Aiden McGeady has found his voice after his exit from Hibernian this summer, explaining that the former manager Lee Johnson may have had something to do with his departure.
The duo had worked together in Sunderland’s 2020/21 season, however, even after a successful run in League One under Johnson, the dynamic may have shifted as the two reconnected at Easter Road in June 2022.
McGeady found himself in an injury rut at the Edinburgh club, causing him to only make 14 appearances in total for the club.
Over the summer the player parted ways with both the Hibees and Johnson, after not being offered a contract extension. However, the ex-Celtic player found his feet and landed a role at Ayr as extensive technical director as well as a two-year contract playing for the Scottish Championship team.
Although the 37-year-old has happily taken on a new contract and position on the south west coast of Scotland, he still spoke out about why he wouldn’t have stayed in Edinburgh.
Speaking to PLZ Soccer, the player discussed how Johnson and himself lacked harmony behind closed doors. This was said after news of Lee Johnson losing his role after three successive defeats in the Premiership, leaving the club dead bottom of the Premiership after three games.
When McGeady was questioned about Johnson, he said: "I'd seen enough to know that I didn't want to stay. People might take that the wrong way and say 'we didn't want him anyway, he was injured all the time, he was a waste of a wage’.
"But at that point, I was travelling through an hour and half to Tranent to do rehab near enough every single day of the week, five or six days a week, for near enough a full season if you think about it.
"There were a lot of things that I saw that I didn't like. It's easy to say it now that if Hibs offered me a contract I'd say no to it, but I didn't want to stay, no.”
Pressed with more questions on the matter, McGeady replied: "Well, I probably don't need to answer that, do I?"
When asked about comparing his time at Sunderland under Johnson and his time at Easter Road, McGeady commented: "There were some slight differences. He was a lot less hands-on in terms of coaching and detail, in terms of the way we were playing.
"I don't want to go down the route of slaughtering managers either, it's never nice when someone loses their job. That's what happens though, that's the job if you put yourself forward as a manager. It's a results-driven business. You have to win games and ultimately Hibs haven't done that so far.”
With a poor start to the 2023/24 Premiership season, like most fans and spectators the appointment of a new manager was expected, McGeady added: "Even as players, there were times last season where we thought 'Is this it?'. Then we'd maybe pull a result out of the bag.
"It's still very early on in the season to do it, but maybe Hibs have got someone else lined up who is maybe a bit more rigid and solid to play against. A bit more let's build from a base not to get beat, and if we win 1-0 or 2-0 then great."
