Sunderland players were intimidated by Aiden McGeady according to Lewis Morgan, a former teammate of the Ireland international at the club.
Morgan spent the latter half of the 2018/19 season on loan at Sunderland from Celtic. They were in League One and McGeady had been at the Stadium of Light for 18 months at that stage.
"We had Aiden McGeady. I don't think the English boys knew how to take him at all," Morgan told Si Ferry's Open Goal Podcast.
"He's ruthless. I've never seen anyone that ruthless.
"I think we drew at Burton Albion and he comes into the changing room and says 'You can't play in front of that? Burton Albion? Wednesday night? 1-1? You will never play any higher than this level'.
"No one would say anything to him. He'd single someone out and no one would say anything. Everyone was scared of him.
"For the Scottish boys, he was good because there was a few boys down there.
"I got on well with him. He still had loads of ability. He was their best player by a mile.
"He's got a temper. Like in training, if things aren't going his way, he'll boot all the balls out the drill, just stupid things like that.
"At that point, he's winning games by himself so you've got to kind of let him do what he wants.
"McGeady would say things in the changing room and Jack Ross would always know when to stop him and say, 'Right shut up now. You've had your say'.
"He would just cane boys. We had Luke O'Nien and he'd read books or study on the bus and Geadsy would be like, 'What are you reading?'
"Geadsy is smart, he's clever. If anyone was ever talking anything clever, he'd always have to be part of the conversation to show that he was smarter, or had more about him."
McGeady is still a Sunderland player - he's contracted until the summer of 2021 - but spent the second half of last season on loan at Charlton after a falling out with manager Phil Parkison.
Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
