Back training on grass at the Academy of Light this week (Sunderland Echo, 15 Feb).
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.
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...
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.
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.
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
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.
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