"McGeadski"

THE education of man and Bhoy can be a painful experience but it can also be inspirational, life-affirming.

Aiden McGeady has been at the centre of the storm. He has weathered it.

The 24-year-old winger has been involved in two notorious altercations: one with Gordon Strachan, his manager, and the other when Artur Boruc, his team-mate, punched him after a training session. He brushes off the latter as a piece of casual violence with no lasting relevance.

The Strachan episode, though, was devastating, but McGeady believes it provided him with an inner strength.

The events of December 13, 2008, were spectacular. McGeady trudged into the dressing room after a disappointing 1-1 draw with Hearts to face a manager who launched a verbal volley at him.

The Celtic dressing-room erupted in noise as the player hit back. A row that had been simmering since Strachan had joined the club had reached boiling point.

McGeady feared he had played his last game for the club. “I thought that was it. I thought it was over,” he said. “My first reaction when I got home was that I would have to move on. It was the culmination of many incidents,” he said.

However, the incident had a beneficial legacy for the player. “Frankly, it made me a stronger person. It was a difficult experience, but I look back on it with the feeling that I grew through it. There were a lot of other players who might not have come through what I came through under Strachan. A lot of things happened that were extremely unfair.”

McGeady feels he was singled out for criticism by the then Celtic manager. “I may save all those bad times for a book in the future,” he says, laughing.

He is unwilling to elaborate but is expansive on how he came back to play for Celtic and improve as a player. “It toughened me,” said McGeady. “I felt every game I was going into I had to play at my best because one bad game and I was pretty much out of the team.

“That spurred me on. There was an amazing feeling when you thought you had played well. It was not one of joy, but of relief. The tension just slipped off you. I felt so much better after the match. I felt I had guaranteed my place for next week.”

McGeady paid a fine of two weeks’ wages – thought to be in excess of £40,000 – and served a suspension for the row with Strachan. He decided to take his punishment. He believed his strength then lay in tackling work with a quiet professionalism.

“When I came back to Lennoxtown after my suspension I was surprised to be back training with the first team. To be fair, Strachan was better with me and came up one day and said simply he was going to start me. And then I played for the rest of the season.”

The season ended with Strachan leaving the club after the title was lost to Rangers. McGeady stayed when everyone predicted he would leave.

However, he was in no hurry to leave the club he supports because he believed he still had work to do. His faith in the reward offered by hard labour was fostered by his inspirational taskmaster, Tommy Burns.

McGeady won three league titles, two Scottish Cups and, two league cups at Celtic. He was outstanding in the 2008/2009 Co-operative Insurance Cup final, winning the man of the match award and scoring from the penalty spot to seal a 2-0 victory in extra-time.

But one memory means the most to him. “It has to be winning the league on the last day in 2008,” he said. “It does not come any better than that. You work all season and it all comes right on the final match at Tannadice.”

It was made especially poignant because Burns, Celtic manager, coach, player and legend, had just died.

“He was a great mentor. I have spoken about him loads of times, not just since he passed away,” said McGeady. “The reason for that is how he helped me as a man and as a coach. He would work me every single day, spurring me on to become a better player.”

McGeady laughs as he recalls some of the training sessions he endured as Burns, almost manic in his enthusiasm, would push him on. “Sometimes it got beyond a joke,” said McGeady, the affection unmistakeable in his voice. “He used to say: ‘Let’s stay out and you can hit 15 crosses in’. We would do that and then he would say: ‘Let’s hit another 15 … another 15 … another.’ Before I knew it I had hit about 100 crosses.”

His verdict on Burns is simple but heartfelt. “He had that love of football that rubbed off on me and the other boys. Everything he said made sense. He advocated continual practice. He said that if you worked and worked and worked to make every part of your game better by just half a per cent then it would all add up to a significant improvement.”

Asked if he thought of Burns as the move to Spartak Moscow became increasingly attractive, McGeady answered. “Yes. I was sure Moscow was the right choice but part of that is because of what I learned from Tommy Burns.

“He was a football man and I know he would believe this was the right move for me. This is a great opportunity because of solid football reasons. Everybody who knows anything about the game will see why I have gone. This is a massive club with great ambitions.”

McGeady was encouraged on his trip to Moscow by the enthusiasm shown to him by Dimitri Popov, Spartak sporting director, and Valery Karpin, the manager.

The player is a football obsessive. He retains memories of matches and opponents. Lasting impressions were made when Celtic won a Champions League qualifier in a penalty shoot-out at Parkhead in 2008.

“I remember that game very well,” said McGeady. “We all came back into the dressing-room raving about how good a technical team Spartak were. They had excellent players all over the pitch and moved the ball quickly and accurately.”

He added: “That is the sort of team I want to play in. I am not saying anything against Celtic because we had different attributes, but I believe Spartak will suit me as a player.”

Popov and Karpin encouraged the player immediately. “I asked them straight away what they expected of me,” says McGeady, remembering his visit to Moscow earlier this month. “They just said they wanted what I had been doing for the past couple of years. They said: ‘We have been after you for years’.”

McGeady will play on the left or right of a midfield three, bolstered by two holding midfielders.

“I was really impressed about what the management knew about me,” he says. “That really sealed the deal. They knew my strengths and knew just what I wanted from football.”

The football education of Aiden McGeady will therefore continue in Russia. There will be life lessons, too, as he faces up to life in a different culture. However, McGeady, toughened by the past, looks forward without fear to the future.

AIDEN McGEADY is facing a world of corrupt referees, political interference and plastic pitches in Russia.

McGeady is set to make his Spartak Moscow debut on Saturday against Terek Grozny following his £9.5million move from Celtic.

The Republic of Ireland winger, who could line up against Rangers in the Champions League, has been told he will play on the right side of midfield. But just a few days after he joined Spartak they went out and signed two more wingers.

A Spartak insider told Sport of the World: "At the moment McGeady and his girlfriend are in a hotel, but most of the players look for somewhere to live close to the training camp.

"The reason is simple - the traffic in Moscow is terrible and it would be pointless to live in the city.

"Spartak's training camp is 12 miles outside the city, but on a bad driving day it could still take three hours to get there.

"Of course, the club will supply him with a driver at first. But it's still a very long time to be stuck in what would probably be a stationary car.

"Some of the players live in compounds where a group of them are in the same complex, but have their own house. The air in Moscow is so polluted because of the traffic that it's better to live outside the city.

"The thing McGeady may find strange at the training camp is that after training everyone goes for a sauna - and Russian saunas are a lot hotter than Finnish ones.

"On the field, probably the biggest challenge will be playing on the Luzhniki's artificial surface.

"The stadium holds over 80,000, but it's only really full for games against CSKA and Zenit.

"Spartak's coach Valery Karpin has said McGeady will play on the right of midfield, though he could also play on the left.

"In Moscow he's big news, because there haven't been many transfers this summer.

"But after McGeady came, Spartak brought in twin brothers from Dinamo Moscow - Kirill and Dmitri Kombarov - for a total of £8million and they both play on the wings.

"Spartak's immediate ambition is to perform well in the Champions League and do well enough at home to make it into Europe next season."

McGeady will be hoping he gets more protection from refs in Russia than he did in the SPL. Our insider added: "McGeady will probably find refs are good for him. They won't allow the kind of tackling that he has been used to in Scotland.

"But the refereeing itself is very suspect. Russia has always had a problem with rumours of corruption with referees.

"Every week there are decisions - a penalty, or an offside goal - which look strange.

"But Spartak are one of the most powerful clubs and they tend to have fewer problems with referees!"