Reluctant to move: Celtic star Aiden McGeady

Spartak Moscow fans have dubbed Aiden McGeady as ‘McGreedski’ and threatened revolt over the vast sums being offered to the winger.

Sportsmail understands the unsettled http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/teampages/celtic.html - Celtic star has been offered £2.5million a
year after tax with the Russians — in excess of £50,000 a week — substantially more than the sums currently provoking unrest among Spartak fans.

Although initially reluctant to move to Russia, Spartak sources were confident last
night they had secured their man. However, his welcome could be less warm from
team-mates and supporters over the willingness of his new suitors to smash their
salary structure for him.

The final throw of the dice for under-fire coach Valery Karpin, McGeady’s arrival would not be unanimously popular, with Spartak fans’ leader Ivan Katanaev declaring: ‘Who is McGeady? He didn’t play anywhere, except for Celtic, so why are we praying he joins our Spartak?’

Kostya Hlebnikov, a 24-year-old Spartak fan, was equally unhappy, saying: ‘He should be called McGreedski not McGeady for asking for more money.

‘Just look at him — he is interested only in money. If Spartak pays more, he will join the club.

‘But for £10m, we could get something we really need, like a new arena. He is being offered over £40,000 per week — more than anyone in Spartak is paid.

‘He wants a personal contract. I don’t think a player with his abilities deserves such big money.’

In Moscow: McGeady is being showed around

Moscow newspaper Sport Express also expressed concerns over Spartak’s willingness to pay McGeady more than other players.

An editorial read: ‘In Spartak, they always kept to a very reasonable rule of limit on footballers’ wages. They believe that a big difference in players’ incomes is bad for the
team’s morale and spirit.

‘Two million pounds a year, which the press talk about now, clearly exceeds this. Evidently, it was the only way to lure him to Spartak.’

The paper also predicted McGeady would be homesick and ‘feel low, as if in exile’.

More favourably, however, Sport Express added: ‘In Scotland, they called him The King of the Wing and he was highly valued for his great versatility.’

McGeady was yesterday shown around Spartak’s Soviet-era training base as the Russian club rolled out the red carpet to the player, his girlfriend and agent.

‘McGeady is in Moscow, we are showing him everything,’ said a source. ‘We are very close to getting his signature.’

The club imposed a media blackout as the 24-year-old was shown the spartan training camp with three pitches, one heated, an hour and a half outside Moscow.

McGeady has also been offered an interpreter, bodyguard, driver and chef to ensure he can cope with language problems and settle in a city that yesterday remained shrouded in smog caused by peat and forest fires.

There was also a visit to the rented Luzhniki Stadium, where Celtic earned a 1-1 draw under Gordon Strachan. Currently without their own arena, Spartak plan to build a new stadium as part of Russia’s 2018 World Cup bid. Spartak sit eighth in the Russian league, 19 points behind Zenit St Petersburg.

Dont think Villa would be able to offer him that much anyway, Young and Carew among top earners which is around 50k, don't think Martin will offer him top earner wages if he rejects this move.

Tardelli has a good point. Would be good for more of our players to be playing in Europe and learning new techniques to British football

Every one of Celtic's players wants Aiden McGeady to stay at the club, according to captain Scott Brown.

Speculation about McGeady's future has dominated the build-up to the Hoops' Clydesdale Bank Premier League season, with several clubs thought to be vying for his services. Brown believes the winger would grace any league in the world but is desperate for him to remain at Parkhead once the transfer window closes.

"I think everyone in the dressing room wants him to stay," he said. "Aiden's a fantastic player. I think he'd fit in well to any Premier League team as well."

He added: "If he goes, we wish him all the best, but we hope he stays."

McGeady made his first appearance in a Hoops jersey since May this afternoon, playing almost an hour of his club's 2-2 Emirates Cup draw against Lyon.

He showed glimpses of the talent that have seen Spartak Moscow lodge a bid - reportedly £9.5million - for his services and rumoured interest from Aston Villa and Tottenham.

Brown said: "He's a huge player for us, he's great, he's talented, can create chances and score goals.

"We've maybe missed that in the last couple of games but you've seen over the last four or five seasons he's played for Celtic, he's been frightening.

"He creates chances from nothing."

If you translate it it the words in the sentences will all be mixed up in some hotchpotch of pidgin english.

Interesting quotes from an interview with McGeady in todays press -

McGeady’s decision to play for the Republic of Ireland made him a target for a heightened level of abuse from the stands. “There are a lot of horrible places in Scotland for that type of thing: Tynecastle, Ibrox obviously is always going to be bad with the Celtic-Rangers rivalry, Motherwell, Falkirk. Some fans there hate everything Celtic stand for and everything I stand for as an Irish Catholic playing for Celtic.”

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!"

McGeady made his debut in a 0-2 loss to Terek Grozny.

He's probably oblivious to it all, but Aiden McGeady might just be about to spark another Russian revolution.

GettyImages

Aiden McGeady opted to join Spartak Moscow

McGeady's £9.5 million move to Spartak Moscow from Celtic might have raised more than a few eyebrows among Scotland's football fraternity but others could soon follow his lead.

There's little doubt the transfer will bolster the Republic of Ireland international's bank balance, but some pundits feel he should have held out for the chance to grace the English Premier League. However, the switch certainly hasn't surprised Garry O'Connor, who was one of the first to blaze a trail to the former Soviet state when he joined Lokomotiv Moscow in 2006.

