I HAD planned to write a feature with Aaron Mclean on how he’s settling in to West Yorkshire life.

But then he got dropped from the team. And then he got dropped from the squad.

And now he has been dropped off back in Peterborough for at least the next ten weeks.

But, rather than let good quotes go to waste, his comments from just over a month ago still make relevant reading.

They dispel the myth that he has refused to knuckle down in the area and also confirm his long-held belief that City have not played to his strengths – whatever they are, some may argue.

Right now, Mclean and Bradford City looks a bad fit. Like an updated version of John McGinlay or Ashley Ward, a striker with a big reputation has failed to deliver once he landed in BD8.

The man brought in to replace Nahki Wells – and was confident enough to embrace that challenge from day one – has done little of the sort.

“I’ve not come here to just blend into the background, “he had announced on arrival. “I’m not just going to be a face in the crowd.”

Unfortunately his record up to now hardly suggests a stand-out presence. Mclean has been noticeable chiefly for his absence – his seven goals coming at some considerable cost against his sizeable wage packet.

We should say up to now, of course. He is back with Posh until late January.

At that point, decisions will have to be made again by the clubs and the player. This story is far from finished.

The worst-case scenario is that it doesn’t work out at London Road, he does not rediscover his attacking mojo and Mclean returns as the same bit-part contributor he has been of late.

That brings us back to that chat we had at the training ground six weeks ago.

For those questioning his commitment to the club, Mclean was keen to stress he had put down bricks and mortar roots in Leeds after a nomadic first few months. His lack of impact, he insisted, had not been through want of trying.

“I live ten minutes away (from training),” he said. “I’m all settled in now and that’s definitely been a benefit.

“Before I was living in Hull and then travelling back and forth. You can do it for a short term but it’s not ideal.

“Then I moved into a hotel. You can handle the first few weeks but living there for four months was a nightmare.

“Now I’ve got my house and it’s definitely beneficial for everyone.

“I already knew Leeds from living here for a couple of years when I first signed for Hull. I’ve got some friends who play locally for clubs at Leeds and Barnsley and it’s a good spot. It feels like a sort of mini-London.”

But geography has not been his main issue. As the top-earning striker, the only currency for judging Mclean’s contribution over the past ten months has been goals.

For whatever reason, there have not been enough of them.

He argued: “It’s a Catch 22. If you play as a striker, fans are always going to see if you’ve scored.

“Sometimes they don’t take into consideration whether or not the team are creating chances for you.

“I need service and I need the team around me to suit my game.

“It was always going to be difficult because I’m a different kind of player to what we’ve had before. Things have had to adapt.”

City, so accustomed to the Hanson/Wells axis of aerial power and blinding pace, have clearly not seen the best from someone who does not fit that mould; a classic case of square peg and round hole.

Mclean repeated his claims that City have not adjusted their style enough for him when talking to the Peterborough press this week.

“I was asked to gamble, running off another striker at Bradford, which is why it didn’t work out for me,” he said. “That’s not my game.”

But City could argue that they have done what they can to make this work and it’s the striker who has not fulfilled his half of the deal.

Mclean did himself no favours by missing pre-season with an injury he suffered in the first week back. Suggestions there, possibly, that his fitness levels were not what they should be when he reported back.

The stop-start nature of his campaign then stopped completely for City’s wretched trip to Oldham last month. He sat on the bench unused and frustrated – and has not kicked a ball in anger since.

Peterborough have greeted Mclean like the return of the prodigal son. He remains much loved in the East Midlands for his goal-scoring exploits during a profitable four-year spell that launched his league career.

Darren Ferguson, who was also his boss in those halcyon days, sees him as a big character to lift those around him in the dressing room. But can he rediscover that old spark?

They say never go back and Mclean has a huge reputation to live up to from the time he banged in 30 goals in a season. That was in 2008.

Times have changed. Recent form suggests it will take him a while to get up to speed again – and the current Posh side are a far cry from the scoring-for-fun bunch who laid on chances aplenty.

Peterborough failed to register a single shot on target in last week’s bore draw at Walsall. Their most creative player Marcus Maddison is out until Christmas.

Mclean’s first two games are against the top two, Swindon and leaders Bristol City. So any success will have to be earned the hard way.

Peterborough are after a spark on and off the pitch to liven up a season that is threatening to go stale.

City need this to work to have any hope of minimising the losses from an expensive gamble.

And Mclean wants to show he is far from the busted flush that fans at this end of the country might suspect.

There is a lot at stake over the next couple of months. Nobody can afford for things to go back to as they were.