Anyone who knows anything about football could have told you at the beginning of the season that Sheffield Wednesday needed a proven quality striker.
The Owls had lost their top scorer and best player from last season as Steven Fletcher departed after his contract expired, and while they did bring in reinforcements in the shape of Callum Paterson, Josh Windass and Jack Marriott, none of them filled the void left behind by Fletcher.
The January window came and went, and despite reportedly targeting five strikers, Wednesday didn’t managed to bring in a new centre-forward, and it looked as though Fletcher would never be adequately replaced.
However, Jordan Rhodes’ re-emergence from the shadows has shown that Wednesday’s Fletcher replacement was there all along.
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Four years after arriving for a big fee, Rhodes is finally beginning to look like the striker Wednesday thought they were getting from Middlesbrough, with three goals and an assist in his last three games.
Dare we say that Rhodes looked Fletcher-esque against Barnsley, hammering in a header and showing a killer instinct that we’d have associated with his Scottish compatriot in years gone by.
Rhodes looks reborn under Darren Moore, and he’s finally showing the talent that we’ve known has been hiding within him for years.
The Owls have eight games to save their season, and with a rejuvenated Rhodes leading the line they still have an outside chance of escaping the mess they’re in.
Let’s just hope this isn’t too little too late from Moore’s team and their number nine.
