Plymouth Argyle’s £500k Cardiff City deal will still give supporters the chills: View | OneFootball

Highlights

Rumour has it, if you want to scare a Plymouth Argyle fan into a frenzy all you have to do is whisper the name ‘Steve MacLean’.

The name alone will conjure up turgid memories for members of the Green Army, with their then-record signing proving to be one of their biggest flops in their last foray into the second tier.

With half a million pounds splashed out on the Scottish youth international Argyle fans were expecting the world from their big-money buy, but were left with a bitter taste in the mouth after three-and-a-half disastrous years in Devon.

It’s said to be a sign of respect among Pilgrims supporters if you were at a match where MacLean found the net; such was the irregularity of his goalscoring exploits, with his tenure at the club coinciding with the start of their recent demise into the fourth tier.

Steve MacLean early career: Sheffield Wednesday, Cardiff City, Plymouth Argyle

After coming up through the ranks with Glasgow Rangers, MacLean played just four times for his boyhood club before making the move south of the border; initially on loan with Scunthorpe United before making a permanent switch to Sheffield Wednesday.

The early signs were promising for the Scot with 45 goals across his first two seasons in the EFL, as the Owls won promotion back to the Championship with a playoff final victory over Hartlepool United in 2005 - with MacLean scoring a penalty in a 4-2 victory.

A broken leg on the eve of the second tier season saw him ruled out for much of the campaign, with just two goals from his six appearances in the latter part of the season to show for his efforts.

A solid campaign with 13 goals followed the next season; earning himself a move to Cardiff City, in what many would describe as the start of the end for what looked like being a goal-laden career among the English Football League.

The Pilgrims should have smelt a rat when the Bluebirds were happy to offload their striker just six months after he moved to the club; with the Welsh side all too happy to make a £500,000 profit on a forward who had found the net just once in 15 league appearances.

Steve MacLean Plymouth Argyle career: Appearances, goals

With the likes of Akos Buzsaky, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Dan Gosling and David Norris all syphoning through the exit door, it was left to MacLean to pick up the pieces at Home Park, with much of their devastating attacking line sold to keep the lights on at Home Park.

This was an Argyle side on the brink of collapse, with financial misspending coming back to haunt them, and poor ownership in the hunt for Premier League football leaving them chasing their tail to make ends meet.

MacLean was as much of a fall guy as anyone in that period with his price tag not lending himself any favours; the Devon side meandered to a tenth-placed finish after his January arrival, as he struck just three times in 17 appearances.

The mood in the West Country was souring by the day during the next campaign, with plenty of anger targeted at their supposedly star striker, who would only find the net twice throughout the course of the campaign.

His main contribution that year was the only goal of the game in a 1-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough to send the travelling Green Army into a frenzy, and get one over on his old club to boot.

With MacLean misfiring it was left to Paul Gallagher to fire in the goals to keep Argyle’s status as a second tier side intact, with MacLean’s reputation among the Green Army in tatters after a slew of underwhelming performances.

When the Home Park crowd is against you there aren’t many worse places to be, and the ire towards MacLean was clear to see in his final days in a green shirt, with Argyle fans still waiting for a return on the transfer fee outlaid on him over two years earlier.

Half a million pounds might seem like a drop in the ocean for most clubs, but the Devon side it was a major deal, and one that backfired massively in the long run.

Only Simon Walton’s move from Queens Park Rangers had superseded that sum before last summer, where the Greens spent £1 million on Morgan Whittaker and then Bali Mumba in the space of a week.

That goes to show how much of a big deal MacLean’s move was at Home Park at the time, and the fact that he had eaten up a big chunk of the transfer budget and wage bill will have irked Pilgrims no-end.

A loan move away from the club made sense for all parties before things really blew up on the south coast, and the striker managed to equal his league goal tally from two years at Argyle in just 16 games with Aberdeen, with five goals scored for the Dons.

A loan move to Oxford was followed by a permanent deal to Somerset to join Yeovil, leaving Argyle fans breathing a sigh of relief that their misfiring striker was off the books, with the financial difficulties continuing to rear their head in Devon.

The Greens were in the midst of a slump down to the fourth tier, with points deductions heading their way for financial reasons, before being hours from liquidation in the summer of 2011.

Football has a funny way of levelling the scores sometimes, and after parting on bad terms MacLean got the last laugh the season after, as he found the net for Cheltenham Town on the final day of the season as the Pilgrims clung on to their league status by a single point.

After looking like he would never find the back of the net again during his time at Home Park, MacLean went on to have six successful years at St Johnstone back in his homeland, before spells with Hearts and Raith Rovers before hanging up his boots.

The combination of big price tag and poor goal return coinciding with a period of uncertainty away from the field will leave Argyle fans looking back on MacLean’s time at the club in a negative light, with his league goals coming at a rate of £100,000 a time.

The Scot is the poster boy for the Pilgrims’ poor performances in that time, as their hopes and dreams got swept from underneath them, and has no doubt left them weary of splashing the cash since.