John McGinn couldn't believe he was looking across the tunnel to see Martin O'Neill - but he put his Celtic admiration aside to help continue a record-breaking streak.
The Aston Villa battler and Scotland star has been reflecting on his first season in Birmingham way back in term 2018/19, when he joined the then-Championship side from Hibs. He was close to a move to boyhood heroes Celtic before turning claret and it was O'Neill's Celtic side with greats like Henrik Larsson involved that McGinn has fond memories of.
So when Villa faced off against the Irishman's Nottingham Forest, he was stunned. But he scored twice in the 3-1 win as a 10-game run which sparked promotion the Premier League continued, and told The Athletic of that day: "I was starstruck before the game because Martin O’Neill was the manager of Forest. I was right up for it. Scoring the two goals and winning the game was one of the highlights of the season for me.”
One of McGinn's well-known teammates in that season was Manchester City superstar Jack Grealish. They are now close mates but around the time of that first season, he wasn't sure they would be.
He joked: "I absolutely love Ginny to bits and he’s one of my closest mates now, but honestly, I didn’t think I’d get on with him at first. When he first came to the club, they made me room with him for his first away game.
"I wasn’t sure about his banter so after about an hour in the room together, when I was told there were some spare rooms, I was finally able to get away from him! He claims to this day that I asked to change, but I’m sure I didn’t.”
That's something the Scotland midfielder has a chuckle about now: “I still laugh with some of the boys about them not having me at the beginning, Jack was obviously one of them. Thankfully I had (fellow Scotland international) Alan Hutton to help me settle in. Jack then started to get his own room which was brilliant because he is a terrible snorer.”
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