AIDEN McGeady’s move to Hibernian has reignited his relationship with former Sunderland manager Lee Johnson and the veteran winger admits it’s a move he had been hoping for during last season as he approached the end of his contract.

The 36-year-old signed a one-year deal with the Scottish Premier League side after his release from Sunderland after five years on Wearside where he made 150 appearances and scored 36 goals. The switch will see him play under Johnson for the second time in his career after his appointment at the Edinburgh based side last month, his first managerial job since leaving the Stadium of Light.

McGeady played a huge part for the Black Cats under Johnson during a campaign where he brought the winger back in from the cold and into the first-team. Sunderland went on to win the Papa John’s Trophy whilst finishing in the League One play-offs where they fell short in the semi-finals against Lincoln City last year.

However, the winger failed to register the same level of impact last season largely due to a knee injury which ruled him out from November until April. McGeady was an unused substitute for their three out of their four remaining games of the season which included their promotion winning play-off campaign but was not offered a new deal for next season. In the same campaign, Lee Johnson was sacked as head coach in January after a 6-0 defeat to Bolton Wanderers.

“I kept in contact with him (Johnson) when he left Sunderland, just small chats here and there” McGeady told Hibs TV.

“To be fair, when the manager’s job came up, when Shaun (Maloney) got sacked and there was a vacant position here, I was saying to him you should probably go for it because it’s a great job. It’s a great job and a great club.

“If you do it as well as you think you can then you’ll go down a legend so there was conversations like that. When he got the job, I wasn’t getting ahead of myself but I was thinking there could be a possibility of making that happen.

“With myself, I always had it in the back of my mind that I was always going to come back to Scotland at some point, especially this year after Sunderland. I don’t think there could have been a better fit to be honest.”

The Northern Echo: Aiden McGeady celebrates scoring from the penalty spot against Ipswich Town.Aiden McGeady celebrates scoring from the penalty spot against Ipswich Town.

During the second half of the 2020/21 season shortly after Johnson’s appointment, McGeady registered 17 assists in all competitions striking up a formidable partnership with striker Charlie Wyke who netted over 30 goals for the campaign.

Johnson’s faith in the winger certainly paid off and McGeady believes that he was able to get the best out of him as a player. “He certainly did that season. I’ve got a lot to thank the manager for” he said.

“When he took over at Sunderland, I was kind of in exile because the old manager (Phil Parkinson) had put me back to training with the Under-23’s. We didn’t have a falling out, that’s going over old ground but I was in No Man’s Land really.

“I hadn’t trained or I hadn’t played for six months in the first-team and the first thing he did, he phoned me on the night he got the job and he said ‘do you want to start tomorrow?’ We were playing Wigan, I hadn’t played and I said yeah. Then I played every single game.

“I’ve got a lot of trust and loyalty towards the manager because of that but then also I’d say, that season, he probably did get the best out of me. I played some really good football under him and I enjoyed my football which is the main thing for me.”

Hibernian will be McGeady’s eighth club of his career after spending the last five seasons on Wearside.