James McClean branded Shrewsbury a ‘cesspit full of inbreds’ after being targeted with abuse by the club’s fans during Wrexham’s League One clash with the side this week.
Irishman McClean has made headlines for a number of years for his refusal to wear a poppy around Remembrance Day, while he also refused to link arms with his team-mates during a minute’s silence last year.
He has made a number of attempts to try and explain the logic behind his reasoning, most recently saying: ‘People say I am being disrespectful, but don’t ask why I choose not to wear it.
‘If the poppy was simply about World War One and Two victims alone, I’d wear it without a problem. I would wear it every day of the year if that was the thing but it doesn’t. It stands for all the conflicts that Britain has been involved in. Because of the history where I come from in Derry, I cannot wear something that represents that.’
As a result, he is often targeted by opposition fans when playing for Wrexham in the English pyramid, and things appeared to boil over on Thursday during his side’s defeat by Shrewsbury.
A video of him being targeted with abuse during the game – which is somewhat of a rivalry, sometimes billed the ‘cross-border derby’ due to the two locations being less than an hour’s drive away either side of the border between Wales and England – went viral, and the 35-year-old took to social media to hit back in brutal fashion.
Irish Wrexham star James McClean has labelled Shrewsbury ‘an absolute cesspit full of inbreds’ on social media
McClean is often targeted by fans for his stance on a number of things related to England, including his refusal to wear a poppy
The Wrexham star stood separate to his team-mates observing a moment of silence ahead of Remembrance Day last year
‘In fairness if I was born and raised in Shrewsbury I’d probably be this angry as well cause it’s an absolute cesspit full of inbreds,’ he wrote on his Instagram story.
McClean’s hometown was the location of the infamous 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre and the controversial Wrexham star believes the poppy is disrespectful to the memory of those who died in the incident.
In September, he clashed with Birmingham City supporters when being substituted and later called a fan at the match a ‘smelly fat gammon’ after catching a cup of Bovril that had been thrown at him.
The fallout from the game also saw McClean honour a previous IRA fighter in an Instagram post stating: ‘They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of an Irishman who doesn’t want to be broken.’
He also once posed IRA-style in a balaclava in front of his children for a ‘school history lesson’ during Covid. He later admitted his regrets.
Other incidents include the player turning his back when the British national anthem was played and saluting fans who sang that he ‘hates the King’.
Born in Northern Ireland, McClean has played in England since signing for Sunderland in 2011.
He has had stints at Wigan, West Brom and Stoke, before joining Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham in 2023. He also has over 100 caps for the Republic of Ireland national team having played for Northern Ireland at youth level.
McClean confronted the crowd in the clash with Shrewsbury before being stopped by security
McClean admitted regrets about posting a controversial picture of himself in lockdown ‘jokingly’ home schooling his children in a balaclava, interpreted as a reference to the IRA
On occasion, McClean has been known to taunt fans back in response to their jeers, but there were reports of objects being thrown at the player during the derby clash in midweek.
A video of him being on the receiving end of a strong tackle from Toto Nsiala also went viral, with McClean confronting the crowd before security intervened.
After the game, Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said: ‘He’s fine. James is used to it wherever he goes.
‘Fans get on his back home and away and sometimes it can be tough and spill over but he’s used to it.’
