Jack Rodwell

[Saxo1man41]

Sunderland fan in peace here.

Firstly I just want to wish you well for this season. Blackburn has been a side I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for. First kit I owned that wasn’t ours, bought from your club shop, and first non Sunderland game I attended when I was about 10 years old. Remember wanting Le Saux on the back of the shirt but the shop had run out and despite my dad wanting me to get Shearer I went with Sutton who had just signed for you, and considering where Shearer went after, turned out to be a great choice. Wasn’t a bad season that year either.

Anyway, I’ve ummed and ahhed about posting on here, especially after a few others from our end have, but just wanted to add a little additional information that had been missed. I’ll try not to be too biased.

We signed Jack off the back of a fairly poor time at City. He had shown some talent but mostly promise in his time at Everton but never seemed to kick on at City and very rarely appeared for them, albeit in a talented squad. This may have partly down to City needing to meet the English quota but injuries also played a major part.

When we signed him the majority of our fanbase were pleased with the transfer (although I did tongue in cheek question whether he would be able to remember what a football looked like). All fans want to be positive about new signings and we are no different. When Rodwell signed he stated he was rarely ever injured during his time at City (a statement he has repeated a number of times during his time with us - see the fictional Daily Mail article hat I will touch on later) which gave us confidence he would be fit to play and we were excited about the promise he had shown at Everton and thought we were the perfect chance for him to kick on.

When he signed, our manager stated he was signed as more of a box to box/attacking midfielder to add goals to the side.

He made his debut away to West Brom where he was awful. He could barely run, didn’t want the ball, sloppy passes etc. We put this down to little game time/no preseason (‘he just needs a preseason to see the best of him’ is now a recurring joke years down the line).

Form wise it didn’t really get any better from there. In fact, it got worse...and worse (although he did score a header v Man U early on - he’s not too bad in the air).

He blamed not playing for city - a side who always has the ball - for his poor form, as he wasn’t used to chasing games. He then blamed his mindset regarding previous injuries (despite claiming originally he was never injured at City). I think this is where a lot of his issues stem from. He’s often spoken to the local media and quotes from him usually come across as his game is affected due to him being scared of being injured, which has been touched in by a number of our managers since.

He started 37 games before featuring in a victory. Yes, this can’t all be down to him, but we were still picking up wins when he didn’t feature. I remember one game in the cup when he was given 2 stupid yellow cards. The second yellow was when he tried to slap the ball out of Fulhams keepers as he went to kick it out his hands. Theres a gif somewhere on the internet of a game away to Chelsea where he camera shows him for around 20-30 seconds moving behind opposing players, while we have possession, and pointing in all directions so we wouldn’t pass to him (this was a recurring theme).

Managers came and went and all (but Coleman who inherited him at his worst point at the club) initially gave him a chance before giving up on him (citing attitude and mindset) because he was, in all honesty, a complete liability when he wasn’t ‘injured’ which was nearly all the time.

After we were relegated he was he only player to remain on his full wage. A lot has been said about his wage and how that maybe tainting our view on him, and without doubt in some cases it has. That being said, a large proportion of our fanbase, including myself, don’t blame him for the wages he was getting (clubs fault), but we do blame him for his attitude and appalling disrespectful behavior. He could have been paid £1000 a week and our feelings on him would still be the same.

After we got relegated Grayson gave him another chance which was not taken. Grayson suggested Rodwell had mental issues and had asked him if he could play CB because he didn’t feel he was robust enough to play CM anymore. CB being a position he has never played professionally. Grayson gave him a chance at CB in an under 23 game and he was again out of his depth and after ended up training with the reserves and not even making their squad for games.

Coleman came in and had a pretty turbulent time with him. He stated on numerous occasions Rodwell was ‘missing’ and he ‘didn’t know where he was’. Incidentally, our fans knew where he was as he was photographed playing in an arcade during one of our games.

At this point Rodwell, and presumably his agent, decided to run that Daily Mail article I touched on earlier and have no doubt you will already be familiar with. In the article Rodwell makes a number of statements which are completely false:

- He states he hasn’t been injured and is ‘as fit as I’ve ever been’. You might remember this line from earlier. It was the exact line he gave us when we signed him after being injured most of his time at City. There were reports from sources within the club that he was advising Coleman every Friday he had picked up an injury so he couldn’t be selected.

- He states he played regularly and well for Allardyce. Allardyce dropped him after a handful of games, like every other manager, because he was so poor.

- He states he’s an england international. Ok, not completely false but not within the last 5/6 years. He does tend to state this a lot (he may have done when he signed for you).

- He states he wants to move to play football and it isn’t about the money. He rejected 3 offers of moves for first team football in January to stay with us and train with the reserves so it seems it was about the money. (Don’t blame him for that. Just don’t go on record and say the opposite for pity).

