Why it makes sense
For the club
Carey – The midfielder looked great in spells for St Mirren without ever hitting consistency and Ross County will be hoping the reasons for that are the fault of the St Mirren management and not the player himself. He certainly has the tools to be a great player in this league and it is surprising that a side with greater financial clout didn’t take a chance on the left-sided playmaker.
Iain Vigurs’s departure to Motherwell opened not only a hole at the left-side of midfield, it also robbed the team of a trusted set-piece taker. Richard Brittain remained to pick up the slack but bringing in Carey at least gives balance and options from either side on corners and free-kicks. His presence also gives different options throughout the team. He certainly fits the mould of the progressive full-back that became a staple of the starting side after January last season, even if his defensive frailties may put Adams off using him in that position for any more than the odd match.
If he starts on the left of the midfield five he could bring balance to a side that will deploy Ivan Sproule on the other wing. Sproule is a great weapon to have but ask him to do the job of a regular winger and he struggles a little. Carey could pick up that slack.
McLean – Centre back wasn’t a particular need for the Ross County squad for this coming season. Grant Munro and Scott Boyd are cemented as first choice and in reserve they have Steven Saunders and January signing Branislav Micic. However, Saunders has played only three league games in two years after a couple of serious injuries and Micic is an unknown quantity in this league having made only one start last season. Perhaps Adams is hedging his bets with a player who has proven capable at this level.
In terms of the future it’s an interesting move. At 28 he’s unlikely to get much better but there has always been a feeling of untapped potential fermenting inside McLean and if Adams can get that out of him they could well have a dependable defender for the next few years. Something the manager will need to look for soon enough with Munro approaching his 33rd birthday and his contract up at the end of the campaign.
For the player
Carey and McLean – They were released from St Mirren and Dundee United respectively; not a great mark to have on your CV. Carey has done well to find himself a move to a side much higher up the league than that of his former employers, while McLean also remains in the top six after being released by United very late into the summer.
Carey just finished an unsuccessful and well publicised trial with United, a headline that may have put off other potential suitors in the Scottish Premiership, and he’s joining a squad with the position of left-back and left-midfield up for grabs after both starters left.
Why it doesn’t
For the club
Carey – It is not very often you aim to get better by signing squad players from teams that finished six places behind you in the final league table. At left-back he has never fully proved himself trustworthy to deal with the defensive side of the game and his skill-set – being able to cross, run directly with the ball and his shooting ability – threatened to make him into a tremendous full-back but a more predictable wide midfielder. Apart from the incredible shot he possesses, there isn’t much to his game that most wingers don’t have, and he’s never seemed fully capable of performing to a high standard over any significant stretch. At St Mirren his most comfortable position was at wing-back. A system Ross County do not favour very often.
McLean – He has never reproduced the promise shown in his first full season at SPL level while on loan at Motherwell in the 2005/06 campaign. It was almost a surprise when Rangers let him go after he’d performed so competently as a 20-year old throughout that year and Motherwell were fast to snap him up. It never quite worked out once the relationship was made permanent, with Mark Reynolds and Stephen Craigan soon becoming the preferred partnership, and he left for Falkirk in 2009. His performances with The Bairns didn’t wow anybody, and the same can be said for his stint at Preston. So it was somewhat surprising when Dundee United snapped him up last summer. They were the latest in a line of clubs and managers to fall in love with the possibilities struggling to get out of that unfulfilled potential, and now Adams has followed suit. It is more than likely he’ll be the latest manager to be burned by such judgement.
For the player
Carey – What happened to the move to England? Unhappy with his role, or lack thereof, in the St Mirren side Carey requested a transfer in January, apparently looking towards England for his next move. All we’ve heard this summer was his trial at Dundee United, which lasted three weeks and failed. That left him dangerously close to the season without a club so it is now understandable he would take up residence in Dingwall. Now, we don’t want to be too critical because we are not privy to the information available to Carey and his agent, but surely a League One club with aspirations of the Championship would take a punt, or at the very least give a trial, to a player who rocketed in a 35 yard shot last season and featured in a cup final winning side. Was there nothing there or did he set his sights too high? We can only speculate.
McLean – He may have started against Celtic but he is not expected to play too often this season, and the defensive display shown by County in their defeat at Celtic Park would have done little to persuade Adams from making the defender a permanent fixture in the starting XI. He was a victim of the boo-boys at Tannadice last year and, while he may not have performed brilliantly, he was still solid in the majority of matches in which he featured. Surely the best course of action following that would be to sell yourself to a club that is needing help at centre back to give yourself the best chance of playing, like Kilmarnock, for example.
If he’s been sold on the narrative that he is the long term replacement for Grant Munro then it may be a lot of waiting around to go through, particularly if Munro replicates his form of last season this campaign. It would also require sitting patiently on the sidelines for a defender already past his 28th birthday.
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