Stephen McPhee

Stephen McPhee (born 5 June 1981) is a Scottish former footballer. In a ten-year career, he played for clubs in the Netherlands, Scotland, England and Portugal. He was capped for his country at under-21 level. A forward, he scored 56 goals in 252 games in all competitions.

Starting his career at Coventry City, following a loan to St Mirren in 2001, he signed with Port Vale later in the year. He made his name at Vale, playing the majority of his career appearances in three years at the club. Leaving the club for Beira-Mar of Portugal in 2005, he made a big money move to Hull City. Two years later, he moved on to Blackpool. He retired in 2010 after being dogged by injury problems since his time in Portugal.

Born in Glasgow, McPhee began his career with his brother Gary at Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands. In 1998, he went to England at Coventry City, but did not make a senior appearance for the "Sky Blues", who were then in the Premier League. In 2001, Coventry sent him on loan to Scottish Premier League club St Mirren, who had hoped to sign Ronaldinho, but instead settled for the young hopeful McPhee. He played seven games for the "Saints" and won the April 2001 SPL Young Player of the Month Award. However, Coventry manager Gordon Strachan never played McPhee and the player opted to leave Highfield Road after rejecting a three-year deal.

McPhee signed for Port Vale on a free transfer in July 2001 and would soon show himself to be arguably Brian Horton's best signing at the club. He scored on his debut against Notts County and finished the season as the club's top scorer with 14 goals in 51 games, including one in the 2001 Potteries derby. Paul Jewell's Wigan Athletic made a bid for McPhee that was accepted by his club (£300,000). However, the deal fell through as the Scotsman's agent rejected Wigan's contract offer. The 2002–03 season was one largely devoid of goals for the striker, his strike against Oldham Athletic in October ended a run of 21 games without a goal, but only two goals followed in the remaining 34 matches as he was played at wide right.

In the 2003–04 season, he formed a strike partnership with Steve Brooker and scored 27 goals to help Vale finish seventh in League One; this was the second-highest goal tally for a Port Vale player in 66 years. For this feat he was named player of the year at Vale Park, but as the team had not secured promotion McPhee rejected a new contract. A British club would have to negotiate a fee with the "Valiants" before talking to McPhee. However, a foreign club would be free to sign him without dealing with Vale.

Rumours linking McPhee with Portuguese side Beira-Mar were denied by the club, and chairman Bill Bratt stated, "this is news to us". The following week the cash-strapped club rejected a £100,000 bid from Leeds United "out of hand", branding it as an offer "not even worth considering".

Later that month, his agent negotiated a move to Beira-Mar, meaning Vale lost the player for nothing. McPhee said the move not about money, but about "bettering himself".

"Port Vale are a two-bob operation and we are a major company. Their concerns, they can stick up their arse."