I have a confession to make to Aiden McGeady, and something of an apology. As a much younger man, when watching him play against my team, I admit to him that I may have dished out a bit of stick in his direction over his decision to play for the Republic of Ireland.
“Oh, you were one of those guys, eh?” McGeady laughs, letting me off the hook.
For me then, booing his every touch was enough to express my thoughts on the matter, an action I can now admit was not only rather childish, but rooted in frustration that Scotland had missed out on such a talent.
For many others, that day and on countless others, the abuse went far beyond the realms of the pantomime, and way beyond the bounds of acceptability.
“I took it as a compliment, because if I wasn't any good, they wouldn't be bothered, would they?" he said.
"There were other players who made similar choices and didn’t get the stick.”
McGeady called time on what was a hugely successful career a few weeks ago now, giving up his dual role as player and technical manager at Ayr United. It seems an opportune time then to take a walk down memory lane with him, navigating the many good and frequently tumultuous times he went through as a player.
He can look back on his trophy-laden days with his boyhood heroes Celtic, his big-money move to Russia, the odd fallout with certain managers along the way – more on that later - and his spell in England with pride. And certainly, few regrets.
McGeady the player may have given full backs countless sleepless nights over the years, but in particular reference to where he pledged his international allegiance, McGeady the retiree rests easy.
“It was vindicated,” he said.
“I still get stick now, but I was 15 when I went to Ireland. Scotland had that rule where you couldn't play for the schoolboys. Ireland didn’t, so I was there when I was 15. Then I got to the first team level and it was like, ‘This guy's a turncoat, this guy's a traitor.’
“But I went to Euro 2012 and Euro 2016, and I got 93 caps. So, I can look back on it fondly.”
It is his Celtic years though that he looks back on most fondly of all. Had he not grown up a Celtic supporter, though, and had his father John not once have stood in his shoes as an aspiring professional, things may have worked out rather differently. After all, the young McGeady was hardly short of offers.
“I think Arsenal was probably closest out of all the teams I went to,” he said.
“I went down to Arsenal quite a few times. I'd go down to school holidays and stuff, play a game and come back home. Man Utd and Arsenal were probably the two that I thought they were the ones I wanted to sign for, leaning more towards Arsenal.
“At that age, my dad was like, ‘Look, you've got a couple of choices’. I was quite young to make a decision.
“I still wanted to go to Arsenal but he put it in quite blunt terms. ‘How many players go to Arsenal and make it into the first team? You're going to leave home, you’ll be in digs at 16, you'll miss your friends, you'll miss your family. Who knows, within a year you might back up here anyway?’
“I'm a Celtic fan, obviously, so that swayed it too, but he explained that if I stayed at home, I’d have a good chance of getting into the first team. More of a chance compared to Arsenal or Man Utd anyway.
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“I thought, you know what? He’s probably right. He'd done it all himself. He left school at 16 to play football. He lived in Sheffield in digs, and that was hard. So, I got the luxury of signing for Celtic and I stayed at home, still seeing all my friends every weekend.
“Ultimately, I think I made the right decision.”
Perhaps an easy thing to conclude in hindsight, but while Celtic arguably offered an ‘easier’ path to first team football than the giants of the English Premier League, it was hardly a given that he would be one of the miniscule percentage of young hopefuls that eventually do pull on the hoops at the top level.
“Every young player thinks when they're going into an academy that they're going to be the ones who make it out,” he said.
“Everybody wants to think that, but the law of averages is different.
“I just thought that it’s down to me. The day I signed for Celtic, I vowed I was going to work really, really hard and leave no stone unturned. If I did get released, at least I could say, well, I gave it my all.”
McGeady, who has completed an MSc in Sports Directorship as he mulls over where he may wish to direct his energies next, interjects at this point to offer a learned viewpoint on the hot topic of the moment in Scottish football.
Leaning on his own experience as one of the increasing few who have successfully made it through the pathway at Celtic, he is interesting and insightful on the subject of youth development.
“It's really simple,” he said.
“There’s no pathway if you’re not good enough to displace a first team player. No manager is ever just going to get rid of three or four players and almost set a team up to give young players a chance. That's not how it works.