- He asks for pity because he has to drive to work in the dark in the middle of winter (seriously). Is there anyone who doesn’t do this on a daily basis?

After that Coleman called him out on this ‘fitness’ claim and put him in an under 23 game at CB where he was again completely out of depth, was at fault for a goal, and was never to be seen again.

So in summary, during his time with us when Jack wasn’t injured, worried about being injured, trying to regain fitness, telling the world he wasn’t injured, refusing to play, looking out of depth v kids, playing games in arcades and asking for pity for driving to work in the dark, he was very, very poor losing nearly every game he featured in (bar one game away to Man City where he played well in DM in a park the bus game where his role was not to leave our 18 yard D in a game I don’t think we left our half - and lost).

I saw another poster compare him to Milton Nunez. Milton Nunez wasn’t our worst signing. Ricky Alvarez has been our worst signing. If you aren’t familiar with that one, we took him on loan with a clause we had to buy him for about 12 million if we stayed up. He played a handful of games and got injured. We stayed up and refused to sign him (despite the clause) and he ended up getting a free transfer to sampdoria and we ended up being forced by FIFA to pay Inter the 12 million plus court cost etc for him, despite not even having his registration. Rodwell has been a worse signing than him.

Hope he rediscovers some sort of form he hasn’t been able to for the majority of his career but if not than thankfully he won’t be your problem next season

[Saxo1man41]

That was one of a few posts from Sunderland fans on brfcs..

Not good.. Sounds like the guy has mental health issues..

Not feeling too positive all of a sudden.

[robinrover]

Let's look at it positively
He has no stock and needs this or it's game over
Tony Mowbray is a great man manager and if he can't get him to find his early promise then who can?
One thing that concerns me he claims he has nothing to prove
Really?you have it all to prove.

[AucklandRover]

That is really worrying. It doesn't sound like a fan with an axe to grind. just someone really p*ssed off!

[champs95]

Sunderland is a real mess of a club. I remember Danny Graham arriving here from them. And he's now crucial to us. He came in from a similar situation. They told us he was the worst signing of all time. We got them to pay money for Jason Steele. We know what a joke they are.
I just think the only thing you can do is see what happens. He is costing us virtually nothing wages wise. And is on a short contract, with no fee. For us, this is very low risk and could come off.

[AucklandRover]

It's low-risk in financial terms, for sure, but I don't think we can put all the blame on his club.
I've looked at lots of comments from Sunderland supporters now, and he gets universal condemnation for his attitude.
I trust absolutely TM's ability to get players on his side and to make them give 100%, but this is his biggest challenge yet!

[Despair]

After reading that, it seems to me there is no doubt this lad really has to look at himself for what has gone on and shoulder the bulk of the blame/responsibility. This could be yet another case of ‘too much too soon’ (fame an fortune).
Given my opinion of TM and his nous, I would like to think he has spoken in depth with him and despite his stupid quote of I have nothing to prove (which does actually bother me a bit) I would hope he truly has ‘woken up’/‘smelt the coffee and recognises this is last chance saloon.
My other lingering concern is that if he really is a un- reformable bad egg, that’s not good for squad morale.

[champs95]

After reading that, it seems to me there is no doubt this lad really has to look at himself for what has gone on and shoulder the bulk of the blame/responsibility. This could be yet another case of ‘too much too soon’ (fame an fortune).
Given my opinion of TM and his nous, I would like to think he has spoken in depth with him and despite his stupid quote of I have nothing to prove (which does actually bother me a bit) I would hope he truly has ‘woken up’/‘smelt the coffee and recognises this is last chance saloon.
My other lingering concern is that if he really is a un- reformable bad egg, that’s not good for squad morale.

It could work out to be the exact opposite?
Look at Bennett and Graham. Both came here and did nothing to impress. Their careers where drifting in both cases. In Bennett's case, he is as good as anyone right now in the Champ. He is instrumental to everything good at Blackburn Rovers. He, like all the players around the first team, would run through a brick wall. Irrelevant of varying talent, if you do your job and go above and beyond, then you will get a chance. Rodwell has just a bigger chance of progressing, than not. Now he has a proper football manager. And the right club, with the right structure to give him a platform to play. Mowbray has turned round lots of careers at Rovers. Dack when he first signed could well have gone another direction. And off the rails. Now he would run through a brick wall for Mowbray. He was a play boy with no application, who suggested his precocious talent onmyvat lower level. It was up to Mowbray to find that.
Plus it's Mowbray who has chosen this squad of players. And the main lads, all have bought into what we are doing. If Rodwell is surrounded by people who all believe in him, and he is given game time he could re-pay us. Like Graham. Like Bennett like Smallwood.