Fan Letters: The Aiden McGeady Edition

Dear Roker Report,

Parkinson needs to settle his differences with McGeady. Parky is acting like a spoilt child. Aiden is still the best player at the club and his inclusion in the squad could be the difference in us getting promotion this season.

If Parkinson can’t do this he should consider his own position. The lack of McGeady last season was a deciding factor in the clubs indifferent form and an 8th place finish.

Parkinson is at the last chance saloon, and if it was me he would have been sacked after failing to get promotion last season.

Aiden has served his penance - get him back in the squad

David Budding

Dear Roker Report,

Aiden McGeady - it is now time to forgive and forget. I remember when Reidy tried spitting the dummy out and not playing Johnson - at the end of the day he was still getting paid.

Joseph Heggie

Dear Roker Report,

I think they should both settle their differences, definitely. He is still our best player and we MUST get out of this terrible league this season.

Paul Dinning

Ed’s Note (Rich): Gentlemen, thank you for sharing your views on the ongoing saga. I agree that Aiden McGeady is the most skilful ball-player we’ve got, and that he’d be an asset to any other club at this level. I would love it if Parkinson was able to bring him back into the first team dressing room, motivate him and either find a place for him in his system or reshape the side to accommodate him.

But history can’t be erased and neither, to be frank neither, can his wage bill.

McGeady has taken to social media to challenge stories of bullying and disruptive behaviour on his part, but something clearly went badly wrong in the early days of Parkinson’s tenure and little has been done to sort it out since.

Photo by Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images

In other financial circumstances, the club would surely be pressing for a resolution of the situation to ensure the utilisation of a costly asset. However, at the moment their focus is to keep him fit and hope they can get his substantial wages of the books soon.

And for me, there are also sound footballing reasons for him not being included in the starting eleven, regardless of what’s happening off the pitch and his impact on the budget.

McGeady was frustrated and frustrating to watch under Jack Ross early last season, and we have played with more variety and better pressing in our attack without him. He wasn’t just average against Shrewsbury away, for example, his desire to do the whole job himself was skewing the system and preventing others from taking responsibility.

Granted, we were still not good enough to go up, but others, such as Gooch and Maguire, have stepped up more since his exclusion, and this season we have hope that some of the younger creative talent in the squad will be given a chance where McGeady would otherwise feature.

So I think it would backward step to include him in the squad now, but I also know that this is far from the universal view, including amongst the good folk here at Roker Report.