Niall Quinn: McClean must let his football do the talking
Niall Quinn says it’s important for James McClean to concentrate on his football after the Ireland international was involved in a bust-up with fellow Stoke City players.
The altercation took place at half-time in Wednesday’s 3-0 defeat to Wigan and reportedly involved McClean, goalkeeper Jack Butland and Ryan Shawcross, with Stoke manager Gary Rowett later commenting: “When you’re not winning games, everybody gets a bit edgy and frustrated. We’ve got to take collective responsibility. It’s no good fighting between ourselves.”
Stoke, who were relegated from the Premier League last season, have endured a torrid start to life in the Championship, taking just two points from four games.
McClean joined the club in July for a fee of €5.6m after three years with West Brom.
While not privy to what took place in the tunnel and dressing room at the bet365 Stadium on Wednesday, Quinn — who was chairman at Sunderland when former Derry City man McClean made his Premier League breakthrough at the club — said yesterday that the player’s goal now should be to let his football do the talking.
The two things he needs to do are continue that phenomenal work rate he has on the left side of the pitch and continue to put that inviting ball in,” said Irish legend Quinn.
“That’s his bread and butter. If you’re not doing that and just arguing with people, you’ve got nothing, so he’s got to concentrate on that.
“Two or three matches of that and everyone forgets about the tunnel bust-up, but not doing that and having these bust-ups and it will fizzle for him.
“I sporadically stay in touch and send a text message when he does something well,” Quinn said. “I hope there is a shaking of hands on this in the dressing room and I hope he kicks on. His manager obviously felt the need to go public on it. Hopefully, it turns into a positive for James and the manager. I don’t know, we’ll see about his maturity, it will be up to him. It’s another public incident that he has to deal with.
“Players can dip. As long as James understands what his strengths are and doesn’t dip and puts in a performance [he will be OK]. When you’re having these arguments, whether they’re verbal or physical, you’ve got to stand up on the basis of ‘well, I’ve done what I had to do today’, otherwise the guys are right to dig him out of it if he hasn’t done what he’s supposed to do. It’s either spirit-building or detrimental. It’s one or the other. If you’re a sulker, you dip. If you’ve got someone who rolls their sleeves up, then you win respect.”
Quinn believes McClean, who turns 30 next April, is nearing a potentially pivotal stage in his career.
I hope at the age he is at now, he starts to really cherish it,” he said.
“Cherishes his role each week, cherishes the team he plays in, cherish that hunger he has and has shown over the years and not let it dip. I can only speak from my own career, but 30 to 35 were the most important years, looking back. They were the ones when I was most driven, the ones that meant more to me. I had a couple of cruciate injuries, it looked as if my career was washed up — I went that far, the PFA sent me the forms to quit — and I had to prove to myself that I had more still to come.
And I had a World Cup and a great time at Sunderland afterward. I played with Kevin Philips when he did a Mo Salah and won a Golden Boot.
"I’d have missed all that if I had sulked, so I’d ask him (McClean) to kick on and do even better than he’s done before. That’s the challenge to James or anybody who is coming to that age where people are questioning you."
