AIDEN MCGEADY WAS given permission to pull out of Ireland’s friendly against Oman to complete a loan move to Championship side Preston North End.
The winger has found himself out of favour at Everton and stayed behind at Ireland’s team hotel in Dublin tonight to sign the paperwork ahead of his season-long switch to Deepdale.
For the second time in two seasons, McGeady drops down a league in a desperate attempt to resurrect his stuttering career after being told he wasn’t part of Ronald Koeman’s plans.
“I am delighted to sign. It came about pretty quickly,” he said.
“It was only yesterday that I heard it might be a possibility and then by this morning I had heard that it wasn’t happening and was off the table and then about three or four hours ago I heard that it was back on again, so I was quite excited to get it sorted and I am now looking forward to getting back playing and helping the team.
“I didn’t want the risk of it not happening by going to the game. It is obviously Robbie Keane’s last game, but there is paperwork that has to get signed and I thought I might have to do a medical today, so I was anxious about what might happen, but the manager was fine with me, he understood the situation, so I stayed behind when the team left and got all the paperwork through and sorted it out myself – I could probably be my own agent!”
The 30-year-old joined Everton in January 2014 on a four-and-a-half year deal but after an encouraging first season, fell down the pecking order under Roberto Martinez last term.
He spent a couple of months at Sheffield Wednesday during the second half of the 2015/16 campaign, scoring once in 13 appearances.
McGeady becomes Preston’s third signing of deadline day with manager Simon Grayson hailing his latest arrival.
“It’s a fantastic signing for us obviously, he’s played at the highest level, he’s a Republic of Ireland international, and he’s a player who has got fantastic ability,” the Preston boss said.
“He’s got pace, good feet, good delivery, so I think he is really good signing for us, a real coup given his pedigree and the clubs that he has played for previously.”
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