JAMES MCCLEAN MAY be the name on everyone’s lips but it is the current form of another Irish winger that Giovanni Trapattoni should be worried about.
1,500 miles east of Sunderland in the Russian capital, Aiden McGeady has cut an unhappy figure at Spartak Moscow these past months.
When the Glasgow-native, who turned 26 yesterday, took the bold step of trading the small pond that is the Scottish Premier League with a completely alien environment, new culture and difficult language, many predicted it would be a short stay.
18 months on McGeady has yet to return, but despite a debut season which saw him live up to the €11m price tag and hailed as one of the most talented players in the country, he has fallen badly out of favour at the club who sit fifth in the table.
What must be a major concern is the fact that out of five league games played since the winter break, he has started just one (against Anzhi Makhachkala when he last 45 miniutes before being withdrawn), came on in three and was an unused substitute in another.
Rather than pinpointing one specific reason for his fall from grace, James Appell, respected football writer and expert on the Eastern European game, believes it is a combination of several factors.
Advertisement
“It’s a mixture of a few things,” Appell told TheScore. “His fitness isn’t as good as it was since he picked up an ankle injury last summer.”
“He’s also struggling with regard to the team selection. Spartak have since signed Diniyar Bilyatletdinov (Everton) and striker Emmanuel Emenike (Fenerbahce) so he’s struggled to adapt to a new system.
But also, there’s been a conflict of personalities. It strikes me that there is some tension between McGeady and Valeri Karpin.”
Reports of a fall-out between player and manager have been surfacing for awhile and Appell says it’s not the first such incident involving the former Celta Vigo midfielder, who replaced Michael Laudrup in 2009 to take the reigns at the club he played for during the early ’90s.
“He’s become one of the notorious managers in the Russian Premier League,” he says. “He likes to pick his fights publically and makes it clear when he doesn’t like someone.”
McGeady playing against Chelsea in the Champions League back in November 2o1o. Credit: Tony Marshall/EMPICS Sport
At international level, McGeady has never fully shaken off the inconsistent streak which means his selection continues to split opinion among Irish fans. Nevertheless, McGeady is currently Trap’s first choice left-sided midfielder and fitness-permitting, is favourite to line out against Croatia on June 10.
The player next in line for a starting berth, Stephen Hunt, has always looked most dangerous when introduced from the bench and is undergoing a minor groin operation today, which seems to strengthen the argument to include McClean in the squad.
With little over a month left before the Italian finalises the 23 names, time is running out for McGeady to force his way into the Spartak team and perform at the level he initially showed.
But is there any way back for him?
Spartak aren’t on the best run and were recently beaten by rivals CSKA Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg. If McGeady comes in during the next couple of games, performs well and makes himself undroppable, there’s no reason why can’t rediscover his form.”
If he fails to convince Karpin, there looks to be a couple of options on the table. Just last weekend, Aston Villa were being linked with a move in summer while current Russian champions and league leaders Zenit are reported to be interested and their Italian manager Luciano Spalletti is known to be a fan.
And Appell believes the 2008 UEFA Cup champions would be a good fit.
“There’s definitely a hole in Zenit’s squad if McGeady could recapture his form. Dani has a cruciate ligament injury and there are suspicions about his health.
“In the meantime, they have replaced him with Andrei Arshavin but I don’t think that he will be picked up on a permanent basis, as he hasn’t performed well.”
For the moment, let’s just hope McGeady gets significant playing time in the seven games which remain as Ireland will need the squad firing on all cylinders if they are to have any chance of doing some damage in Group C.
Leave the True Son of Eireann alone. This young man risked his life on the streets of Glasgow by choosing to play for Ireland. Easy to be critical from behind the safety of your laptop Mr Blake.That said,I wish he’d learn the words of Amhran Na Bhinn
England sink Latvia to extend Tuchel's winning start
49 mins ago
2
FreeTake a Bow
Mason Melia makes history as Ireland beat Hungary
1 hr ago
0
Nations League
Portugal confirmed as Ireland's World Cup qualification opponents
23 Mar
18
Sign in or create a free account
To continue reading create a free account
Or sign into an existing account
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 160 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.Privacy Policy
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 110 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 142 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 112 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 38 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 34 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 133 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 59 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 74 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 37 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 46 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 92 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 99 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 72 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 53 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 88 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 69 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
He has stuck it out long enough he should come back West……
Leave the True Son of Eireann alone. This young man risked his life on the streets of Glasgow by choosing to play for Ireland. Easy to be critical from behind the safety of your laptop Mr Blake.That said,I wish he’d learn the words of Amhran Na Bhinn