McGugan was at his best at Nottingham Forest but has barely been given an opportunity under the Portuguese at Sheffield Wednesday.
Its six-and-a-half years since Nottingham Forest’s wonderstrike specialist Lewis McGugan wrapped up the 2011 Championship Goal of the Season award with a vicious 35-yard free-kick against Ipswich Town.
The attacking midfielder was just 21 at the time and appeared to have the world at his feet. Flash forward to the current day, however, and McGugan is now on the verge of becoming another cautionary tale of a player who failed to live up to his initial promise.
Now at Sheffield Wednesday, the 28-year-old has not played a single minute of senior football all season. He even struggled to stand out in his surprise cameo in the development squad’s 1-1 draw with Cardiff City on Monday. Although, with no games under his belt since last April, perhaps a little rustiness is to be expected.
“He just wanted some football, you are allowed to play three overage players so we welcomed him and that’s it really,” Under-23 coach Neil Thompson told The Star. “He just wanted a game.”
With Carlos Carvalhal freezing McGugan out of his plans, it’s unlikely that he will find any route back into the first-team. But is this once precocious talent little more than a lost cause? Or can he be redeemed, find his feet again in familiar surroundings.
Should Nottingham Forest, the club where he started his career, give him a chance to resurrect it? No, may be the initial answer of most fans. Yet, during the latter days of Eddie Gray’s tenure at Hillsborough, McGugan proved that he still possesses that spark of magic, running the show from midfield and rolling back the years with a blockbusting long-ranger against Preston.
However, Carvalhal’s preference for a sturdy, organised midfield doesn’t seem to offer much of an opportunity for the enigmatic McGugan. Forest, though, could do with his ability to produce something out of nothing.
Just a point above the drop zone, they have endured a horrific season, not helped by the January departure of Henri Lansbury, their most gifted central midfielder. He has not yet been replaced.
McGugan, however, has time on his side and a point to prove. Rescoring him from his Hillsborough hell would prove either madness or a masterstroke for Mark Warburton but it may be worth the risk.
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