Plymouth Argyle will want to avoid Jack Stephens, Dan Gosling regret amid Premier League links | OneFootball

Interest from top flight clubs in Tegan Finn will have the Greens thinking of academy stars of the past who flew the nest

There will be a familiar uncertain feeling surrounding Plymouth Argyle of late, following the news that teenage talent Tegan Finn is being monitored by Premier League clubs.

The 16-year-old is said to have caught the eye of a number of clubs in the top flight, with Pete O’Rourke reporting the news for Football Insider earlier in the month.

Having been given his professional debut earlier in the season for the Pilgrims, there is every hope that the academy graduate can shine at Home Park in the future, although the recent interest may well begin to turn his head at this early stage in his career.

If he does leave for pastures new, he won’t be the first to have jumped ship from Home Park at such a tender age, with Argyle seeing a number of academy stars make the move to the top tier in recent years.

Tegan Finn tipped for bright future after making Plymouth Argyle debut

Finn was thrown straight into the deep end earlier in the season, as he made his bow for the Greens in a 3-0 defeat to Leeds United at Elland Road, and became the sixth-youngest Argyle debutant of all time at 16 years and 230 days.

Having scored 15 goals for the under-18s last season, the young star was propelled into the senior squad for the final part of 2024, with injuries to a number of first-team members seeing him deployed on three occasions, including a first ever start in the Boxing Day clash with Coventry City.

While the Pilgrims went down 4-0 that day, the performance of Finn offered faint reason to be cheerful, with the forward forcing a save out of the hosts’ goalkeeper Oliver Dovin in the first-half.

Having had a similar trajectory at a young age, former Argyle boss Wayne Rooney couldn’t speak highly enough of the teenager after giving him the opportunity to train with the senior squad back in September, having impressed during the Greens’ pre-season campaign.

Rooney [pictured] told Plymouth Live at the time: “"I really enjoyed what I seen from him out in Spain in pre-season. He had a bad injury on his wrist, it has took a lot of time to heal, so delighted to have him back around us. What we have to do now is get him up to speed fitness-wise.

"He plays off the right, cuts in with his left foot and shoots - very similar to Morgan [Whittaker]. He's an exciting player. He can play as a number 10, he takes the ball, he's brave.

"I don't mean in the fact that he's going to go around fighting and kicking people, but I mean he will take the ball in tight areas. When I first took the job I looked at him closely, from footage of games he has played, and got really good feedback on him.

"I took him with us to Spain and he really surprised me, his ability he had, how good he was and how much he settled in with the first team. So I'm delighted to have him back."

While he has only had cameos to prove his quality, at 16 years of age, Finn is already proving that he could have a bright future ahead of him, and Argyle need to do all they can to make him theirs in the long-term.

With his current apprenticeship deal said to run until the end of next season, Argyle will be counting down the days until March 17, where they can offer the player a professional deal on his 17th birthday, which will give them extra security in keeping his services for as long as they can.

Plymouth Argyle will want to avoid Jack Stephens, Dan Gosling repeat with Tegan Finn

Over the last 20 years or so, Argyle have sen too many young stars of the future leave the club for pastures new, with the Pilgrims earning pittance from the efforts put into their development.

Whether it was Sam Gallagher, Joe Mason, Jack Stephens or Dan Gosling, there were a number of Premier League and Championship stars in the making who left Home Park before their 21st birthday, with only the latter being sold for any real sum of money.

The reported £2 million that Argyle received from Everton pales into comparison compared to the impact that the midfielder could have had on the club had he stayed past January 2008, where a number of top stars left Home Park, and thus beginning the start of their demise to the fourth tier.

While the financial issues that gripped hold of the club began to take their strain, the likes of Stephens and Mason left the club after relegation to League Two was confirmed in the summer of 2011, with their sales all contributing to keeping the club afloat, as they reluctantly let their home-grown talents leave the club.

Gallagher [pictured] then departed for Southampton the summer after, with the quartet all going on to prove themselves as more than capable in the top two tiers of the game, while Argyle floundered in the bottom rung of the EFL.

With the Greens on much firmer footing when it comes to their finances these days, there will be every hope that they can stand their ground when contemplating Finn’s future, with the teenager likely to be given a chance at Home Park much sooner than should he leave for the top flight in the next year or so.

The likes of Michael Cooper, Adam Randell, and to a lesser extent Freddie Issaka and Caleb Roberts have paved the way between academy and first-team, Finn could well be the next to make the step up to becoming a regular performer in green in the future, and Argyle need to be doing all they can to make it happen.

Having been burned in the past, the Pilgrims will no doubt be keen to stand their ground this time around, and let Finn flourish in the southwest when the time is right.