“A manager is looking after his job. He wants the best players on the park. So, you have to prove that you're good.
“People say to me, how did you have such a long career? Well, why? Because I proved I was better than the guys that were ahead of me. That's the way football is. Football is dog-eat-dog. It's a ruthless environment.
“Young players coming through nowadays, they keep talking about the pathway, and that's fine. But how come other teams and other countries can have a conveyor belt churning out talent year after year after year? What are we doing wrong here? It can't just be in the water, is it?
“It's clearly in the fundamentals that they're being taught from a young age filtering up the chain. Whereas here…it's quite an easy throwaway comment, that one, that there's more foreigners now, there's more money. Well, there's not more money. When I played for Celtic, I came through into probably one of the hardest Celtic teams to break into.
“Someone said to me the other day that it's harder to break through now, and I thought, what? There was stacks of talent at Celtic back then, and the club had loads of money. Big money. And they were men, you were coming through into a real men's team.
“I don't want to go off on a rant here, but there's a lot that could be looked at. I think fundamentals from an early age has got to be the biggest difference. These other countries, France, Holland, Spain, they have conveyor belts of world-class talent.
“The fundamentals are in ball mastery, and understanding it shouldn't be for kids of six to be thinking about positional awareness and tactics or how to build out from the back.
“Go and express yourself. Go and enjoy your football. That's surely what it's about.”
The passion with which McGeady addresses the subject suggest that it is an area in which he may thrive in the future, but back to his past, and the moment that his own hard graft finally paid off as he was handed an opportunity by Martin O’Neill.
Not that the famously stand-offish manager gave him much time to wrap his head around the fact he was about to fulfil his lifelong dream.
“I had no clue I was going to make my debut at all,” he said.
“I'd been training with the first team every day, then I'd been travelling to all the games. I was 17th man, 18th man every game.
“Towards the end of the season, Celtic had already won the league. We played a couple of practice matches and Martin O'Neill came down. And Martin O'Neill never came down to the reserves or the team training. He watched it and I did really well.
“We had Hearts on the Sunday, and I just did the usual and travelled with the squad. Then in the dressing room he read out the team and my name was in it. I was shocked. There was no ‘you might start today’ or anything like that. That was it. It was always the same thing, he would read his team out and then just walk out.
“So, I asked Steve Walford for some instructions, figured out where I was playing, and luckily, the game went really well and I got off to a great start. It was only 17 minutes in, and I scored, and that settles your nerves.”
A relief, but also another vindication, this time of the belief he himself and countless others had in him from a young age.
“From when I was probably 12 or 13, people thought I was the one to make it,” he said.
“You're having that pressure of everyone saying, ‘this guy's going to make it, this guy's going do it’. If you don't, you would feel like a failure, because that's what everybody knew me as.
“But that’s just your debut. That's when the hard work really starts. It's being a Celtic player.
“It's not about just making my debut so you can tell guys in the pub that you played for Celtic. For me, I needed to break into this team. That was my goal, and it was my goal from the age of 12, 13. I'm not going to let anything get in the way of it.
“Your debut is a great day, an amazing day. Something you can always look back on for the rest of your life. But I wanted to get into this team, and start playing regularly for Celtic.
“I only classed myself as a Celtic player when I had 100 games, 200 games. That's a Celtic player. I'm lucky to say that I was one of them. It's something I'm proud of.
“I was able to live out my dream and a lot of other young boys' dreams as well.”
After nailing down that regular place the following season, McGeady – along with the entire club and fanbase - then had to contend with the shock of the departure of O’Neill. And in retrospect, the arrival of Gordon Strachan was hardly good news for him personally, either.
“There’s always a wee bit of concern when a new manager comes in,” he said.
“I was a wee bit apprehensive with it being Gordon Strachan too, but I probably wasn't as apprehensive as I should have been to be honest!”
The relationship between player and manager got off to an inauspicious start, as did Strachan’s reign, with the infamous 5-0 humbling to Artmedia Bratislava.
“I think I played the first two or three games under Gordon and done well, and then I was a sub for the Bratislava game,” he said.
