He’s been called Scotland’s talisman. Berti Vogts called him a ‘cheeky boy’. James McFadden has had plenty of accolades in his career (mostly from Scotland fans), but as the football season progresses, he finds himself without a club. More than a year ago, McFadden suffered a serious injury when he damaged his anterior cruciate ligament playing for Birmingham against Liverpool. He missed the rest of the season, and left Birmingham in June after failing to agree terms on a new contract.
He has been linked with a return to Scotland, with Old Firm rivals Rangers and Celtic both being linked with moves for him. He now seems set to sign for Wolves, as Mick McCarthy seeks to strengthen his squad. But question marks remain about McFadden’s ability, despite the Tartan Army embracing him as hero due to some important goals for the national team.
McFadden’s biggest problem is that he failed to fully establish himself at Everton or Birmingham. After scoring 29 goals in two seasons for Motherwell as a teenager, David Moyes paid £1.25million to bring him to the Premier League in August 2003. Although he made 23 league appearances in his first season, it took McFadden until January of 2005 to score his first goal for Everton. When he left Everton for Birmingham in the 2008 January transfer window, he had made 135 appearances, scoring just 18 goals.
Despite poor club form, it was McFadden’s international performances that really stood out. After scoring his first goal for Scotland against the Faroe Islands in a Euro 2004 qualifier, he scored the only goal of the game as Scotland stunned Holland in Glasgow, winning the first leg of the Euro 2004 playoff match 1-0 (let’s pretend the 6-0 return leg never happened). He has now scored 15 goals for Scotland, including a memorable strike at the Parc des Princes as Scotland defeated France 1-0 in a World Cup qualifying match. He scored four goals in that campaign, as Scotland almost finished second in the group. He is currently 6th on Scotland’s all-time top scorers list, 4 behind Ally McCoist, and 15 behind Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish.
His poor club form continued after joining Birmingham. Alex McLeish paid £5million to Everton for McFadden’s services, hoping he could bring the international form that aided McLeish during his time as Scotland manager to Birmingham. During Birmingham’s Championship winning season, he struggled to play due to a persistent knee injury, and although he played in almost all of Birmingham’s league games after their return to the Premier League, he scored just 9 goals over those two seasons.
So after missing the whole of last season, what does James McFadden have left? He’s always had ability, but has often frustrated managers because he’ll try to do something special every time he’s in possession. Instead of getting his head up to make a pass, he’ll try to beat defender after defender, and take long range shots that rarely trouble opposing goalkeepers.
If he does sign for Wolves, it’s hard to see where he would fit into the team. Wolves, like most other teams who fight in the bottom half of the Premier League, have a team filled with hardworking players, perhaps not the best in the league, but working together to try and grind out results. McFadden has often been accused of being lazy, and fans may get frustrated if he’s constantly losing possession and not working hard enough to get possession back.
At 28, McFadden still has five or six years left in his career. If he can establish himself in the Wolves first team, he will almost certainly feature in Scotland manager Craig Levein’s plans as he looks to the qualifying campaign for the 2014 World Cup. But if he struggles to make an impact at Wolves, his career at a high level might be over.
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