James McClean has said his statement about his poppy stance was ‘two years too late’.
The Wigan winger issued an open later to former club chairman Dave Whelan about his refusal to wear a poppy last November in a game against Bolton. McClean explained that he could not wear the poppy, which is issued each year in remembrance for those who died in British wars since 1914, as it was a controversial, and inflammatory, symbol for those who come the winger’s native Derry.
‘I have complete respect for those who fought and died in both World Wars – many I know were Irish-born,’ McClean wrote. ‘I mourn their deaths like every other decent person and if the Poppy was a symbol only for the lost souls of World War I and II I would wear one. I want to make that 100% clear. You must understand this. But the Poppy is used to remember victims of other conflicts since 1945 and this is where the problem starts for me’.
‘Mr Whelan, for me to wear a poppy would be as much a gesture of disrespect for the innocent people who lost their lives in the Troubles – and Bloody Sunday especially – as I have in the past been accused of disrespecting the victims of WWI and WWII’.
McClean’s statement was articulate, tolerant and respectful, however he has said in an interview in the Irish Independent that he’d been silenced from making a similar statement two years previously, and was ‘hung out to dry’ by the club.
The winger was playing for Sunderland when he first refused to wear the poppy, a stance that was respected by then manager Martin O’Neill, but seemingly not by some within the club or a section of fans.
‘Speaking honestly, I think I was hung out to dry by the press people at Sunderland,’ he told Vicent Hogan in an interview ahead of tomorrow’s qualifier against Poland. ‘That day we were playing Everton, the manager was brilliant about it. He understood. He said ‘If that’s your decision, I fully support you. None of the players had an issue with it’.
‘But pre-game, the press officer went out and issued a statement saying that I wouldn’t be wearing a poppy, that it was my own decision and that, as a club, they fully supported the poppy appeal. That just drew attention onto it straight away. I don’t think it would have been anywhere near as bad as it got if that hadn’t happened’.
‘Then when I asked to be allowed speak about it, I was told that that was a bad idea, not to say anything and let it blow over. So it was kind of brushed under the table and I felt that that was more for the club’s benefit than mine’.
‘I think it could have saved so much hassle. . . when you think two years later I finally get to speak about it. . . for me, that’s two years too late! It could have been nipped in the bud from day one. Was there any need to make that statement prior to the game? No, there wasn’t. ‘To this day I still have a kind of annoyance that that was the case. It irritates me. Because with people not knowing my reasons, even my own fans turned on me. They didn’t understand. To them, I was disrespecting their country, disrespecting their fallen heroes, disrespecting their culture, this and that.
‘Because I was pushed into a corner and not allowed say anything, people didn’t know. And they turned on me. It affected me because I could do no wrong before that, then all of a sudden I was getting booed every touch. People saying I shouldn’t be in the team and ‘f**k off back to Ireland!’ Stuff like that’.
‘I don’t know if it’s fair to say that I was a scapegoat but, in a way, I think I was. The Sunderland fans are very passionate as it is. When it’s good it’s good. But very quickly, when it turns bad, it’s very bad. They get on to the players really badly.
‘And I think it was very easy because of the poppy thing. . . I became an easy target’.
McClean revealed that abuse from his own fans played a part in his departure from Sunderland, as well former manager Paulo Di Canio.
‘It was like a dictatorship, just all bow down’ McClean says about the Italian. ‘I think there’s a thin line between discipline and going overboard and he well and truly went over that line. In this day and age, rightly or wrongly, players who play at the top level have egos. They’re not going to tolerate being spoken to like that’.
‘The story went afterwards that Sunderland got rid of me, sold me off. I just want to clarify that that wasn’t the case. I still had two years left after that season. It was my decision. I wanted to leave The fans were on my back. Even when I was going shopping, I was getting abuse in the street. It wasn’t a happy place to be. My missus was heavily pregnant at the time, it’s not the environment I’d want her in. She was going to the games, hearing me get a lot of abuse. It wasn’t nice for her’.
You can read the entirety of the interview here.
