Maloney has suspended all contract negotiations with Celtic until January. That’s pretty ominous given he can speak to other clubs then before possibly leaving on a Bosman. I really hope it doesn’t come to that but that seems to be the way football is going. It would be almost Liam Miller like again seeing as the club rewarded him with a new contract after a serious injury. Fair enough he was Player of the Season last year but he needs to do it consistently before (allegedly) looking for massive wages.
On a brighter note McGeady sees his future at Celtic. From the Herald in Scotland:
MARTIN GREIG November 11 2006
Aiden Mcgeady’s relationship with a football has always been an intimate affair.
Even now, when his Celtic team-mates drift off for the day, the 20-year-old will slip away to a corner of Barrowfield with a ball under his arm and the afternoon stretching out before him.
A passion for the artful, creative aspects of the beautiful game has always informed his outlook. As a youngster, inspired by videos of Diego Maradona, McGeady would practise keeping up a tennis ball 500 times and a golf ball 200 times. DVDs of the Argentinian genius still line his shelves.
“People focus on the England game [when a Maradona-inspired Argentina won 2-1 against England in the quarter-final of the '86 World Cup], but I’ve got stuff of when he was growing up, aged 17 and 18, and he’s different class,” enthused McGeady.
“I love Ryan Giggs too. I’ve always liked players who were good at going past opponents.”
As a youngster, he instinctively knew that achieving mastery of a ball would allow him to express his natural talents. In the increasingly athletic world of professional football, it is testament to his resolve that he has not abandoned his passion for skills witness his mesmerising turn near the touchline against Falkirk last month. Thankfully, he is not alone.
Ronaldinho, the ultimate modern skills disciple, combines the required levels of physicality with electric spontaneity and a beguiling array of tricks. Cristiano Ronaldo, the Manchester United winger, announced last month that he had mastered a new trick and would unveil it in forthcoming matches.
Their influences have spread to top-level coaching, an acknowledgement that skills have more to offer than mere entertainment value.
At Old Trafford, a skills development coach, Dutchman Rene Meulensteen, is employed to bring about a fusion of British zeal and Brazilian flair in their young recruits, while other Premiership clubs have gone down a similar route. Celtic’s own prodigious academy has been quick to embrace the increased emphasis on ball skills, and McGeady’s legacy endures.
He references his coach at under-14 level, Martin Miller, as pivotal in the development of his ball skills. In turn, Miller, and other Celtic youth coaches, now indoctrinate pretenders to his throne with three variants of the “McGeady turn”. Twenty other skills practices are also taught in a welcome attempt to revive aspects of Scotland’s tanner ba’ players.
“It’s nice to see, it puts a smile on your face,” says McGeady of his army of acolytes in the club’s youth set-up. “When I was growing up, I always used to do those sort of things [tricks]. I still stay behind a lot after training and practice. Some people think ‘he’s just fannying about’ but, when you go past somebody, it’s great. People go to games to enjoy themselves after all.”
Yet McGeady’s individualist streak has also brought with it its own challenges, and a dawning realisation that it is not enough just to have magic in his toes and tricks up his sleeve. His head-to-head with Gary Neville in Celtic’s 3-2 defeat by Manchester United in the Champions League proved a chastening experience.
“You can really feel the difference in level moving from the SPL to the Champions League. You learn more about yourself,” he reflected.
"When I was playing against Neville I found it difficult to get on the ball. I always seemed to get the ball with my back towards the goal and never got a chance to run at him.
“But you have to remember that he’s been at the top level for 10-15 years. In games like that, you must learn what movements to make to get on the ball. If you have a bad game, you need to learn from it.”
It could be Gordon Strachan talking. The Celtic manager has worked diligently to add a much-needed dimension to McGeady’s play: to turn him into a rounded team player without blunting his creativity.
“I knew that when I played under Martin O’Neill I was far from the finished article,” he reflected. "I was young and trying to do too much on the ball. Now, the manager will regularly take me aside in training and show me the best ways of getting on the ball.
“I’ve added a lot to my game in terms of working hard to get back and creating chances for others. I know now that I can’t run with the ball every time I get it. I feel like a different player. I’ve made progress in important parts of my game and that’s down to Gordon Strachan and his backroom staff.”
As a footballer, Strachan was cut from the same cloth as McGeady; a bundle of creative energy with playmaking responsibility heaped upon his slim shoulders. Both share a single-minded streak, even a natural abrasiveness, which leads to the occasional locking of horns.
In the 1-0 win at Aberdeen in September, McGeady thought he played well. Strachan didn’t. The 20-year-old shrugs, a tacit acceptance that creative conflict is part and parcel of a dressing-room environment.
"Sometimes I come in and feel like I’ve played well, but he’ll pick up parts of my game that could have been better. You can feel disheartened at times . . . but it also shows that he has belief in me and wants me to improve. He is trying to get the best out of me and that can only be a good thing.
"Sometimes he shouts my name and I know what’s coming, but it’s usually because I’ve been out of position. Some people might think that I get it a bit more than other players, but it’s probably because I play wide.
He shouts at Naka [Shunsuke Nakamura] too, but the difference is that he doesn’t understand him!"
Celtic’s 1-0 away win against Falkirk at the start of October was a microcosm of how far he has come. After a disappointing first 45, he composed himself at half time, finally found form after the interval and duly scored a late winner.
“A year and a half ago, if I had started like I did against Falkirk then I would have gone on to have a beast of a game. But I just thought to myself at half time: ‘I’ll go for it again’ and it worked out well.”
Strachan’s preference for fast, expansive football has also allowed playmakers like McGeady, and Nakamura, to flourish. "We play a bit more to feet than under Martin O’Neill. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that because Martin had a lot of success. Before Jan [Vennegoor of Hesselink], we didn’t have a big target-man, so it was more to feet.
“That’s the way football should be played. We have a lot of good technical players now and the style suits the team. It’s great playing with guys like Naka because it encourages you to be on the same wavelength. He’s added an awful lot to the team.”
For a flair player, McGeady is no shrinking violet. Out of his training kit, he is deceptively muscular, a product of hours in the gym. In September’s Old Firm game, one of his first acts was to dive into a bonecruncher with Alan Hutton.
Alex Rae, the former Rangers midfield enforcer, will also testify to McGeady’s steel after losing his front tooth in a challenge with him back in January 2005.
"When I was younger I just got the ball and ran at players. Nothing more was expected of me.
No-one ever said to me: ‘You’re a good tackler’. But it’s expected of me now because I’ve shown that I’ve got that side to my game. I know I’m not the biggest, but you always want to hold your own on the pitch."
The 20-year-old started the season as the first-choice left midfielder but an ankle injury which coincided with the return of Shaun Maloney presented him with a fresh challenge. Competition for places, though, is nothing new.
"It’s difficult because it’s such a big club and they can just go out and buy a world-class player. I thought I was playing all right when the club bought Juninho and then I got bombed, although I did manage to get back in.
“It’s now all about being a regular in the team. And [staying in the team] is not about doing it in flashes, you have to be consistent. Having said that, it could be 0-0 with 15 minutes to go and you’re expected to pop up and do something. That’s fine, though. I’m happy with the pressure.”