Plymouth Argyle will forever regret Southampton striker swoop | OneFootball

Sam Gallagher moved to St Mary's before making a first-team appearance at Home Park

Plymouth Argyle have their fair share of hard luck tales from the past 15 years or so, with plenty of their young stars leaving Home Park due to the financial issues surrounding the club at the time.

The likes of Dan Gosling, Jack Stephens and Joe Mason all went on to thrive in the EFL and the Premier League as the years went on, with a whole cohort of Devon talent setting sail and flourishing elsewhere as the club fell on hard times.

Another one to flee the nest at an early age was Sam Gallagher, with the striker moving along the South Coast to Southampton before he had even made a first-team appearance for the Greens, leaving them ruing another star slipping from their grasp.

The striker has since gone on to be a Championship regular, leaving Argyle spewing as they were left trying to clamber back up the division following their dabbling with disaster.

Sam Gallagher makes Southampton move from Plymouth Argyle

Having grown up in Devon, Gallagher joined the Argyle youth setup from an early age, and continued to work his way up the age groups, impressing all the time.

By the age of 16, the forward had already garnered quite a reputation for himself, with Argyle keen to get him signed up with the club, while the likes of Newcastle United and Everton were also said to be sniffing around.

With the Greens plying their trade in League Two at the time, following a dramatic fall from grace, they needed all the help they could get to turn things around at Home Park, as they clung on to their Football League status.

With the club’s future seemingly hanging in the balance at the time, Gallagher wasn’t prepared to hang around in the doldrums of the fourth tier, with the Saints about to embark on a Premier League adventure, as he joined them in April 2012.

Sam Gallagher goes on to enjoy Championship success as Plymouth Argyle rebuild continues

Over the past 12 years, since Gallagher left Home Park, Argyle have been slowly rebuilding, and finally got back into the Championship in 2023, as they swept aside all that came before them to claim the League One title.

While the Greens had been slogging it out in the lower tiers, Gallagher was proving himself as a top talent of his own, with a loan spell at Blackburn Rovers in 2016/17 giving him a taste of regular first-team football.

Having netted eleven league goals for the Lancashire outfit, the forward went on to feature for Birmingham City, before eventually returning to Ewood Park in 2019; somewhere he would call home for the five years to follow.

With over 200 appearances for Rovers to his name over two spells, the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Gallagher is the blue and white shirt, with his industry in the final third epitomising his time in the north west.

He may not have been a regular on the scoresheet, but his physicality up-top worked wonders in creating opportunities for his teammates, with a work ethic that puts most of his colleagues to shame.

While Gallagher was belting in braces against Brighton and firing home against Forest, Argyle were still regrouping in the fourth tier, and were calling out for a star to cause mayhem in the final third; something they had taken from their grasp years before.

While local pride will always be pleased to see a Devon lad thriving on the biggest stage, there will always be a lingering regret that Argyle didn’t get to keep hold of their finest talent, as clubs came creeping in with the club on their knees.

Having made a return to Home Park last season with Rovers, Gallagher will be heading home once again with Stoke City later in the campaign after a summer move to the Potteries, and will be ready to give the Green Army their latest taste of what they missed out on all those years ago.