He was essentially put out to pasture.
‘Too old. Not the future’ I imagine was Kenny’s thinking
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He was essentially put out to pasture.
‘Too old. Not the future’ I imagine was Kenny’s thinking
Exactly how I feel. Kenny has been unlucky to the point he must be starting to feel like he's completely jinxed in this job, but he has to help himself too and McGeady's exclusion was just daft in our current situation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yard of Pace
It wasn't posted on here but he signed a one year contract extension with Sunderland a few weeks back.
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spor...nsion-20954137
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colbert Report
He's a big hit with the Sunderland faithful
Another assist tonight. Seems in decent form as Sunderland go second. With one third of the last squad in League One and with us really struggling for goals (Oct games aside), it's strange that there's no place for him in the squad. I don't really want to have lots of third tier players in the squad, and McGeady frustrated the hell out of me down the years, but I think he's a better option than some who are getting in the team and it may be premature casting him aside.
That would have been a fair point in 2018/19, when he was 32, dropped to League One with Sunderland, but was on fire. But at this point he's going to be nearly 37 when the qualifiers for Euro 2024 start and 38 when the tournament takes place and it looks like he won't play higher than League One againQuote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Yeah, he's getting on. But if he's good enough, he's old enough. We've been crying out for some creativity in recent games and if he'd been able to turn one of those poor results against Luxembourg/Azerbaijan/Qatar into a better result, it'd have been worth it for that extra bit of momentum for Kenny. He's 35 now and we've just made a hames of World Cup qualifying; I don't think the focus always has to be on the future at the expense of the now
And if Horgan can start games, then McGeady has to be worth a squad place...
I felt McGeady should have gotten a call up for the WC qualifiers. He was performing for Sunderland at the time and while we needed to bring youth through they also need experienced players playing alongside them. Was never really a fan of McGeady but was more down to he didn't fit in with how other managers want us to play. Would have slotted in nicely in the 3-4-2-1.
But I wouldn't be calling him up now unfortunately. We've got the nation's league before the Euros and a chance for another player to impress like Jamie McGrath has done in his last few games.
While not trying to start a virtual scrap....you can't be bleedin' serious can you? I mean, there's a serious whack of fecal matter off that line in particular - sure it's in isolation to an otherwise fine post, but if it's brown, leaves a stain, and whiffs, then bull**** is bull****, no matter where it's deposited.Quote:
Originally Posted by JR89
He’s not ....good enough that is. Scored one great goal for Ireland, but other than that he always flattered to deceive for me. I think Kenny is right to look to younger players, like Ogbene.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I agree he's always flattered to deceive, but our squad at the moment is the worst it's ever been, so the bar to be good enough is lower than it's ever been. Horgan and Ogbene are making a lesser impact in the same division. OK, the future is elsewhere for sure, but I think our paucity of options doesn't really allow us to discard players quite as casually as we've discarded McGeady. Bearing in mind the reason given was that he wasn't playing at a high enough level, but it's the level that a third of our squad find themselves playing now.
Probably as JR says, the World Cup campaign was the one to leave him in for, and then with the next Nations League starting in June and the Euro qualification in March 2023, that's definitely a bridge too far.
I think McGeady suffered from the tendency in these islands to always play tricky technically gifted players on the wing. This was a curse for Aiden as his greatest weakness was crossing the ball. If he’d been born in Spain, he would probably have played in midfield as a 10 or 8. That’s where he’s playing now and is probably having more impact on games than he ever had when he played wide for us. Didn’t Wes start out as a winger, before somebody realised it was a total waste of an outstanding talent.
There may be something in that. For a winger he also seemed to suffer from a chronic inability to beat a man. Anyhow, I just can’t see him as a game changer for us, even as a short term option.Quote:
Originally Posted by third policeman
Tony, that's totally inaccurate. Delivery on the run was his biggest weakness.Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD
Absolutely. I often saw him beat a man and then attempt to beat him again. His crossing was his biggest weaknessQuote:
Originally Posted by Kingdom
Maybe I’m misremembering or doing him a disservice, but my memory of him is lots of fancy stopovers, then ends up passing backwards to a team mate.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kingdom
He was pretty decent for carrying the ball forward. The problem was the execution of the final ball: pass or cross or shot. Maybe later on he started passing back to try to lose the ball less often. He was frustrating to watch, but there's something to be said for a player who breaks lines with the ball.Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD
Let’s not forget he brought the ball quickly forward in the run up to Brady’s goal V ItalyQuote:
Originally Posted by John83
Things got so bad with the disservice around these parts, that maybe in 2013/2014, I did a pretty long-winded examination of his contribution particularly around his Spartak days in the irish jersey. don't forget that in the 10/11/12 era, he was often the only 'flair' player, where we didn't exactly flood the box with advancing players.
