When Dave Jones signed Scottish out of contract forward Steve MacLean on a free from Sheffield Wednesday in August 2007, goals were promised. However 7 months and 1 goal later, the player never looked up to the task and it was regarded as outstanding business when Peter Ridsdale sold him to Plymouth for their club record fee of £500,000.
It must be going wide
A rare MacLean shot for Cardiff
Two years on, that has been further proved as McLean managed 41 Championship games for the Devon club but scored only 5 times and has not been on the pitch since September leaving the Green Army looking to offload him but it's proving more of a struggle.
MacLean turned up in Edinburgh this week along with another struggling striker in Izzy MacLeod expecting to sign for SPL mid-table outfit Hearts only to find himself embroiled in a public war of words between club owner Vladimir Romanov and his manager Csaba Laszlo.
Romanov, clearly not excited at the prospect, said, "I do not see anything except publicity for those players. Maybe Csaba Laszlo decided they needed a PR manager. I am not convinced we need them".
Lazlo hit back with, "They don't need a PR manager if you look at their CV. If you look at the table, we have played 18 games and scored 21 goals. That shows where we have problems. The last meeting with the owner was positive and I told him that we need fresh blood up front. My job is to bring players in who would like to come here."
However when asked if he had backing from his owner, he answer, "I'll tell you after the transfer windown butI'm always very positive. If you're not positive, you can't survive in this job."
MacLean, after being on trial all week, has sent back to Plymouth while Hearts owner and manager attempt to sort out their differences. I suspect he won't be going back.
