Plymouth Argyle will look at Southampton player with pure envy: View | OneFootball

Jack Stephens was sold to Saints for peanuts during the Pilgrims' financial struggles

Key Takeaways

Even at the age of 16, Jack Stephens looked like a player destined for the top.

The young defender was Plymouth Argyle's third-youngest ever player when he made his bow against Sheffield Wednesday in 2010, and looked to immediately fit in to the side at League One level.

With his composure on the ball and a football intelligence that belied his tender age, all those at Home Park could see that this was a man on the verge of a promising career.

Many of those would have known it wasn’t going to be with Argyle though, with the club embroiled in a financial avalanche during the start of the previous decade, with assets being stripped from the Pilgrims to keep the lights on in the Ocean City.

Stephens would prove to be one of those that left the club for pittance during that time, with Southampton being the beneficiaries for the measly sum of £150,000, leaving Argyle spitting feathers after such a promising star was prised away from their grasp.

Jack Stephens catches the eye with early Plymouth Argyle performances

There was already plenty of furore over Stephens before he had even stepped foot onto the pitch at Home Park, with plenty of talk about the centre-back’s performances in the Argyle development side before he made his first-team bow.

A brief cameo in a 3-2 victory against Sheffield Wednesday saw him mark his professional debut, as he helped the ten-men hosts see out the victory in a backs-to-the-wall performance.

Former England international Peter Reid was the man in charge in Devon at the time, and the World Cup star was only too happy to throw him into the deep end in the coming months, with a first league start coming against Charlton Athletic a month later.

With an assured aura on the ball and a penchant for sniffing out danger before it had developed, Stephens was already proving to be a star in the making during his early days at Home Park, and that hadn’t gone unnoticed by those higher up the pyramid.

Plymouth Argyle financial issues force Jack Stephens sale

With the administrators moving into Home Park as the club continued to bleed money in every direction, Stephens’ performances were putting him in the shop window, with a number of clubs seeing the potential he had at such a young age.

With every pound needing to be recouped, Argyle were left with no choice but to sell their top talent, with players leaving left, right and centre to preserve the club’s status in the Football League.

After the centre-back initially turned down a move to Fulham in March 2011, it was clear that the teenager would be leaving Devon imminently, with administrator Brendan Guilfyole confirming as much.

He said at the time: “You've got to remember he's a young kid, but we need funding, so I'm disappointed.

"I'm exploring all avenues open to me but, at the moment, they aren't coming off."

And so be it, just a matter of weeks later Stephens was a Southampton player, with the Saints getting him for a bargain £150,000, which has to go down as one of the signings of the Century for the south coast side.

Under-18 coach Jason Dodd summed it up at the time, as he relished the opportunity to develop the centre-back into a regular first-team player at St Mary’s.

He said: "This is a great signing for the academy. He actually played against us in the FA Youth Cup earlier this season so we know all about him.

"It is great that the club is delivering its promise of recruiting and developing the best young talent in the country.

"Jack has performed really well for a first year and this signing gives us all a fantastic opportunity to progress to where we want to go."

Plymouth Argyle can only watch on as Jack Stephens becomes Southampton regular

Both player and club couldn’t have gone in much more opposite directions since they parted ways, with Argyle getting to the brink of extinction, before fighting for their Football League survival in the years that followed.

The Greens have since rallied to return to the Championship in recent seasons, while Stephens has become something of a Southampton stalwart, with over 170 appearances for the club in all competitions.

After loan spells across the Football League, the centre-back has become a regular presence in the Saints’ backline over the past decade, with over 100 of his matches for the club coming in the Premier League.

In all likelihood, Argyle would have lost the defender at some point, even if the finances at the club were stable when Stephens came through the academy, but to lose him for such a measly sum will still wrangle members of the Green Army, who knew just what a talent they had on his hands.

Having played in both matches against the Pilgrims last season as Saints secured a return to the Premier League, Argyle fans got the latest reminder of just what a player they had on their hands, before he was cruelly taken away.

The loss of a number of academy stars at that time has left the Greens even more precious over the local lads who come good at Harper’s Park these days - you only have to look at the Michael Cooper scenario to see that - as they take great pride in producing stars of the future in the south west.

With Stephens embarking on another season in the top flight, there will be a mix of envy and pride in the Green Army as they see one of their own flourishing on the biggest stage, because not only should he have been at Home Park for longer, but he always looked so much better in green anyway.