Sledging was not a word that was in vogue when Johnny Giles and Billy Bremner ruled the roost in English football. But that does not mean it wasn't a phenomenon. They just called it 'having a go at each other'.
Giles was asked about sledging by Ger Gilroy on Off the Ball tonight, following the week of commentary on the subject after the Donegal-Tyrone game.
Giles took a gruff attitude to the whole thing, insisting it was just part of the game. He admitted that he was not shy about doling it out, saying it was about disrespecting an opponent and putting it off this game.
He said he was targeted like everyone else. He doesn't appear to be mentally scarred by the exhanges.
The amount of times I was called a 'little Irish so-and-so, Paddy, potato-picker', whatever it might be. It never bothered me. I could give as good as I got. But there was plenty of it.
Giles relayed a fairly vicious case of sledging involving Billy Bremner and Arsenal's Peter Storey in which the former joked about the latter's wife supposedly leaving him. But he said that after the game the players would just shake hands and there would be no more about it. It was just part of the game.
Elsewhere, he argued that Liverpool are badly weakened and will struggle to compete over the next few seasons.
Listen to the interview below.