McGeady's probably my favourite player of the post Kerr-era, and I'm definitely biased, but am not a Celtic fan. We wouldn't have qualified for EUro 2012 without him, and we wouldn't have been in the hunt late on in the other two campaigns without him either.
And giving away the ball.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fixer82
He did. I always liked him through the middle actually.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fixer82
Back training on grass at the Academy of Light this week (Sunderland Echo, 15 Feb).
Possibly heading to Hibs.
I’d rather see him there than Fleetwood
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/spo...p-celtic-hibs/
Always felt that McGeady played nearly his entire career in the wrong position. Small technical players were almost always shoehorned into playing on the wing on the basis that trickery and physique made this their only possible position. Alas McGeady’s crossing ability was never quite good enough to make him a really top class winger, in a different footballing culture he could have been nurtured into becoming a really outstanding 8 or 10, which is where I assume he’d play at Hibs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fixer82
Anyone see the BBC interview with him recently (or at least I saw it on Twitter recently, maybe it was older).
Something like "how did you feel about being booed all the time?" and he answered "why do you think I was booed and not other Scots born players who played for other countries? X played for NI, Scott Arfield plays for Canada. But why do you think I was booed? Was it because of who I played for?"
Very good. Fair play to him. Drops in James McCarthy being the only other player to get that abuse and asks the interviewer rhetorically why that was.
There was a probably a bit of an ego thing with Scotland and McGeady choosing Ireland. Canada aren't rivals and while Scotland and Ireland isn't a rivalry really, there is that undercurrent of 'we're better than them', especially back then when we were doing okay and Scotland were ****e. Canada are okay now but they're just not close enough nor is Arfield good enough to be bothered about
I don't disagree and the lads he mentioned went for other countries because Scotland didn't pick them (Brian McLean and Scott Arfield had gaps between their last cap for Scotland at underage and B levels respectively before they switched). I don't think that is what McGeady is getting at though, I don't think...Quote:
Originally Posted by irishultra
For Ireland, he promised more than he delivered. He had the potential and skills to turn a match and did occasionally - but not often enough. The phrase "no end product" seemed to follow him around. I think the four years at Spartak Moscow were a mistake (maybe not financially). At a time when he should have been in the EPL he was in far away Russia getting mixed reviews. When he moved to Everton at 28 he flattered to deceive before tiptoeing down the leagues, culminating in his late flurry at Sunderland.
McGeady seems a very decent, affable person, has good media skills and unfairly soaked so much abuse from the land of his birth. But 96 caps flatters him imo. As good a player as he was/is I believe faulty career decisions stunted his potential.
He was a big fish ( skill wise ) in the relatively small pond of Celtic / Scottish football. You’d wonder had he come through at a top English premier league club would he have had to raise his standards much higher due to the players he was competing against all the way through his development and after. McGeady certainly had skill but never “ pushed on “ ~ ~ He gave the ball away too easily and was a relatively poor crosser of a ball. It’s hard to believe that this would Not have been improved upon if he had developed at a high level English premier league club or else he would have been moved on / loaned out to see if that would have had the desired affect.Quote:
Originally Posted by Snapshot
If his protection of the ball and crossing had gone up a couple of levels ~ ~ He would have achieved a hell of a lot more.
I think he could be a good analyst for RTE and would be good for that connection to be created. I always get a little sad at the fact that our foreign-born ex-internationals might call their birth country home, even if they were played proudly for Ireland and consider themselves Irish, and the connection doesn't remain as strong. I loved meeting Kevin Kilbane in a pub after a gaelic match he was at supporting Mayo and the respect and adulation he received around the place was nice.Quote:
Originally Posted by Snapshot
Signed for Hibs for 1 year
Paul Forsyth reflects on Aiden McGeady's career in the Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a...tial-26x8wjsfp
Can’t read without paying. Is it available anywhere else?Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
If you register, you can read a few articles for free each month
Nice one
McGeady has returned to action after another lengthy layoff which had him considering retirement:
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/footb...-it-in-3979584
Out for the rest of the season -- hamstring.
Surely, he'll call it a day now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Demesne Lad