Where has Stephen Ireland gone!?
I used the rate Stephen Ireland as one of the brightest talents in the league in the season when he with Manchester City, but since then has become somewhat of a ghost. Under Mark Hughes, Ireland scored a total of 23 times and had numerous amounts of assists, but after Hughes’ inevitable sacking and with Roberto Mancini’s arrival and City looking like they will be on the rise, it seems like little Stevie Ireland’s career spiralled in decline and was regularly on the bench at Manchester City and was a bit part player at best.
With City continuing to flex their financial power, they made a bid for Aston Villa’s James Milner, highly rated up and coming England U21 international James Milner and alongside cash was Stephen Ireland apart of the deal and indeed it happened and under Gerard Houllier things didn’t get any better for him. After being slated in the press by his manager for simply “not trying” he was linked away from the club almost instantaneously and was loaned to Newcastle in the 2010/2011 season, but ankle injuries prevented him into actually getting any solid playing time under his belt at Newcastle and returned to the Villains and vowing to show the world once again how vastly talented he is. Under Alex McLeish in the 2011-2012 season, he did show he could still do it in the Premier League and I can remember him scoring his first club goal for Villa against Chelsea and then assisting with a delightful chip in a 3-1 win against Chelsea blue.
Under current boss Paul Lambert, things are back to square one for the midfielder, he barely made any appearances and failed to make match day squads at times last season, he broke a bone in his wrist early in the year and didn’t seem to make it back into the team last year. I think he will be out the door this summer, I hope he stays in the Premier League as he is clearly a great player, just lacks to application. Also, stories of him asking for time off to go to his nan’s funeral, only to be found out she was alive and well and then Ireland then claiming it was his other nan who had in fact passed away…she was later to be found alive and well also. Plus he basically lives in a giant fish tank and drives a pink land rover…awesome.
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