Aiden McGeady: Ayr Utd position perfect for veteran winger's future pathway

McGeady is keeping busy with a variety of tasks at Ayr United, as well as playing

The very fact Aiden McGeady is approaching his 20th year as a professional is enough to make those of a certain age feel very old.

Surely it was not that long ago the fresh faced winger was Celtic's bright new hope?

A lot has happened in McGeady's career since his debut at Tynecastle back in April 2004.

At 37, he's playing with Ayr United but he has a new role too - technical manager. So what does a technical manager do?

"Graham [Mathie, managing director] didn't want to put a definitive title on it but it means I can look at a lot of different areas," explains McGeady.

"To give examples, I've been putting together individual development plans for the reserves, dealing with three of the reserve players who are out on loan, dealing with feedback from their managers, going to watch them play, putting together reports.

"I'm doing a bit of coaching as well. At the moment it's more focused on the younger players.

"But I'm also in the football meetings with the staff. I've been in meetings with Graham and agents discussing players, I've been helping with the transfer window - phoning around clubs in England looking to see who we could possibly bring in. It's been really good, really eye-opening."

Academic pursuits

As if that was not enough, McGeady is also doing a degree in sports directorship. So what does he see himself doing once he decides to call time on playing?

"It's hard for me to say where I'd want to be in 10 years," he says. "I've taken this role on because I can do a lot of different things and see what path I really want to go down.

"Is it recruitment? Possibly. Is it being a sporting director at some point? Possibly. Is it a coach? Is it a manager? Maybe.

"Before I came here coaching was the last on my list. But the more I've done, the more I have started to enjoy coaching and I'm thinking, 'do I want to be a manager?' I don't know. This is kind of the beauty of what I'm doing at the moment."

And then there's playing. McGeady has featured in all four Scottish Championship matches so far this season.

"It's hard sometimes to detach yourself from playing because ultimately I'm still a player and still required to be a player and turn up to training and do everything a player does," he says.

"But on top of that, there's trying to straddle the line between player and staff member. You're in the dressing room with the players but you also want to give feedback to the management about things that you think that could help.

"I want to help people develop, using my experience. I worked under lots of different managers, lots of coaches, lots of sporting directors. It's about taking the best - and the worst as well, because you learn how not to do things in football."

That experience includes a four-year stint with Spartak Moscow, spells at Everton and Sunderland with a few loan moves thrown in - not to mention 93 Republic of Ireland caps.

After 12 years away, McGeady returned to Scottish football in 2022 but injury would limit his contribution at Hibernian.

Ayr finished second in the Championship last season, but have started this term with three defeats and one victory.

"I think we've played well at times, but we are very much a team in transition," adds McGeady. "The team is trying to gel as quick as we can. The manager is getting his ideas across to new players.

"The ambition everyone has is to get promoted. But it's about how we go about making the best environment to try and do that."