Norwich City massively benefitted from £10m Sheffield Wednesday transfer mistake | OneFootball

Norwich City were the real winners from Sheffield Wednesday's club-record £10 million signing of striker Jordan Rhodes.

It is fair to say that Sheffield Wednesday have made plenty of costly transfer mistakes during Dejphon Chansiri's time as owner.

After taking over the club in 2015, Chansiri set a bold target of leading Wednesday back to the Premier League within his first two full years of ownership, and he was not afraid to spend in order to achieve that objective.

Chansiri provided the funds for plenty of successful signings, including the likes of Fernando Forestieri and Gary Hooper, but a number of other expensive additions failed to live up to expectations at Hillsborough.

Many Owls supporters regard midfielder Almen Abdi, who joined from Watford for a fee of £4 million, as the worst signing of the Chansiri era, but in terms of underwhelming deals, striker Jordan Rhodes is not far behind.

The arrival of Rhodes on loan from Middlesbrough in February 2017, with an obligation to sign him permanently for a club-record fee of £10 million in the summer, generated plenty of excitement among the Wednesday fan base, but his time at the club proved to be a disaster, and Norwich City ended up as the true winners of the deal.

Jordan Rhodes' Sheffield Wednesday move quickly turned sour

Rhodes established a reputation as one of the most prolific strikers in EFL history prior to his move to Hillsborough, and Wednesday supporters had long clamoured for the club to make a move for him, so there was plenty of optimism that he could fire the club to the Premier League, just as he did at Middlesbrough the previous season.

However, it quickly became clear that manager Carlos Carvalhal was unsure how to get the best out of Rhodes, and he scored just three goals in 20 appearances in the second half of the 2016-17 season, while his decision not to take a penalty in the play-off semi-final defeat to Huddersfield Town did not go down well with the Owls faithful.

A change of manager midway through the following season did not bring about the upturn in fortunes that Rhodes would have hoped for, and in fact, he featured even less under Carvalhal's successor, Jos Luhukay, ending the campaign with a disappointing total of seven goals in 34 games.

It was therefore little surprise when Luhukay allowed Rhodes to join Norwich on loan in the summer of 2018, and what happened next would frustrate Wednesday even more than his underwhelming performances at Hillsborough.

Given that Rhodes started his career with their bitter local rivals Ipswich Town, his arrival at Carrow Road was not particularly warmly received by Canaries supporters, but that quickly changed as he played an important role in one of the club's best-ever seasons.

Norwich City struck gold with Jordan Rhodes, Sheffield Wednesday deal

Rhodes did not necessarily get the game time he would have liked at Norwich due to the stunning form of Teemu Pukki, but when he did get an opportunity to make an impact, he certainly grabbed it with both hands.

Despite his limited minutes, Rhodes still managed to score nine goals in 40 appearances for the Canaries in the 2018-19 season to help them to the Championship title, and while three of those came in one game in the EFL Cup against Wycombe Wanderers, he made plenty of decisive contributions in the league.

With Norwich trailing 1-0 at home to Aston Villa in October 2018, Rhodes scored two crucial second-half goals to seal all three points for Daniel Farke's side at a time when they were starting to emerge as serious automatic promotion contenders.

Just a few weeks later, Rhodes made another vital impact as he came off the bench as a late substitute to net a stoppage-time equaliser against Millwall, and Pukki then produced a last-gasp winner to seal a thrilling 4-3 comeback victory for the Canaries, which was something that became a hallmark of their promotion-winning season.

Rhodes' final goal for Norwich came in January 2019 when he netted an 83rd-minute equaliser just minutes after being introduced as a substitute in a 1-1 draw against promotion rivals West Bromwich Albion, and the points he earned for the club proved to be critical as they went on to lift the title.

The Canaries were reportedly keen to sign Rhodes permanently following his loan spell, but a deal did not materialise, with sporting director Stuart Webber admitting that the fee required to bring him back to the club would not have made "economic sense".

With a return to Carrow Road off the cards, Rhodes was forced to return to Wednesday, but any hope that he could reignite his Hillsborough career after his Norwich success was quickly extinguished as he scored just three goals in 17 games in the 2019-20 season, with all of those coming in one match against Nottingham Forest in December 2019.

Rhodes performed slightly better the following season, scoring seven goals in 38 appearances, but he was unable to prevent the Owls' relegation to League One, and he was released that summer after netting just 20 goals in 112 games for the club.