Sheffield Wednesday will still be haunted by last minute Middlesbrough deal | OneFootball

The club record signing of Jordan Rhodes from Middlesbrough will go down as one of the worst deals in Sheffield Wednesday history.

Sheffield Wednesday have had their fair share of failed transfer deals over the years, but few will go down as a bigger disaster than the signing of striker Jordan Rhodes from Middlesbrough in 2017.

After Dejphon Chansiri bought the club from Milan Mandaric in January 2015, he set himself the target of leading Wednesday back to the Premier League in his first two years of ownership, and he invested heavily in pursuit of that objective.

The Owls made a number of impressive additions, with Fernando Forestieri and Gary Hooper among the notable successes, and Chansiri did nearly achieve his goal, but the club suffered two consecutive play-off defeats under Carlos Carvalhal in 2016 and 2017.

However, Wednesday also made a number of high-profile mistakes during that time, and while the likes of Urby Emanuelson and Almen Abdi both endured nightmare spells at Hillsborough, the signing of Rhodes proved to be the most underwhelming, particularly considering his sizeable transfer fee.

Jordan Rhodes signing looked to be a coup for Sheffield Wednesday

Rhodes had established a reputation as one of the most prolific strikers in the EFL during his spells at Huddersfield Town, Blackburn Rovers and Middlesbrough, so there was plenty of excitement among Wednesday supporters when he was linked with the club in January 2017.

Much to the delight of the Owls fan base, the rumours turned out to be more than just mere speculation, and negotiations to bring Rhodes to Hillsborough on deadline day seemed to be heading in the right direction, but there was no confirmation of the deal by the time the window slammed shut at 11pm.

That sparked a nervous wait for supporters to see if the club had landed their man, but it was confirmed the following afternoon that the move was completed prior to the deadline, and Rhodes initially joined Wednesday on loan with an obligation to buy for a club-record fee of £10 million in the summer.

With the Owls firmly among the promotion contenders in the Championship, many hoped that Rhodes could be the man to fire the club back to the Premier League, just as he had done for Middlesbrough in the 2015-16 season when he netted six goals in 18 games in the second half of the campaign following his January move from Blackburn.

Given his outstanding career goalscoring record, Wednesday would surely have been confident that Rhodes would be a success at the club, but it certainly did not work out that way.

Jordan Rhodes is one of Sheffield Wednesday's worst ever signings

While Rhodes' arrival at Hillsborough was greeted with optimism, red flags quickly began to emerge as he failed to make an immediate impact, and his decision not to take a penalty in his side's play-off semi-final defeat to Huddersfield Town prompted a strong backlash from supporters.

With Carvalhal struggling to get the best out of Rhodes, Wednesday may have wished they could have avoided signing the striker permanently, but there was no way out of the agreement, and his time in South Yorkshire continued to turn sour.

If Rhodes had hoped that Carvalhal's departure in December 2017 would mark a change in fortunes for him, he found himself even further down the pecking order under his successor, Jos Luhukay, making just a handful of appearances in the second half of the season after the Dutchman's appointment.

It was therefore little surprise when Luhukay allowed Rhodes to join Norwich City on loan in the summer of 2018, and frustratingly for Owls supporters, he rediscovered his form at Carrow Road, scoring nine goals in 40 games to help the Canaries to the Championship title in the 2018-19 campaign.

That was not enough for Rhodes to force his way into the team after his return to Hillsborough, and he scored just three goals for Wednesday in the entirety of the following season, with all of those coming in one game in a 4-0 win at Nottingham Forest in December 2019.

Rhodes did enjoy a brief revival towards the end of the 2020-21 season following the arrival of Darren Moore, but he was unable to prevent Wednesday's relegation to League One, and he was released at the end of his contract that summer, departing after scoring just 20 goals and providing five assists in 112 games for the club.

If Rhodes' lack of goals was not disappointing enough for the Owls, the transfer fee paid for his services would likely have contributed significantly to the six-point deduction that led to relegation, so it is a deal that all parties will be desperate to forget.