Plymouth Argyle struck gold after capitalising on Coventry City decision – There may be regrets though | OneFootball

Plymouth Argyle reaped the rewards of capitalising on the surprise departure of Ruben Lameiras from Coventry City, but he could have been even better.

Having come through the academy at Tottenham Hotspur, there was always supposed to be a high level of potential for Ruben Lameiras to fulfil, and at Plymouth Argyle, he had begun to showcase that.

The Portuguese midfielder left Spurs in 2015, having spent a couple of months on loan at Atvidaberg in the Swedish Allsvenskan, and was picked up by Coventry City.

He enjoyed a couple of middling seasons at Coventry, albeit he did show some glimpses of quality, most notably in their run to winning the 2017 EFL Trophy, but he couldn’t prevent the Sky Blues from being relegated from League One at the end of that season.

In the summer of 2017, the Pilgrims pounced on Coventry’s decision to release Lameiras at the end of his contract, and he moved down to Home Park on a free transfer.

Ruben Lameiras thrived at Plymouth Argyle

For a couple of years in Devon, Lameiras dazzled with an excellent balance and technical ability that lit up Home Park, under the management of Derek Adams.

In his first season, as Plymouth finished just outside of the top six and the play-off places in League One, Lameiras grew into the campaign, having initially started on the periphery, akin to his role at Coventry.

Then, during the 2018/19 season, Lameiras became the star of the show at Plymouth, battling hard in a below average side that was eventually relegated on goal difference due to a collapse in the run-in, falling from 12th with just over a month to go all the way down to 21st, despite winning on the final day.

Playing as a winger for Adams, but someone could also play inside, Lameiras notched 11 goals and provided six assists in 41 League One appearances, being nominated as Plymouth’s Player of the Season.

A sense of what could have been for Ruben Lameiras

At the age of just 24, Lameiras appeared to have now established himself as more than good enough for League One, but potentially capable of leaping forward.

Having rejected a new deal at Plymouth, the Lisbon-born attacker returned to his home country to ply his trade in the Portuguese top-flight, joining Famalicao.

After a steady first season, Lameiras transformed himself into a quality operator in the Primeira Liga during the first-half of the 2020/21 campaign, earning himself a move to arguably the biggest club in Portugal outside of ‘Os Tres Grandes’, Porto, Benfica and Sporting, with a move to Vitoria Guimaraes after scoring four goals from 11 games.

At Vitoria, he once again established himself as something of a solid performer for a couple of years, but never quite kicked on to earning himself a move back down south to his home city of Lisbon and either Sporting or Benfica. He only managed six goals from 77 appearances across two-and-a-half years, and perhaps has not quite lived up to the potential which was so prominent during his time at Plymouth and the earlier days of his career in Portuguese football, too.

Instead, after stints at both Chaves and Casa Pia, Lameiras eventually moved on to the Qatari second division, joining Al Sailiya. He has shown some quality there, though, helping them gain promotion to the Qatari Stars League.

However, for a player with certainly the EFL at his feet in 2019 to a player playing in European football in 2021, it has been an underwhelming couple of years for Lameiras.

That said, the couple of years he gave to Argyle, despite their relegation to the fourth-tier, ended up being sublime; there is just a case of ‘what could have been’.