The reported capture of Scottish international midfielder John McGinn from Hibernian certainly caused a stir given Celtic’s chase of the man.
The 23-year-old talent made the move for a reported £2.7million fee in August and there were nothing but good words for the man from his former Hibbee fans as they promised us something special. We’ve certainly seen that at Villa as he continues to adjust to life at the club and our second tier and his eight games so far have shown us exactly what he’s about, and more importantly, what he’s capable of.
A goal:-
Championship goal of the season 2018/19!!! John McGinn👊🏽#avfc pic.twitter.com/FvKFLZfSit
— Kʀɪsᴛᴏғғᴇʀ (@KristofferF) September 22, 2018
And two assists to his name already have certainly seen the fanbase warm to him and as I’ve covered previously, Celtic fans are also torn – there are those who don’t rate him and that’s fair enough, others rate him highly and even from a financial perspective, they wish they had coughed up more to land him even if it was to only sell him on again 12 months later.
Pointy Peter Grant from the good old days of Alex McLeish was interviewed recently by Herald Scotland and although our memories of the man might be skewed owing to his time in the dugout at Villa Park, it’s hard to disagree with his summation about McGinn.
In short, whilst he’d have loved to see him at Celtic, he believes the move to us was, without doubt, in the best interests of McGinn’s career and development.
“I was at Ipswich last week and the Villa fans were chanting John McGinn’s name. It’s great for us. He’s been a bit hit for them right away. It doesn’t matter if a club has paid £10 million or whatever, you need to go in and earn your stripes once you are in the door and he has done that. John has gone to Villa and the fans have really taken to him. It looks to me like he has made the right decision. He is at a massive club with huge expectations. It’s completely different to what he was used to at Hibs. It’s how he handles it. Aston Villa are the Man United of that division. They are expected to win most weeks and to win the league.”
Adding.
“It’s fantastic for us he’s gone to Villa to play games and Steve Bruce has shown so much trust in him. It says a lot that as soon as Steve got a bit of money, the first thing he did was go and buy McGinn. He’s been a roaring success so far and hopefully he continues that with Scotland.”
I spotted a comment from JF that’s just as difficult to disagree with.
“Best engine since Milner, end to end, he does make mistakes/gives the ball away but then unlike some, doesn’t go hiding, and then there was that wonder goal.”
Plenty have compared his approach to the game as being like Milly given how busy he is and although plenty think he’s a playmaker mold, we’ve already seen he has no issues with diving in and getting in the mix – it might be a tight run battle in some senses, but McGinn could be manager Steve Bruce’s best signing in his time at the club in all honesty.
