NafisaFormer Celtic winger Aiden McGeady has launched a scathing response to Rangers manager Derek McInnes after the Ibrox boss revisited Hearts’ painful Scottish Premiership title collapse last season.
McInnes came agonisingly close to delivering a historic league triumph for Hearts before Martin O’Neill’s Celtic dramatically snatched the title on the final day of the campaign.
The Edinburgh side needed only to avoid defeat at Celtic Park to secure the championship, but a 3-1 loss handed the Hoops their fifth consecutive Premiership title and left Hearts supporters devastated.
It was a heartbreaking conclusion to a campaign in which McInnes had guided Hearts into genuine contention for the biggest prize in Scottish football.
However, the former Hearts manager has continued to suggest that controversial refereeing decisions during the closing stages of the season contributed to the sense of injustice surrounding their eventual defeat.
McInnes, who has since taken charge of Rangers, reflected on the disappointment ahead of his return to Tynecastle on Wednesday evening. That reunion ended in a 2-2 draw, but his comments about last season’s title race have now attracted criticism from a familiar Celtic voice.
McGeady was particularly unimpressed with the suggestion that Hearts had been wronged, arguing that McInnes was overlooking the biggest reason his former team failed to become champions.
Speaking on the Go Radio Football Show, the ex-Celtic winger questioned exactly what injustice McInnes believed had taken place.
“The injustice has been mentioned a few times. What was the injustice? Was it a few contentious decisions, as he said?” McGeady said.
He then delivered a blunt reminder of what Hearts had needed to do on the final day of the season.
“But at the end of the day, it was in your hands and you blew it. It was in your hands and you blew it. All you had to do was draw the last game of the season. Couldn’t do it.”
McGeady’s argument was straightforward: Hearts had their destiny in their own hands but failed to get the result required when it mattered most.
The former Celtic attacker also suggested that McInnes was using refereeing controversies to shift attention away from his team’s inability to finish the job.
“So I can understand why you’re going to put it down to, ‘It’s not my fault, it’s not the team’s fault, it’s referees.’
“But, yeah, for me, that’s you glossing over that.”
Those comments represent a fierce challenge to McInnes’ version of events, particularly given that he is now managing Rangers and remains a prominent figure in Scottish football.
For Celtic supporters, the final-day victory remains one of the defining moments of last season. O’Neill’s side entered the decisive encounter knowing the championship was still within reach, and they produced the result required to keep their remarkable run of league titles alive.
For Hearts, meanwhile, the disappointment was enormous. They had pushed Celtic throughout the campaign and came within touching distance of ending the club’s long wait for a Premiership championship.
But McGeady believes the responsibility for losing that opportunity cannot simply be placed on contentious refereeing decisions.
His intervention also adds another layer to the growing debate surrounding McInnes’ comments, with the Rangers manager now facing criticism from a former Celtic player who insists Hearts had nobody but themselves to blame for allowing the title to slip away.
Nafisa
