Reports of a ‘bullying culture’ within the Aston Villa academy have been found to contain a curiously dichotomised Irish link.
In a revealing interview conducted with David Conn of The Guardian, former Irish international Gareth Farrelly spoke openly of the devastating impact Kevin MacDonald had had on the professional and personal development of he and a number of other young footballers at the club.
Speaking to OTB AM this morning, Conn discussed the curious scenario by which MacDonald, a former player with Leicester City, Liverpool and Coventry City, came to work as the Republic of Ireland’s assistant manager.
A former teammate of Steve Staunton’s at Liverpool, the former Irish manager felt suitably confident that the Scottish-born MacDonald could bring something to the ill-fated Irish set-up. However, as Farrelly revealed in his interview with Conn, MacDonald had hardly been complimentary of the Republic of Ireland’s standing when Farrelly was making his breakthrough in the mid-1990s.
“When he returned from one tournament, the summer US Cup,” Conn writes, “he remembers MacDonald sneering: “I hope you don’t think you’re a player now; those fucking Mickey Mouse caps you’ve got.””
From his discussions with Farrelly, Conn explained how upset the former Aston Villa and Everton player had been with MacDonald’s subsequent recruitment into the Irish management set-up.
“Gareth was very emphatic about wanting to make that point that he had been disparaging about [his Irish] caps,” Conn relayed on OTB AM this morning.
“Also, from a personal point of view, going to Ireland to play had been a real respite for him. He said how the under-21 coach Ian Evans and Mick McCarthy himself were great.
“His dismay then when Kevin MacDonald turns up as the assistant manager at the Republic of Ireland was because of what his attitude had been before, and because what he was actually like.
“It’s quite powerful to think what his feelings would have been when Kevin MacDonald turned up.”
In the build up to the publishing of Farrelly’s interview, Aston Villa, after some probing on Conn’s behalf, confirmed that they are investigating the complaints regarding MacDonald’s behaviour, and have currently assigned him to non-player duties for the time being.
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