“Chris Sutton got a bad injury, and I came on. We were 1-0 down at the time and I missed an open goal. We lost 5-0, and then in the following game I was on the bench and never came on.
“From that period on I was probably about three or four months without playing after that. I think I was on the bench, but was never coming on. I think some games I wasn't even on the bench.
“Listen, Strachan’s got his own ways and his own methods, but having come a long way, I was back playing reserve football.
“It was the most difficult time of my Celtic career. I had played 40-odd games the season before and Strachan was putting players on the bench ahead of me that were in the reserves the previous year. It was just almost like, you're embarrassing me here.”
In hindsight, some fans and pundits have argued that the way Strachan handled McGeady eventually ended up getting the best out of him. After fighting back from a serious knee injury, he pushed himself to new limits to get back into the team.
“I think he did push me to that, he wanted a reaction from me probably, and I think he got it,” he admitted.
But McGeady is reluctant to concede that it was all part of some cunning masterstroke of reverse psychology on Strachan’s part.
“No, it was definitely personal,” he said.
“I missed an open goal against Bratislava and then I wasn't seen for four months. It probably doesn't happen to any other player, does it? No.
“But I don’t know. Strachan had a funny relationship with me. A lot of things I think were over the top. Some people might disagree.
“If I compared that to Stephen McManus or Mark Wilson, they weren't getting binned off and playing in the reserves for four months for having a bad game, were they?
“People ask me that all the time and people say, well but Strachan got the best out of you. Possibly to an extent, but would I have become the player I did without that treatment as well? Yes, if I’m being honest.
“It was just me kind of having a bit of a siege mentality thinking it doesn't really matter, I need to play well anyway because I know I’ll be dropped if I don’t.
“I remember one season, the first two months I got young player of the month. Then I had a bad game at Old Trafford in the Champions League, and I got dropped.
“I remember going in to see him and saying, ‘I know Man United probably wasn't a great game’, but he said ‘Well, it wasn’t just Man United. I think you weren’t great against Aberdeen either’.
“I said, 'I've been our best player this season. I've been our best player in every game and you're dropping me?’
"He went, ‘Yeah, I’m the manager, and I can do what I want.’ “I said, ‘I know you can do what you want obviously, but you know for a fact there's other players in this team who haven't performed anywhere near my level, but I'm the one getting dropped?’ He went, ‘Yeah, that's the team’.
“That made me feel that I have got to perform at a really high level every game so that he doesn't have that excuse to drop me. And it always felt like he wanted to drop me.”
Whatever the reason, McGeady was about to embark upon arguably his best spell of form in a Celtic jersey, going on to win both the PFA player of the year and young player of the year awards in 2008.
“My game probably went to another level,” he said.
“That's the thing. It's probably about having a run of games and knowing that you're going to play every game.
“That's when you start to relax more and you can actually play better and you can actually make better decisions, as opposed to feeling like you're almost playing for a place in the team.
“I'm not saying he didn't get the best out of me because I did play some of the best football under him that season. I just think there's different methods of provoking people and trying to get the best out of people. With me sometimes I just felt it was quite one way.
“I still enjoyed playing football. I still loved playing football for Celtic. It's what you dream of as a kid growing up to do. I managed to do that and played a lot of times and won a lot of trophies.
“That was just a small excerpt of my time there.”
Ironically, less than a year after Strachan’s departure, McGeady too would be heading on to pastures new. His talent had arguably outgrown the Scottish game, and an itch for a new experience was growing harder to ignore.
Celtic too were eager to cash in on their asset, but a move to Spartak Moscow perhaps wasn’t the most obvious next step.
“With Celtic, if you’re playing well, you always get linked to clubs,” he said.
“Celtic have a player trading model, it's a selling club. Bringing young players through or in who they can develop and then eventually selling them, it's the model. So, I knew at some point I was going to go.
“I wanted to spend a few more years and win more trophies but unfortunately that didn't happen.
“There was a few teams that came in but then Spartak blew everybody out of the water. So, it was there, or it was Celtic at Inverness away on first game of the season.
