Plymouth Argyle will have wanted to see more of Southampton signing | OneFootball

The Argyle man made an impact during his time at Home Park, but only played 32 times for the Greens

Bradley Wright-Phillips was only a Plymouth Argyle player for the best part of 18 months around the turn of the previous decade, but still managed to make a lasting impression on the Green Army.

While the club were going through some tough times on the field, the frontman was trying to help their cause with his prowess in front of goal; giving the long-suffering supporters something to cheer when times were tough.

Injuries and the club’s financial situation saw the player depart sooner than anyone would have liked though, with Charlton Athletic only too happy to take the striker off their hands in January 2011, with goals continuing to come wherever he took to the field.

The former New York Red Bulls man still ranks among the top ten MLS goalscorers of all time during his prolific career, and Argyle fans must wonder what might have been if they had managed to keep hold of the forward for longer than they managed.

Injury hampered Bradley Wright-Phillips’ start to life at Plymouth Argyle

Having come up through the ranks at Manchester City, and going on to shine after a move to Southampton, there was plenty of hope that Wright-Phillips will come in and fulfil his early promise after moving to Home Park.

That dream wasn’t one just of those on the terraces, but also the player himself, with the Wright-Phillips admitting himself that the move to the southwest was what he needed to rediscover the fire in his belly to score goals on a regular basis.

Speaking to the Argyle podcast recently, the striker said: “I was in a place where I just needed a change, and I remember playing against Plymouth at the time; it was always a tough place to play, a tough team to play against.

“The offer came - Paul Sturrock, I spoke to him - and I took a leap and I went, and going to Plymouth felt like I had taken a real step down, because the facilities weren’t great.

“But it was exactly what I needed, I think mentally I needed humbling, and it was far away from London and any distractions, it was a place I could get my head down and put into practice things that I wasn’t doing.”

But after getting the Green Army excited with his displays in pre-season, a meniscus tear just days before the 2009/10 season got underway left the striker battling for fitness for the first-half of the campaign, with the Pilgrims battling for survival at the bottom of the second tier.

Appearances in September against Watford and Nottingham Forest proved to be a false start for the attacker, who didn’t return to first-team action until late January, with the side struggling for inspiration in the final third.

The damage had already been done for Paul Sturrock during that period, with the Scot parting ways with the club in December, before Arglye legend Paul Mariner took charge of the club for the remainder of the campaign.

With four goals from his 13 appearances from January onwards, Wright-Phillips was unable to halt the downward spiral the club was in at the time, with relegation to League One confirmed before he could really prove what he was all about.

Wright-Phillips catches fire after Championship relegation before Charlton Athletic move

Such was the unpredictable nature of the football club at the time, Wright-Phillips was on his third manager in a year as the following season got underway, with Peter Reid given control of the side as the Devon outfit got reacclimatised to the rigours of the third tier.

The former England international came in and wasted no time in setting out his stall in terms of who he wanted in his team, and unbeknownst to Wright-Phillips, he wasn’t high up the pecking order.

Having chatted to his boss about plans for the season ahead, it was clear that the likes of Rory Patterson and Rory Fallon were preferred up top, as well as academy graduate Joe Mason.

Undeterred, the frontman did his talking on the football pitch. “Because I had missed so much of the last season, I really had a point to prove," he told the Argyle podcast.

“I went into that season like a man on a mission; I wanted goals, I wanted to play well, I wanted my all-round game to change, and I think it did, I had a decent season.

“Having a coach tell me that, it got that little bit out of me that I wasn’t getting myself; I found out at Plymouth that when I want to put my mind to this game I can be a proper player, and that’s what Plymouth and Peter Reid taught me.”

Wright-Phillips soon made himself undroppable in that Argyle side, with four goals in his first four league appearances of the season proving his qualities up top; something that the side were lacking as the financial difficulties of the administration era started to take a stranglehold.

While another relegation battle commenced, the Green Army could take heart that their frontman was continuing to find the back of the net, with match-winning braces against Swindon Town, Huddersfield Town and Bristol Rovers earning valuable points as the season progressed.

Another two goals against Exeter City further cemented his status as an Argyle great in that fiery start to the 2010/11 campaign, as he continued to give his employers hope of stabilising their position in League One.

But as was the scenario at Home Park at the time, any talent was soon moved on, with the club unable to compete with the finances of any other side in the division, and a player who has netted 13 times in 17 matches is going to have his fair share of suitors by the time January comes around.

And so it proved, with Championship side Reading said to be interested, while fellow third tier outfit Charlton Athletic came sniffing around, with a move to The Valley going through at the midway mark of the season.

With the likes of Craig Noone and Reda Johnson also heading out the exit door, the asset-stripping at Argyle continued, with just six league wins between January and the end of the season sealing their fate, with a second straight relegation seeing them plummet to the depths of League Two.

If Wright-Phillips was there to bang in the goals, it could have been a different story, but he joins the long list of top talents who had their time cut short at Home Park during an unstable time for the club, with the ifs, buts and maybes surrounding his time as a Pilgrim.

17 goals in 32 games is quite the return for a striker in a struggling side, and if injuries hadn’t have played their part, that record could have been even better.

It was short, it was sweet, but Argyle fans would have loved seeing the striker grace Home Park for longer, with his natural talent for finding the back of the net among the best seen at the Theatre of Greens this Century.