Mark Donnelly and Phil Smith discussed the latest news surrounding Sunderland during the most recent edition of The Roar podcast from The Sunderland Echo, and one of the topics of discussion that came up during the show was the future of Black Cats winger Aiden McGeady after he spent the final part of the 2019/20 season on loan with Charlton Athletic.
McGeady joined Charlton on loan from Sunderland back in January and remained an Addicks player until the end of the 2019/20 campaign. The former Republic of Ireland international failed to score or provide a single league assist for the Addicks during his time on loan at The Valley, as the London-based club were ultimately relegated from England’s second tier, just one season after achieving promotion to the division from League One via the play-offs at Sunderland’s expense.
Donnelly raised the topic of McGeady’s future during this recent edition of The Roar, saying: “I think it’s fair enough to say that that relegation vastly reduces the chances of Charlton looking to make Aiden McGeady’s stay a permanent one.”
Smith then shared his thoughts on the 34-year-old’s future, saying: “I’m not convinced there was much prospect of it, anyway. I think what we now know, a few months down the line, is that Charlton did that deal because they were under an embargo, Sunderland were keen to get rid of McGeady, they were happy to take a pretty significant hit in terms of his wage contribution, and from the position Charlton were in, in terms of what they could and couldn’t recruit, it was a no-brainer to take a gamble on a player of McGeady’s ability.
“It always looked unlikely that, in their current form, they’d be able to buy him outright or do a deal, and you have to admit, although we don’t know for sure, it seems nigh-on impossible that they’ll be able to do that.
“It causes a bit of a headache for Sunderland, really, because everybody knows there’s absolutely no prospect of him coming back into the first-team setup under Phil Parkinson, but McGeady has another year left on a pretty lucrative contract, he’s settled in the area, he likes living up here, and as was the case in January, he holds all the cards and all the power in this scenario.”
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As per ChronicleLive, McGeady and Black Cats boss Parkinson had a falling out which led to the winger departing from the North East club in January. With that in mind, it may be understandable why Smith believes that there is “absolutely no prospect of him coming back into the first-team setup” under Parkinson.
It may also be understandable why Smith shared that he believes that this “causes a bit of a headache for Sunderland” as the player has got “a pretty lucrative deal” with the Black Cats and that may make it difficult for the club to sell the unwanted player.