Quoting Provisional IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands in his reply was never going to earn James McClean any further degree of understanding from those fans who had criticised his decision to play for Stoke City without the Royal British Legion’s poppy pressed onto his shirt.
The McClean – poppy furore comes up again and again without fail but this year it appears to be particularly hateful. On Saturday evening after Stoke had played against Middlesbrough, video footage was shared of the Ireland midfielder receiving vicious, bile-filled abuse from the away support at the Bet365 stadium.
McClean’s message over the weekend on Instagram, meanwhile, made mention of a “section of uneducated cavemen” in the ground’s Boothen End among other things.