Certain parts of the British media really need to move on from the whole 'James McClean poppy' story.
James McClean doesn't wear a poppy. This is not in any sense of the word a 'revelation'. McClean has made clear (in a West Brom match programme earlier this year) that he doesn't wear a poppy because "it stands for all the conflicts that Britain has been involved in. Because of the history where I come from in Derry, I cannot wear something that represents that."
It's old hack, this story. Since McClean's days at Sunderland in 2012 he has refused to wear a poppy and the reasons for this have been known.
Yet still today the Scottish 'Daily Record' - owned by the same publisher in charge of the 'Daily Mirror' - went with the following headline:
They even have a poll on whether or not McClean should "be dropped for his refusal to wear a poppy" (the poll stood at 53% NO when we published the story).
And on the Mirror's own site have gone with a similar version of the same story
Perhaps its time the Trinity Mirror Group accept the fact that McClean will never wear the poppy. People in Ireland were less than impressed.
The annual James McClean poppy outrage, from a cultural imperialism on which the sun never sets. https://t.co/GWmbgaCjPH
— Frank McNally (@FrankmcnallyIT) October 29, 2016
It's hardly a 'new' snub! Nobody thinks 'oh this is the year James McClean might wear a poppy', do they? pic.twitter.com/V8NJWUgXlk
— Emlyn Begley (@EmlynBegley) October 29, 2016
Every year the same moaning about James McClean not wearing a poppy. He's never going to wear one, get over it, and understand why
— Geoff Dunne (@gdunne1972) October 29, 2016
