Blackburn Rovers v Sheffield Wednesday: Owls chief dismisses talk of Rhodes swoop

That matter in question being the persistent links tipping Sheffield Wednesday to make a big-money £10m-plus move for Rovers striker Jordan Rhodes, with the rumours having endlessly done the rounds since the summer.

With the January transfer window open for business in just over a month’s time, the speculation regarding Rhodes is bound to intensify with Wednesday one of several well-heeled Championship sides with more than a passing interest in the prolific former Huddersfield Town marksman.

Head coach Carvalhal, for his part, insists that the rumours regarding Rhodes – whose father Andy is the goalkeeping coach at Hillsborough – have no foundation and has stressed that he is more than happy with the striking options at his disposal.

Carvalhal, who for the second week running pits his wits against another recently-appointed manager in the dug-out in Paul Lambert after last weekend’s assignment with Huddersfield head coach David Wagner, said: “In my opinion, it does not make any sense.

“I hear – or read – about talk about £14m. We are not in this type of Championship (market).

“It is something we will never talk (about) as it’s not our target.

“I must talk about the players that we do have. At this moment, we have Lucas Joao, who is doing fantastic in the national team.

“We also have a very good striker like (Gary) Hooper, who is getting better day by day and who, in a short time, will be completely fit and adapted to a very good striker.

“(Atdhe) Nuhiu is very dangerous to all opponents and Fernando (Forestieri) to me is one of the best players in the Championship, I’m absolutely sure. We also have Sergiu Bus, who is a young player with a lot of ability.

“So we are happy with our strikers and don’t need to talk about strikers from our opponents.”

Meanwhile, Carvalhal is expecting a tough game across the Pennines and has called on his side to be ‘gladiators’ in the Roses arena.

He added: “When teams change coach, they change their psychological moment and it is not easy.

“We need to play like gladiators and it will be a very difficult game and I know both teams will be ready to play.”