Ricky's departure from the playing surface yesterday afternoon with a tear stained face shows how heartbreaking it is for him to leave, but if he's honest with himself he'll know it was coming. He's hardly played this season and has been poor when he played. With him going, Hugh Murray is the only surving member of the title winning class of 2000 left at the club.
Ricky broke into the Saints first team in our first season back in the first division after relegation in the early 1990s. He scored on his debut against Cowdenbeath, a goal which saw him as Saints youngest ever goalscorer until two years ago when David McKenna stole his mantle.
In his first spell Ricky was a forward and scored some cracking long range lobs. Like Barry Lavety, it was fairly obvious he'd soon be moving on and a made scramble for his signature ensued in the mid 1990s. Liverpool took him on trial and wanted to sign him before the bidding war ensued. There was rumoured interest from Newcastle and the Old Firm, and apparently Arsenal wanted to spend £2.5million on him!
Tony Fitzpatrick, Saints boss at the time, claimed Ricky could walk straight into the AC Milan first team. Bit of an exaggeration that! In the end he went to Aberdeen for just £350,000. Soon after, Roy Aitken was sacked and he hardly ever got a chance. It took him until 1999 to score his first goal for the Dons in what was a terrible Aberdeen side. Despite being their top scorer after a quarter of the season, when the team had just a point, he fell out of favour.
Towards the end of the season Ricky was back at Love Street, on loan until the end of the season. He helped Saints to the title and was in tears after our triumph against Raith Rovers at Love Street.
He signed on permanently in the summer and was our top scorer in the SPL, scoring twice against his old side Aberdeen. No Saints fan will forget his last minute winner against Dundee United live on Sky, a goal which made us believe we could stay up. Sadly, it was false hope.
After relegation Ricky faded, and it seemed clear he wanted away. A rumoured move to Motherwell fell through, whilst in 2003 he turned down a move to partick to stay at Saints.
In the four seasons since we were relegated Ricky has been poor, doing well in spells but generall disappointing. It is time, however, for him to move on to pastures new. He seems to have been around for ever yet is only 28 so he should have no trouble finding a new club. It says a lot for him that he leaves with no hard feelings, and doesn't want to come back to haunt us or ruin a future title party.
I said it yesterday but I'll say it again. Good lucky Ricky, and thanks for the memories.