"Obviously, there are grounds like Ibrox and Tynecastle where you get every insult under the sun, but it's a decision I chose to make. I've stood by it, but I get a lot of stick as well. There are still grounds I go to where, when the ball goes out for a throw-in and I go to pick it up, sometimes I feel like putting my hands over my ears with some of the stick. But that's what happens."
THAT was Aiden McGeady talking about the abuse he continues to suffer in football grounds in Scotland for declaring his international allegiance to the Republic of Ireland. In his defence, and as an example of the double standards at play here, it wo
uld be the easiest thing in the world to cite the cases of James Morrison and Jay McEveley and their own conversion to Scottishness.
We could quote Morrison saying he is English, we could point out that the likely reason himself and McEveley are wearing the blue is because they knew they would never wear England's white. But that would be a cheap shot. There have been enough of those landed on McGeady in the last few years for them to be added to here.
The McGeady case is not an easy one to get your head around. Not for those who shower him with invective at any rate. Talk about the nuances of race and nationalism and a sense of belonging with some of these people and you may as well talk to the wall. More and more in Scotland we are coming to a point where kids born and reared here will, given the chance, play football for Poland and Nigeria and Lithuania and Latvia. The countries of their parents and grandparents. Patriotism doesn't begin and end in the land of your birth. It's sheer hypocritical nonsense to say that it does.
"Aiden's family comes from my part of the world, Donegal," said Packie Bonner once, "and like a lot of Scots boys with roots from there he has a strong link with Ireland."
Is that so hard to understand? Those who abuse him now will say he opted for the Republic for expedience sake. Not out of intuition or love for Donegal but in the interests of advancing his own international career. At the time, of course, the Republic were an attractive proposition whereas Scotland had gone to the dogs, so it was an easy thing to throw at him. He turned his back on Scotland for his own self-serving reasons, right?
Some mean things have been said. Why can't the invective brigade at Ibrox and Pittodrie and Tynecastle - McGeady says the verbals are worse at Hearts than anywhere else, which, it has to be said, doesn't come as one of the great revelations of modern times - accept that a large strand of Irishness runs through McGeady? Why can't they accept - as they accept Morrison and McEveley - that the reason he wanted to play for the Republic of Ireland was because of something in his heart and not his head?
Let's face it, even when he took this decision at 15 he would have had a sense of what was coming his way in the stadiums of Scotland. If he didn't, then his parents would have had. Still they made the decision. It's not been a comfortable one and it has caused him a lot of grief in recent years.
The grief will probably never come to an end until he leaves Scotland, for just as you will always have a core element shouting obscenities at managers and then taking the huff when the managers react, McGeady is going to be branded a traitor until the end of his footballing days. It's mean-spirited and irrational, but as Gordon Strachan said last week, that's the world we live in right now.
Vlad's promises feel like PR
WITH the announcement of a £51m redevelopment of Tynecastle Vladimir Romanov has at last started to fulfil his promise of challenging the Old Firm, in one sense at least. When Romanov followed up Saturday's wretched performance against Gretna with details of his lavish plans for the old stadium, he attempted to hijack the agenda in the grand manner of a David Murray. Promises of grandeur in the midst of supporter unrest was a PR technique patented by the Ibrox chairman.
There are Hearts fans who are worried. The thought of the club's debt rising to £80m is making some queasy. They shouldn't be all that concerned, though, for if Romanov's vision for Tynecastle brings the same results as his drive for dominance in Scotland and Europe then the supporters will be sitting in that ramshackle stand till doomsday.
Warnock won't be moving north - yet
THERE was always something not quite right about the yarn that had Neil Warnock on the verge of a move to Inverness, something, frankly, preposterous. It was reported, rather breathlessly, that the former Sheffield United manager was "very interested" in the gig.
Yesterday he put the record straight in his column in The Independent. "Sometimes newspaper stories take on a life of their own," Warnock wrote. "Take the one this week linking me with the manager's job at Inverness Caledonian Thistle. It began when I was spotted filling up with petrol at a garage near Glasgow. Within the hour I got a call from a journalist asking if it was true I was in for the Inverness job. I said, 'I bet some of the refs in England would like me to go that far away'. I added that Sharon (his wife) and I had never written off managing in Scotland, that we had family there and liked visiting. I also talked about when Sheffield United played at Inverness pre-season, how I enjoyed visiting the Highland Games and what a lovely place it was."
Ah, don't you just love Warnock's innocence. "Within hours I had nine journos calling. I explained, without being disrespectful to Inverness, it was not quite what I was looking for, and I was not in a rush to get back into work, simply on a break with the family."
Too late for denials, Neil. The tabloid boys knew you wanted it really, deep down.
"It did not seem to do the trick. By Thursday the BBC website had me on a shortlist of three and the papers were following suit. I had not even spoken to the club. Finally, David Sutherland, the former chairman, rang me. I said, 'Let's put this to bed, I'm not interested. Best of luck with whoever you do appoint.' Just to repeat the message, I'm not a candidate, never was, and with due respect to Inverness it is not a job I fancy at the moment."
That'll be a no then?
Talk is cheap, so no money for sport, then
STEWART Maxwell, the minister for sport, wants to kick-start a national conversation on how Scottish sportsmen and women can compete on the world stage. My guess is that it's going to be a pretty brief chat.
Minister to athlete: "So how can I help you fulfil your potential and win things?"
Athlete to minister: "Well, you can build some facilities and give me good coaching. You can maybe help me out financially, a few tax breaks like they have in Ireland, perhaps."
Minister to athlete: "Oh, I was thinking more of workshops and think-tanks."
Athlete to minister: "No extra money, then?"
Minister to athlete: "Is that the time already? Well, this has been most productive."
Thank you minister.
