Sheffield Wednesday had Jordan Rhodes to thank for a vital three points last night in the Sky Bet Championship. The striker’s second goal of the season, coming at the perfect time against Bournemouth to secure a 2-1 win on the South Coast.

Ironically, Rhodes’ heroics come on the back of the January transfer window and a month of speculation linking him with a move away from Hillsborough after a dismal spell.

Rhodes’ troubles

Rhodes was signed back in 2017 with the view of him firing Sheffield Wednesday into the Premier League after a period of flirting with the play-offs. He’d done it before with Middlesbrough and was a big signing at the time.

Ultimately, the 30-year-old has flopped at Hillsborough scoring 15 times across all competitions in 92 appearances. In fact, his best spell in-front of goal since signing for Wednesday was out on loan with Norwich City, where he scored nine times across all competitions.

He’s into the final six months of this deal at Wednesday now.

January  

Queens Park Rangers were consistently linked with Rhodes, but they settled on Charlie Austin and nothing came of that apparent interest.

However, Rhodes’ contract situation and the fact that he appeared way down the pecking order at Wednesday, left the door open for his departure throughout the month.

Ultimately, though, nothing materialised for the striker and he remained at Hillsborough to see out his deal.

What does the future hold?

It remains to be seen.

Football’s funny, roundabout way meant that Rhodes was stepping off the bench to head in a winning goal at Bournemouth last night after failing to source a January move. That was his second goal of the season and secured a win that moved Wednesday within three points of safety.

Rhodes has done this type of thing before: a hat-trick at Nottingham Forest last season, a goal on the opening day of the current campaign. However, he’s never used these moments to help his Wednesday career take off.

You would like to think that such an important goal against Bournemouth might see him go on a little burst of goalscoring form, putting him in contention for an extended deal.

History, though, tells us a very different story and this could be the start of a long, overdue, goodbye for Rhodes.

Quiz: Did each of these 18 ex-Sheffield Wednesday players ever score a goal at Hillsborough?