Player Profiles 2007-8: Rory McArdle

His first time at Spotland came in the 2005-6 season. He was brought in on a season long loan by Steve Parkin from Sheffield Wednesday, and was a regular member of the team during that season.

It was a season which didn't go perhaps as well as it could have done. It didn't help that he had no regular defensive partner and with form dropping, McArdle was often seen as the scapegoat on the terraces. However, he was clearly held in high regard by the management who spoke highly of him on all occasions.

That high regard was proved when Parkin returned to Sheffield Wednesday to secure McArdle on loan with a view to a permanent transfer the following season. It was a signing at the time which raised many an eyebrow and seen as a desperation signing by Parkin, but it was one which proved to be very successful.

The McArdle we saw in the second season was a far better player, and he formed a solid partnership with Nathan Stanton almost from day one. It sounds stupidly obvious, but he came back to the club a year older, and it showed. The experience of the previous year had benefited him and his reading of the game had come on leaps and bounds.

At times, its easy to forget just how young McArdle is. Having just turned twenty, he's almost two years younger than the likes of Gary Brown, so time is very much on his side. And if he can continue to improve in the way he did during the past twelve months, then we will have one hell of a player on our hands.

He has shown his mature side by captaining Dale, and is a regular captain of the Northern Ireland U-21 team, and a call up to the full squad cannot be too far away if he carries on the form shown in 2006-7.