Rangers remain linked with Norwich City’s Kenny McLean and one coach that knows him better than most has suggested that letting him go as a youngster could prove to have been a costly mistake.
David Longwell, who was McLean’s coach at St Mirren after he left the Light Blues in 2008, reckons that it was “a mistake” to let him leave and explains why in an interview with Lanarkshire Live, as reported by The Daily Record.
“Some players take a knock when they are released by the Old Firm and can fall out of the game.
“I think Kenny just got on with it and said it is what it is.
“We signed him when he was released by Rangers, and I guess if you look back now it’s been a mistake on their part, because he hadn’t developed physically yet.
“When he was brought to us we were more focusing on bringing in technically good players.
“At these levels sometimes they are looking for bigger and stronger players, but he was just a kid.
“I don’t think it knocked him personally and he had a belief that even if it didn’t work for him there he would make it.
“He’s got that quality that means he was always going to progress.
“You could tell back then he was going to go on and play at a high level.”
Sometimes players have to take a step back to take a step forwards and McLean is the perfect example of this, making the breakthrough in Paisley before moving up to Aberdeen, his journey peaking with promotion to the Premier League at Norwich City.
It’s hard to criticise a club for letting a player go when they were just a youth, for every player like the in-demand Scotland cap, there are world beaters at age group level that never make the same impact in the seniors and drift down the leagues or out of the game altogether.
McLean could be a decent addition to Steven Gerrard’s squad with Steven Davis and Scott Arfield in the twilight years of their career, his status as a homegrown player would also be a welcome benefit when it comes to European football – if we decide to bring him back to his spiritual home.