Aiden McGeady reveals why he chose Celtic over Arsenal

These days, it is not an uncommon sight to see highly-rated young Celtic players, coming through the youth ranks, leave the club in order to join teams in the Premier League or in other top five leagues. We have seen the likes of Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Leeds United and many others sign promising youth prospects from the Glasgow giants. And that is something that the Hoops need to find a way to stop happening.

It is not hard to see why some youngsters might be keen to leave though. Not a lot of players have come through the youth ranks and established themselves in the Celtic first-team in recent years. Also, the club have struggled to make the Champions League for a while.

Once upon a time though, Celtic was considered as one of the best places for a youngster to break into the senior game. Players would turn down Premier League giants to remain at Parkhead. Aiden McGeady is a great example.

As reported by Everton’s official website, McGeady has revealed why he turned down a move to Arsenal and remained at Celtic as a youth player:

“Arsenal were entering their Invincibles era.

“My dad hammered home how few players make it to the first team.

“I’d have been moving to London and living in digs.

“My dad did that at Sheffield United.

“He said, “If you sign for Celtic, you can stay at home, see your mates, and… have a better chance of making it.

“The decision was vindicated. I was playing first-team football at 18.”

McGeady chose Celtic over a move to Arsenal

It was not long before McGeady would break into the Celtic first-team and he became a regular pretty quickly as well.

He would end up moving to Spartak Moscow in the summer of 2010 though, in a £9.5 million transfer move, a then Scottish record.

Since then, he has had an interesting career. After his spell at Spartak Moscow, McGeady would end up joining Everton. Things did not go as he would have envisioned at the Merseyside couple though and after a couple of loan spells away from the club, he would ultimately end up joining Sunderland in 2017, and he currently plays for the club in the English League One.

This article was originally posted here

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