It will take £10m+ for Pulis to lure Rhodes from Blackburn to Palace
Published:An unsustainable wage bill, a reasonable dip in Ewood Park attendance and the disappearance of Premier League payments have all contributed to Blackburn’s debt increase in recent seasons and the big question is whether they will decide to cash in on Jordan Rhodes as a result in January?
Managing director Derek Shaw insists that the club’s star striker is not for sale, but any offer superior to the £8m that Blackburn paid Huddersfield for the Scotland man in August 2012 may cause them to reassess this standpoint.
Rhodes has already netted 10 goals in just 16 Championship starts this season to add to the 27 he netted in the last campaign and it has to be considered a major surprise that a Premier League team has still not taken a chance on him.
This is especially true given the likes of Andy Carroll, Rickie Lambert and Grant Holt have made successful transitions to the top flight in recent seasons.
The big poser for Blackburn is that even with Rhodes’ goals, they still finished down the field in 17th in the Championship last season and are only marginally better in mid-table in the present campaign.
Even though Ruben Rochina is coming back to fitness and a few of the younger squad players are showing improvement on a weekly basis, Blackburn would seemingly have little to no chance of promotion if selling Rhodes and may even end up as serious relegation contenders.
Therefore, there is no way Blackburn would sell for a loss on their initial investment, meaning that speculation linking Crystal Palace with a £6m January bid is pretty pointless, unless it is an effort to unsettle the striker.
Tony Pulis will have money to spend as he attempts to continue his fine record of never being relegated at Crystal Palace and a striker is a big priority, given Palace have netted just seven goals this season, fewer than every other Premier League club.
However, he will need to at least double the reported sum being mentioned, breaking Palace’s club record in the process.
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