Quinn on McClean’s journey

In his latest Sky Sports column, Niall Quinn discusses James McClean’s Premier League journey and his importance to Republic of Ireland…

James McClean is one of those guys who always seems to be just arriving somewhere.

He came to the Premier League relatively late. He was 22 when we signed him at Sunderland from Derry City. We bought a long shot and he gave us fireworks. 

Bang! Suddenly he had arrived into the reserve team. Bang! Now he was in the first team. Bang! He was all over Twitter like a Kardashian. Bang! He was playing for Republic of Ireland.

In Moldova of all places he might finally have put his baggage down and announced that he is here to stay. His two goals put Ireland in a very strong position to qualify and if the team gets to Russia in 2018, I believe James will be a leader and a key player.

Seeing him score a couple of goals told us a lot about not just his talent, but that potential for leadership. It also gave me a lot of pleasure. Not just because of the kind of person James is, but because a lot of people put a lot of faith in him along the way and more often than not he has repaid them well.

The leaps of faith started with Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson, a goalscoring hero of the north east. Pop left his scouting job at Chelsea, wanting to get back up to his family and his roots in Hexham. Steve Bruce and I gave him the job as chief scout.

Pop came in on the first day and said, “Listen, there is a bargain out there that we were recommended to come and watch when I was at Chelsea.” It was a lad called James McClean at Derry City. Given the structure at Chelsea and James’ age, Chelsea had decided not to pursue the transfer.

There were a few other clubs looking at James that summer including Everton. Steve Bruce and I had never heard of James McClean, let alone seen him play, but it was Pop Robson’s first day on the job, he was enthusiastic and it didn’t seem like the time to knock him back. I agreed to approach Sunderland’s owner Ellis Short to get permission to make the signing.

Ellis asked a number of pertinent questions, starting with, “How many times have you seen him play, Niall?” I answered truthfully. Zero times. What else did I know? Well, from what I knew of the League of Ireland and the list of players on our radar at the time, McClean wasn’t near to being on the list but…

Between the jigs and the reels Ellis agreed and we spoke to Derry. By the way, Pop also told us to sign a certain guy named Michu on that first day. Swansea fans will not be alone in …

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