BUMP
https://www.safc.com/news/2025/february/14/aiden-mcgeady---/
14th Feb 2025
Club Historian Rob Mason recently caught up with Aiden McGeady…
RM: Sunderland was just a small part of your career and towards the end of it, but how do you look back on your time at the Stadium of Light?
AMc: I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved my time there, plenty of downs but plenty of highs as well. It’s a really big club and the passion of the fans surrounds the club. I had a great connection with the fans. The unfortunate thing was we were so close to having success on so many occasions. There were disappointing times, such as getting relegated in the first year I was there. That was a really tough one.
RM: You played for some grand clubs such as Celtic and Everton, at what point did you realise how historical a club Sunderland are, or did you know that before you signed?
AMc:I was close to signing for Sunderland a couple of times in the past. I was going to sign for Martin O’Neill when I was with Spartak Moscow, but Spartak didn’t want to sell me. Sunderland put a bid in and met the £10m asking price but then the owner at Spartak never responded for about a week. I was really keen to go and Sunderland were asking what was happening because they had met the asking price, but Spartak’s owner was in Monaco. He was the billionaire owner of an oil company and was really busy, but they eventually came back and said £10m is off the table, we want £17m. At that point Sunderland ruled themselves out and signed someone else. I was absolutely gutted. There was also a time when I was with Everton, and I was going to come at the start of the 2015-16 season, I think. It was for a season-long loan with an option to buy. Everton wanted a £1.5m loan fee and it didn’t happen. Unfortunately, I never got to play for Sunderland in the Premier League which would have been nice, but I’m still thankful that I did get to play for the club because I met a lot of good people who I still keep in contact with. My family loved the area.
RM: Other than Celtic you played a lot more games and scored many more goals for Sunderland than any of your other clubs, were there any particular games that you remember?
AMc:I loved playing at the Stadium of Light especially when the fans got that buzz back. I remember the Wembley game against Portsmouth and there was also the play-off with Charlton at Wembley. I did finally have a good Wembley memory with Sunderland in what would have been my last-ever game if I’d got on the pitch when we beat Wycombe to get promoted. There was also the Wembley game where we beat Tranmere, but even though we won a trophy it doesn’t really stick in the memory because it was during covid and there were no fans there. It was such a strange one.Another game that stands out was Barnsley at home in League One. It was a really good performance that night. I scored and set up a couple. There were a lot of good games in that season. We should have gone up. I remember an Easter win at Rochdale where with seven games to go we were level on points with second placed Barnsley and had two games in hand. All we had to do was keep doing what we were doing, but then we only won one of those last seven games and then lost in the play-offs. Overall, I really enjoyed being at Sunderland. The connection with the fans helped, as did being settled in the area. The people in the North East, like in Scotland, seem to have a bit more warmth than in some parts of England. I noticed that straight away when I went on loan to Charlton. As soon as I got off the train, I noticed a difference in the people.
RM: Have you kept much of an eye on how Sunderland are doing since you left?
AMc: I always do. Most footballers keep an eye on their ex-teams. I think Sunderland have a chance this year. I’m not going to jinx the team but at the start of the season I thought it might be a year too early, but they’re doing so well. I don’t see every single game but if Sunderland are on TV I watch and I always look for the result. I know Alan Browne from playing with him at Preston. The new Head Coach seems to have the team playing well.
RM: What are you doing now?
AMc: I only retired about three months ago. I had a year left on my contract at Ayr. I was player/technical manager. Technical manager didn’t really mean anything other than I could look at things across the club such as sitting in board meetings, helping with recruitment and doing a bit of coaching. I could go across all departments really. I’ve got an idea of what I’d like to do but I’m waiting to see what might open up for me. I enjoy coaching and helping people. If someone who has the same views on football as me asked me to coach or be assistant manager, I would probably do that. Currently I’m doing a bit of recruitment and scouting for Wigan in Scotland for Shaun Maloney. I’ve been doing a little bit of media but not too much because I don’t want to become viewed as a pundit. I’m open to lots of things – but probably not being a manager.
