McGeady goes on the attack to defend his worth

EURO 2012 REPUBLIC OF IRELAND:ALMOST EVERY time Aiden McGeady sits down with Irish journalists during a spot of international duty there is, it seems, at least one question that rattles his cage just a little.

The problem often stems from the relative difficulty involved in keeping tabs upon his progress now that he has moved to Moscow with slightly vague enquiries sometimes viewed as somewhat hostile.

He seems a little too inclined, on occasion, to take offence although there are times too that he has a point and it is good to see one of a group that all too often prefers to let gripes about media coverage fester in private come out and fight his corner.

This time it is not just members of the regular media who are in his sights. Roy Keane has apparently expressed the opinion that the Spartak Moscow winger has not been delivering, not on his full potential anyway, and McGeady seems as unimpressed as he is unsurprised.

“Roy Keane, he says enough anyway. I played with him at Celtic and that was bad enough,” he says with a laugh. “He is just one of those guys who has something to say about everything. I got on with him as a guy but he is just one of those guys who has an opinion on everything.”

The idea of Keane rattling away on a Scottish training pitch about taxes, TVs or whatever else somebody has just mentioned in passing, while the eyes of all around him roll in their heads is rather amusing, but then that sort of thing does tend to be viewed as an advantage when it comes to working in the media.

In any case, McGeady it seems, is more put out by the criticism he is most familiar with: suggestions by newspaper reporters that he hasn’t performed for Ireland over the last couple of years in the way that he might have.

“Right okay, (take) the Czech game, right? And I’m not talking about any other players, I’m just talking about myself. I set up a chance for Shane Long, and Darren (O’Dea) had a header he could have scored from, so that’s two. No one else did that. I read in the paper the next day at the airport: ‘Final ball not good enough,’ and I said: ‘There you go.’

“Over the qualifying campaign I was probably not great in every game,” he continues, “but I know that, not being big headed about it, I was probably one of the main players.”

When he was first brought on by Brian Kerr, against Jamaica in London just a week short of eight years ago he was, he readily admits, still learning the game. But he has added to his armory during his time with Ireland and reckons he is slightly undervalued by the critics.

“The main aspect would be tracking back,” he says when asked about ways in which he has improved. “People said I couldn’t track back on the pitch. But I feel now that I can, that I can help out the defence.”

As a winger, though, McGeady tends to be judged, first and foremost, on his contribution to the attacking side of things and in this department it has sometimes been suggested he comes up short with those poor final balls and not enough goals.

“When other people say ‘final ball’ that is their opinion,” he says before asking. “Who set up more goals than me in the qualifiers?” The answer, he presumably knows, is nobody in an Irish shirt and McGeady, who is officially credited with three assists is up there on that score in Euro 2012 qualifying with David Silva and Cristiano Ronaldo.

“But possibly because I don’t get one in every time . . . It would be great to get a goal with every one in two crosses but that is obviously not going to happen,” he says before adding a little unexpectedly: “But I probably would like to be more consistent with my crosses, score more goals. There are a lot of things I want to work on and I am still fairly young.”

Whatever the other measures by which he can be compared to his fellow squad members, his move to Spartak sort of marks him out as the most adventurous.

He says he has enjoyed the experience. Although the large distances he must travel and resulting long spells away from home have, he admits, left his girlfriend feeling a little isolated. With a young child to think about now as well, he doesn’t envisage staying there beyond the end of his current deal which expires in three years.

Long before that, though, there is the possibility of Champions League football to look forward to next season thanks to a strong finish in the one just concluded. This something he feels would, if Spartak can make it through their one qualifying round, make it easier for people here to track his progress.

“It will be great to have European football because sometimes you feel, because the games aren’t always on TV over there, that not everyone sees them; you can be a bit out of the picture.”

This, he suggests, along with a slight cultural divide is why there have been reports at this end of Europe suggesting he has been struggling when really, he maintains, things have always been going pretty well.

Now, he’s back and aiming, it seems, to show us how much more we really should be appreciating him.

Blow for Spain: Villa out of Euro 2012

Barcelona striker David Villa has told Spain coach Vicente del Bosque he has not fully recovered from a broken leg and ruled himself out of their title defence.

Villa, Spain’s all-time leading scorer, broke his left leg while competing in the Club World Cup last December, and has not played a competitive match since then.