, their failure to reach the Premier League came back to haunt them, and there were several members of the playing squad that proved to be wasted money.

Jordan Rhodes' Wednesday stay was very poor

One player that struggled to prove his ability in a Sheffield Wednesday shirt was Jordan Rhodes.

The striker had been prolific for Blackburn Rovers and Huddersfield Town but never got going at Hillsborough and scored just 20 goals in 112 games for the team after making the switch from Middlesbrough for £10 million.

Rhodes is the Owl's most expensive ever signing, and when asked whether he was value for money, FLW's Sheffield Wednesday Fan Pundit, Patrick McKenna, made it clear that there is still a sense of frustration in the Steel City.

He said: "Jordan Rhodes’ time at Hillsborough was sadly nothing but a failure, and he's remembered as one of the wasteful signings under Chansiri during those first few years.

"There are several reasons for it and a quite prominent one was that it was a signing that was never needed in the first place.

"We had recently signed Sam Winnall, and we had enough strikers at the club, but at the end of the transfer window we pushed through with this bid for Jordan Rhodes. The £10 million fee instantly put pressure on him to succeed.

"By this stage in his career, Rhodes’ best seasons and days were behind him. He was excellent for Huddersfield in League One, but in his stint before this in the Championship at Middlesbrough he was not scoring with any regularity. It was definitely not often enough to justify the fee that we eventually paid."

He continued: "There was one incident which lost him a lot of goodwill from the fanbase and epitomised his weak mindset in the play-off semi-final shootout defeat to Huddersfield, his ex-club. He refused to take a penalty against them, and for a record signing to do that in such an important game was just unforgivable, really.

"In some ways, he had just dug his own grave with some of the fans, and I think Carlos Carvalhal always seemed like he didn't want Rhodes, but there were plenty of chances given.

"He played in different formations, but he never hit a goal-scoring run. There was the one-off perfect hat trick he got in the first half in a 4-0 away win against Nottingham Forest, but one good half doesn't make a £10 million signing.

"Overall, he just never handled the pressure each week, he just never hit form and is just remembered as a poor, poor signing."

Rhodes has struggled to recover since the Wednesday move

Although it has been three years since he left the club, it has taken time for Rhodes to find form again.

He re-joined Huddersfield, a club that he had great success with in League One, but he never got back among the goals, finding the back of the net just 10 times in two seasons at the John Smith's Stadium.

However, a loan move to Blackpool in 2023/24 seems to have been the trigger to bring the now 34-year-old back close to his best.

Rhodes scored 15 goals in the third tier last year and has now made the move permanent, hoping to fire the Tangerines back to the Championship.