Grayson Speaks Out About Rhodes' Departure

Simon Grayson has today more or less seen his number one striker & most valued asset taken away from him in a deal worth in the region of £8m. That man is of course Jordan Rhodes but the gaffer spoke out openly about the situation and stressed how the clubs ambitions have not changed;

"Obviously everyone at the Club is disappointed to see Jordan leave, but this happens all the time in football no matter the Club or league you are in. You cannot realistically keep players at a Club against their will and Jordan made it clear to us that he wanted to talk to Blackburn Rovers, but as we have said all along a transfer would only happen on our terms and this is exactly the case."

"I would like to thank Jordan for all he has done for this Club. He’s been an absolute joy to work with every day; he’s always looking to improve and all the speculation surrounding him this year has not affected his professionalism for a second. He has achieved some unbelievable things here and played a massive part as Huddersfield Town has moved forward."

"It’s a shame he won’t be part of the next stage of our Championship journey but that’s life and we move on quickly in football. We have been planning behind the scenes for the eventuality that Jordan would leave for a long time now, even though we hoped it wouldn’t happen, and we know our options. We have developed a good squad of players here and our targets for this season and beyond have not changed just because Jordan is departing. There is no lack of ambition at this Club, that’s for sure, as we have shown and will show over the coming weeks, months and years.  Buying and selling is an integral part of that."

The Rhodes deal is set to break the clubs record fee but is still to go through its final stages before Rhodes officially becomes a Blackburn Rovers player. Expect this to happen tomorrow morning as the striker did indeed have his medical at Rovers today. We wish him all the best in the next stage of his career.

Rhodes Not Interested In Transfer Speculation

Jordan Rhodes bagged his first goal in The Championship yesterday when he slotted home a penalty in stoppage time to give the terriers their first point of the season and today he has made it pretty clear that he is focused on his football at Huddersfield Town.

The Scotland international has been at the forefront of all the transfer rumours this year & despite reports from national newspapers linking him to other clubs (especially Blackburn) in apparently 'done deals', Rhodes is still playing in blue & white stripes under Simon Grayson;

"I just try to let the speculation go over my head and get on with the job. It is quite easy when we have got matches to concentrate on, training, and the lads are around you. I don’t really pay much attention to the papers or television; I just try to live life as normal."

"This is a tremendous football club and I have got many friends here. We have a great changing room which makes it so much easier as well. Hopefully the new lads who have come in would agree with that because we have tried to make them all feel very welcome and it makes it much easier for everyone when the changing room is like that."

Rhodes was declared fit for the match last night despite being branded as 50/50 by Grayson on Monday. The manager praised his striker for the way he has handled everything over the past few months;

"Every player has his price but no one has come close to our valuation of Jordan. He declared himself fit and that shows the character of the lad. There would be many strikers who have had such speculation who probably wouldn’t have played. They would have downed tools thinking ‘I’ll go and get myself a move’, but Jordan was desperate to play."

"Our stance on him has never changed and he just gets on with the job. He won’t change if he’s a two bob player or ten million pound player – that’s how he is."