No-one gave a toss about James McClean’s opinions until he started making waves in the Premier League. Now just about every statement or social media post splits opinion.
The Ireland midfielder gave a frank, fascinating interview to BBC’s Football Focus a couple of weeks back and aired today.
During McClean’s sit-down chat, he opened up on a lot of topics, including his upbringing in Derry, his beliefs, how he nearly moved to the MLS and how he has had to cope with death threats.
McClean's frank, honest words have won him a lot of new fans.
Fair bloody play https://t.co/3idwll30jp— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 29, 2017
McClean also spoke about his feelings towards Britain, where he has lived and worked for the past seven years. His crystal clear comments should clear up any lingering misconceptions that exist.
In all truth, McClean shouldn’t have to state what is painfully obvious to any right minded person.
But the vile abuse and threats to both him and his loved ones have forced him to clarify what many of us already knew. He told the BBC:
“Back in Derry I was just being me. Nobody cared. All of a sudden things I say are in the papers.
“I’m still the same person I am. I wouldn’t want to change. If you like it, you like it, and if you don’t, you don’t.
“It’s in the papers that I’m pro-IRA and the way it goes, if you see something in the paper you believe it whether it’s true or not. I’ve been very lucky with my managers, they’ve believed my side of the story.
“I’ve had death threats and I’ve had a lot of people see me as anti-British.
“I want to go on record here and say I’ve never been anti-British. There’s certain things that I don’t agree with, my beliefs, but I take people at face value.”
It is truly unfortunate that it had to come to this.
That McClean has felt the need to answer questions about whether or not he is fervently against a whole nation based on the beliefs he holds so dear.
You’d hope that his emphatic statement would be the end of matters but we don’t think it will be. No doubt about it, that is the saddest truth of all.
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