The qualified lawyer that Sheffield Wednesday fans simply haven't seen the best of
Stuart Armstrong arrived to Sheffield Wednesday in a midwinter flurry. Just 11 appearances later, it could well be his time with the club is all but over. Alex Miller looks at what feels like an opportunity missed.
Is there a player in Sheffield Wednesday’s modern era that has arrived with a more fulsome CV than Stuart Armstrong? But seriously, think about it.
Even when the banks of Hillsborough were propped up by bags of cash in the early dart of Dejphon Chansiri’s tenure, was there anyone signed who could match the sort of career enjoyed by Armstrong? Which of them had 222 Premier League appearances to their name? Which had played in the Champions League? Which had played 42 games in a promoted Championship side the season before?
Which had eight major honours for one of the biggest clubs in Europe and which had played at two separate European Championships?
Which had done all of the above?
The sliding doors nature of football means nothing is guaranteed. If Stuart Armstrong had been signed to Wednesday in the summer when it was first considered, perhaps Shea Charles wouldn’t have. His arrival to S6 in January pushed the fiercely in-form Josh Windass out wide and had Armstrong been around from the outset, perhaps his former Glasgow rival would have not enjoyed such a stellar season.
As it happened, he arrived from Vancouver Whitecaps in the winter transfer window and never really got going in the sense you’d hope from a player with such rich heritage. Armstrong arrived without much of a pre-season and an injury five matches into his Owls career cost him a month, five matches and any real shot at momentum.
But there were games in which he showed glimpses of his class. It was understated stuff, technical and not necessarily one for a post-match highlights reel, but his burst in transition and ability to control tempo was there to be seen. His contract is up in the coming weeks and by the admission of Danny Röhl, the man who brought him to S6, there’ll be plenty of options away from the uncertainty of a Wednesday summer. It could well be that supporters never get to see the true benefit of Stuart Armstrong.
What strikes in conversation with the 51-cap Scotland international is that he talks eruditely, with a real sense of surety. Though he was a football obsessive in his youth, he came to football later than many of his teammates, signed to Dundee United at 16 years old after time training with a couple of Scotland’s biggest clubs came to nothing. A product of the Dyce Boys Club, Armstrong was committed and played smart, but by his own admission didn’t stand out in those early years.
“I trained with Aberdeen at 13 or 14 and never quite got in, I'd trained a little bit with Rangers before that and nothing came of that,” he told The Star some months ago. “So I eventually went in at Inverness at about 16 years old which in football terms is quite late to join a professional club.
“I eventually signed for Dundee United when my family moved to Dundee and I somehow managed to get a deal on the back of a few training sessions. I owe him one for sure, but it wasn't the usual route I guess. I'd wanted to play professional football for as long as I could remember, it was just beginning to feel as if it wouldn't quite happen. Thankfully Stevie Campbell gave me a two-year scholarship deal at 16 and that's when it all changed.”
Schooled at Hazlehead Academy in Aberdeen, it was between there and the Boys Club that Armstrong grew his friendship with Fraser Fyvie, a former Aberdeen and Hibs midfielder who achieved Scotland under-21 caps. The ex-Southampton man for many years was always behind him in the running until latter stages of their shared teenage and they weren’t alone in earning a football career from that school; Lee Mair had played-out a career in the Scottish Premier League and Scotland Women legend Rachel Corsie was a couple of years above.
A traditional Scottish state secondary that has a Latin motto, a ‘bottle green and navy blue’ uniform and five ‘houses’, Armstrong laughed off the playful suggestion that he went to a ‘posh school’ and gratefully described it as ‘good, but nothing particularly special’. In fairness, it’s ranked in the mid-range of the Scottish ranking system. But what is for sure is that along with a close family it gave him a grounding - and a thirst for learning.
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Trawl through the changing rooms of the EFL and you’ll not find too many qualified lawyers. You will at S6.
“I started it when I was 18 or 19,” Armstrong smiled when asked about an Open University degree. “I wasn't playing too much at Dundee United so it was just something I decided to do. A few years on I moved to Celtic and everything just got a lot more intense, so basically the law degree got chucked out of the window for a bit. I crawled over the finish line in the end.
“The success rate of a player going from the first team to the academy is pretty low but it was also that friends of mine were heading off on their way to university at the time, so it was more normal for me to do something like that. I probably would have tried to do something like that if I was going to go to university. There was no real special reason, it was probably just the environment I found myself at the time.”
Armstrong’s return to England followed a short stint in the MLS with Vancouver Whitecaps. While the draw of playing for a club of Wednesday’s stature was one driving force, along with the opportunity of reuniting with his old Southampton assistant boss Röhl, it was the hustle and bustle of British football that he missed.
Growing up in such a football-mad environment in the mouth of Scotland, much of his early interest in the game was sharpened by trips south to visit his grandparents, who lived in a sleepy village near Pickering, a market town between York and Scarborough. From there he’s be treated to the hour’s journey into West Yorkshire - and to a ground many Wednesday fans may not be wholly comfortable with.
“I guess I've sort of been ingrained in my perception of football,” he said. “From a young age I used to go and watch Aberdeen, my grandparents lived in Yorkshire so we went to watch Leeds United back in the day. That was my perception of football. That's what I loved and always dreamt of.
"I think when you've been in it a long time you lose a little bit of perspective on it and it becomes what you're accustomed to and normal. To say I grew tired of it is a bit extreme but the desire for something new and a different kind of challenge prompted the Vancouver move (at the end of the last English season). It was an amazing place to be, a completely different but wonderful experience.
"But I would say when I was over there I did have a feeling that I did miss what I'd been used to over all those years. You can see things clearer when you come away from a certain situation. It was nothing more than not quite being ready to leave it just yet if the possibility's there to come back and play. That was the main driving force in coming back."
Where Armstrong’s next move lies remains to be seen. The presence of any extension clauses in a short-term deal are not yet known. What is for sure is that between a lack of pre-season, injury and downturns in team form, Sheffield Wednesday supporters have not seen the best of him.
At the age of 33, there’s lines to be added on his CV before the world of law even becomes a consideration.