SIMON GRAYSON believes Huddersfield Town may become a better all-round team as they re-build following the departure of Jordan Rhodes.

The Town boss – whose squad leave today for the clash with Ipswich at Portman Road tomorrow – is looking to bring in a couple of players before the transfer window closes at 11pm tonight.

Whether signings from the £8m Rhodes pot happen now or in the future – the loan window opens next week – Grayson is confident Town will not shy from their ambitions under chairman Dean Hoyle and will continue to progress.

So was it wages which made the difference at the end of the day and forced Rhodes to plump for the Ewood Park move and to join the squad of Steve Kean (inset)?

“In this day and age you have to look after your future and your family and I have no problem with that whatsoever,” said the boss, who is without hamstring-injury victim Sean Scannell tomorrow.

“Anything can happen to any player and any given time, so you do have to make sure you are financially secure, and I wouldn’t imagine we could match anything near what Blackburn are probably going to be paying him.

“They are just out of the Premiership with parachute payments to back them up, and with the owners they’ve got, and they are in the market to give him the salary and everything else over there.

“Could he have stayed with us and then got a move to the Premiership? That’s another thought.

“I sincerely think if he’d stayed with us until January, got another dozen or 15 goals, then maybe one or two Premiership clubs might have come in – but it was Jordan’s decision to go to Blackburn.”

Grayson admitted he was surprised a club – especially from the Championship – came up with the money Town wanted and he confirmed the £8m is guaranted, however many games Rhodes plays, however many goals he scores and whether Blackburn are promoted or not.

“I was surprised the valuation was met, but it has been and we move on,” he said.

“We are looking forward to the game at Ipswich for now and, hopefully, when Jordan plays against us he will get a nice round of applause and then go into a goal drought!

“While there were inquiries about him, Blackburn were the only club to really take things forward significantly. I think our price tag put one or two clubs off Jordan, so Blackburn deserve credit for sticking at it, but I also think this club deserves credit for holding out for the price we wanted.

“A lot of clubs would have buckled about a month ago and taken half the fee, but we were not in a position where we had to do that. We got what we feel is a very good transfer fee in the market at this moment in time.”

He added: “We are looking to bring quality into the club, and it could be that we are all round a better team with Jordan Rhodes not playing. That’s what happens sometimes, people leave clubs and the one they’ve left brings in the right people to replace them and go on to better things.

“That’s football, and it’s up to the players we already have here, plus the ones we are looking to bring in, to step up to the mark and produce the goods.”

So does he think Blackburn making their interest in the 22-year-old Scotland international public eventually unsettle Holme Valley based Rhodes?

“Every club is different and I like to do my football business in private, but sometimes a club can go public and turn a player’s head,” he said.

“I don’t think that really happened with Jordan because of the way he trained every day and because of the way he played – doing really well – and he’s such a level-headed lad that I don’t think that would have affected him.

“The only thing which could have affected him or turned his head would be the salary they could have offered him.”

Rhodes, who scored 87 goals in 148 appearances for Town, yesterday retained his place, as expected, in the full Scotland international squad for the opening World Cup qualifiers against Serbia and Macedonia.

While Vancouver Whitecaps striker Kenny Miller returns to the squad after being rested for the 3-1 friendly win against Australia in which Rhodes scored, the former Town man could well be handed the job of leading the line for boss Craig Levein.