O'Connor swapped Edinburgh's Princes Street for Red Square when he left Hibs in a deal worth £1.5 million. The striker only lasted a little over 16 months when he returned to Britain to join Birmingham City for £2.7 million which represented a tidy profit for Lokomotiv. But he's convinced his spell in Russia helped to mould him into a more complete player and sees others following McGeady's path.

''I bumped into Aiden in the summer and we spoke about Russia and how I found it,'' said O'Connor. ''Maybe he achieved everything he could at Celtic and it's maybe the right time for him to make a change. It's a high standard and Spartak go straight into the Champions League. There are a lot of top players there and he can learn a new language, a different culture and experience Russia. It will be great for him.''

And one specialist football agent reckons SPL players will soon be the subject of more interest from other cash rich Russian clubs. Rudi Vata, who served Celtic during his playing career, is considered an expert in the Eastern European market and was involved in both the O'Connor and McGeady deals.

Vata believes the Scottish market offers value for money with Russian teams willing to invest in younger players with talent who they can nurture then sell on for bigger transfer fees in the future.

"I know the mentality of the Russians; I have a lot of contacts over there,'' said Vata. "They rarely buy star players over 25 or 26. They look to bring players in who are around 25 or younger and then sell them on. They know what they are doing. They know they will get the fee back in the long run.''

And there's a new wealth of young Scottish talent rising through the ranks at the majority of the top flight clubs just waiting for a big break. That's mainly due to the fact that clubs north of the border are more than most feeling the pinch as the credit crunch continues to bite.

Epilson/GettyImages

Gary O'Connor at Lokomotiv in 2006

The positive knock-on effect means managers are now forced to place their faith in their home grown players probably earlier than they'd like. Aberdeen are one such case in point with teens like Fraser Fyvie and Peter Pawlett both considered established first-team players well ahead of schedule.

It's certainly something of a role reversal for the Russian clubs to plunder the Scottish market as previously the top talents in Eastern Europe tended to head for Britain. Think Andrei Kanchelskis who made the switch from Shakhtar Donetsk to Manchester United for £650,000 in 1991, the same year as the Iron Curtain fell.

Others like Andriy Shevchenko and Serhiy Rebrov later followed him to England in huge transfer deals while many more have sought refuge in the United Kingdom following the landmark Bosman Ruling of 1995. It'll make for interesting viewing to see if McGeady can live up to the huge weight of expectation that now lies on his slim shoulders following the hefty transfer fee.

Celtic manager Neil Lennon will understandably be sad to lose the 24-year-old, who he once described as his best player, but will be comforted by the small consolation of a huge transfer kitty. That should trigger the arrivals of some new faces with the Bhoys boss in the market for a new goalkeeper, a left-back and a centre back.

The Hoops have already been linked with an ambitious move to take Craig Bellamy on loan from Manchester City in a deal that would mirror Robbie Keane's brief stint in Glasgow last season. However, Lennon already has Shaun Maloney, Niall McGinn and Paddy McCourt at his disposal with all three natural successors to McGeady's position.

It's unlikely Celtic will spend big on a direct replacement for the Irishman who could be joined in Russia by more graduates from the Scottish in the future.

Эйден Макгиди on the back!

Эйден means Aiden, exact translation

Whereas

Макгиди is a phoenetic spelling of McGeady

AIDEN McGeady says he's ready for the next challenge in his career with Spartak Moscow after helping the club to a win on his debut over the weekend.

The Irish international finally got his Spartak debut out of the way when he started for the club in Saturday's league win over Saturn, but there was no time for McGeady to rest on his laurels as Spartak are away to Marseille on Wednesday.

"I'm ready for the game in France, it's going to be a hard match for us, our first game in the Champions League, but I am ready to do my job for the team," said McGeady, delighted to have his debut out of the way as he played the full 90 minutes for Spartak.

"Overall it was a tense game, the other team gave us quite a few problems, but we managed to get on top of them, and once we got the first goal we were able to take more control of the game. On a personal level I found it hard to get used to the synthetic pitch. it wasn't all that easy for me.

Dribbling

"I think my condition is good. Saturday was only my third game of the season so I am still working on my fitness. I was tired after the game on Saturday and I still have to get up to full fitness," added McGeady, who was played on the right side of the Spartak midfield.

"I don't mind what side of the pitch I play on. I am happy enough to play on the right. I played there a lot when I was younger and, in principle, I am a right winger. That's where I feel most comfortable," he said.

McGeady made an early impact as he claimed an assist for a goal on seven minutes from Brazilian Welliton.

"Welliton is a very fast player and if there is a chance to pass it to him, you have to take it and give him the ball, I was happy just to play a part in the goal," he added.

Spartak coach Valeri Karpin heaped praise on McGeady.

"Aiden had a great game," said Karpin. "On Saturday he displayed the qualities which we bought him for: dribbling, passing, crossing. He supplied the cross for one of the goals but that's not the most important thing, he did well but I know he will play better."

Ireland's other European-based players were also in action over the weekend. Cillian Sheridan clocked up 90 minutes for CSKA Moscow as their indifferent start to the season continued with a 1-1 draw at home to Litex Lovech, CSKA remaining in the bottom half of the league table.

Over in Belgium, Dominic Foley could not prevent Cercle Bruges from going down to a 2-0 defeat by Standard Liege.

Padraig Amond was on the bench for Portuguese side Pacos Ferreira in their 1-1 draw with Maritimo, but didn't get to play.