“I was kind of like, do you know what? I do need a change, and it has to come to an end at some point.
“So, I took the risk and went with an open mind and tried to enjoy it. Which I did, most of the time, it was really good. It's totally different, it’s really regimented, the weather is different, the people, everything.
“But I'm glad I done it and I'm quite proud of the fact that I was there for nearly four years.
“I remember when I left, people saying I won't last a year out there, I won't last six months.”
McGeady was signed by Valery Karpin and played under now Aston Villa manager Unai Emery – “a great guy, and a great manager who was ahead of his time” – but eventually, he hankered for a return to playing in the UK.
A move to Everton seemed like an appealing prospect, but under Roberto Martinez, things didn’t go according to plan.
“Everton was a bit of a disaster if I’m honest,” he said.
“From January onwards I was a bit of a part player. I was coming on in some games, started one or two games maybe, then I’d be out again.
“I don't know, I don't want to keep blaming managers. My performances overall at Everton weren't anywhere close to what I was capable of.
“But I scored against Leicester and the next game I got dropped. I'd maybe start one game out of six and then I’d be on the bench for most of them. I played the full season but I didn't have any more than two starts in a row.
“I sound a little bit bitter towards it in terms of certain things that I'm saying here, but to be honest, after a while I just thought that there was no point, I’m never going to get in here. That's the way it's going to be. I can't do this for four years.
“So I ended up going on loan to Sheffield Wednesday.”
That didn’t quite go the way McGeady would have wanted either, eventually telling manager Carlos Carvalhal he was joining up with Ireland for a pre-Euros training camp rather than hanging around for the forthcoming playoff final, certain that he would jeopardising his spot at a major tournament only to be sitting in the stands at Wembley.
“We had a little bit of an argument and then after that I never played again,” he said.
“So, before the playoff final I just got my stuff and left.
“I can be abrasive at times, but one thing I'll say is that I'm honest. When people lie, when people spin bull***t, I can see through it, and I'll call it out.
“There is a lot of it in football.”
McGeady stood then at something of a career crossroads, but a move to Preston reignited his form, and his love of the game.
“It was probably the best thing that I did,” he said.
“I had an amazing time at Preston. Great people, great club. And then I got the move to Sunderland and the first season in the Championship was really bad because we got relegated. But I went on to have an amazing time at Sunderland. I loved it there.”
When that spell came to an end, and now with a young family, McGeady was eager to get back home. He didn’t see a move to Hibs though as an opportunity to wind down his career.
“My wife was keen to come home, because my oldest was getting to that age where if you don't move back up, then you never end up moving,” he said.
“And then Hibs came up, and I was like, brilliant Hibs. I had three massive injuries there, but when I was playing, I was actually really enjoying the football.
“But that didn't work out, and then, to be honest, as you get older, you know, people aren't jumping through hoops to sign you.
“And then the Ayr United dual role came up, and that was absolutely brilliant, because not many players get to be a player/technical manager. So, I was able to get across a range of different departments, coaching, recruitment.”
Despite another Celtic legend in Scott Brown being in situ as manager at Ayr - and admitting to McGeady that he was still the club’s best player – it finally felt right for McGeady to hang up his boots last month at the age of 38.
You may not be surprised to hear, he has no regrets. And given his run-ins with a few of them over the years, it is perhaps also hardly a shock that he has no great desire to now become a manager in his own right.
“I thought, do I want to go and play just for the sake of playing?” he said.
“No, not really. I'm not chasing football anymore. It's difficult to get yourself motivated at certain times, without sounding big-headed, when you've played at a higher level.
“See if I didn't care and I just wanted to play football, I would do it, but I still want to win and I'm still competitive.
“Do I want to be a manager? I don't think I'd want to be a manager. Would I want to be a coach? I'd like to be a coach for someone who I think has got the same football philosophy as well and the same vision.
“I couldn't really pinpoint exactly what I want to do. A sporting director, if that job came up, or a head of academy. I think I'd like to go into a club where I can start to learn that side of football more and then, over time, you work your way up to a different role.
“In terms of football, though, I am quite happy and quite content with how it all played out.”
