Stephen Ireland

[Le Lapin]

To follow my previous comment and to point out the blindingly obvious, the like's of this guy are killing football. He has no loyalty to a club or a country, but people keep giving him unbelievable amounts of money on the off-chance that he can reproduce a few good games he had four or five years ago.

[Singapore Villa]

To follow my previous comment and to point out the blindingly obvious, the like's of this guy are killing football. He has no loyalty to a club or a country, but people keep giving him unbelievable amounts of money on the off-chance that he can reproduce a few good games he had four or five years ago.

Sorry, disagree, it is not players, it is the moneymen behind the scenes that actually agree to pay silly amounts to players like Ireland. 

[Pete3206]

Very early into next season, Stoke will wonder why they bothered.

[SoccerHQ]

He'll be a squad player for Stoke, they have plenty of other options in that area.

[achilles]

He is the past, he had more than enough opportunities at Villa and failed everyone of them!

[rob_bridge]

He is the past, he had more than enough opportunities at Villa and failed everyone of them!

Correct - one of the few people ever to be associated with Villa who I would liberally use the c word to describe him

[damon loves JT]

He could turn into Rivaldo and I still wouldn't regret bombing him out of VP. He hated us and the feeling is mutual.

[PeterWithesShin]

Enjoy.

Stephen Ireland "didn't want to be at Aston Villa at all" after leaving Manchester City for Villa Park back in 2010.

Those are the exact words of the former midfielder, who signed for Villa from City and looks back on his time under Gerard Houllier, Alex McLeish, and Paul Lambert with regret after failing to make an impression in claret and blue. He left his boyhood club in Manchester after Roberto Mancini had his reservations about keeping Ireland in his Premier League title chasing squad.

"I don’t want to be there [at Aston Villa] at all," said Ireland on the Kickback with Nedum podcast. "I felt forced out. I felt like I was actually shafted. I felt the height of disrespect from Man City as they didn’t even give me a goodbye, or 'thanks for everything and good luck' - I felt heartbroken.

"I did not want to be at Villa, and I was really nervous about going to Villa because I felt like it was not for me, that 'I am not suited to this club.' I didn’t have a leg to stand on. They were working a deal to get James Milner in. On reflection, I should have done things differently.

"I remember sitting with my accountant in the office, and I had to go and sign the papers. We went back up to reception, and Richard Dunne was there welcoming me, and I thought, ‘Ah no, I don’t want to see his face, right here, right now’ because I was on the verge of pulling the plug on the deal.

"I said to my accountant, 'I'm not feeling good about this deal, I am not sure I should go through with it'. Because Dunny was there and the pressure from everybody, I just went through with it. I just knew it wasn't right for me."

Reflecting on his time at Villa Park, Ireland thinks the Villa that he signed for was an 'absolute shambles' after signing for the club hours before then manager Martin O'Neill resigned. He added: "I signed there at five o'clock, Martin O'Neill resigns at 11 o'clock.

"I think it was 10:30, 11 o'clock at night, I was sitting having some food in the hotel room, and I see the yellow bar on Sky Sports that Martin O'Neill has resigned. Then a caretaker manager comes in and we get leathered every game. He gets out of there, [Gerard] Houllier comes in and he was like, 'I didn't sign you, so I don't want you here'.

"Before I know it, I'm playing reserves and training on my own. I've done nothing wrong, didn't have any interaction with the guy. Then I'm at Newcastle on loan. I'm like, 'What is actually going on here?'"

The 2012/13 season at Villa started well for Ireland but he suffered an injury early on in the season which cost him his place in the team, and ultimately his place at the club altogether. Ireland said: "Lambert loved me when he came in first pre-season, the first five or six games of the season, I was flying under him.

"I said, 'I want to win. I want to play'. After about eight games, I broke my arm in a game. Then they went on a decent enough run where they won a couple and drew, lost one, beat Liverpool at Anfield. I remember I came back from my broken arm and he said, 'Look, we've won without you, so we don't need you. I've been instructed by the owners to make you train on your own. Hopefully, when January comes, you can find yourself a new club'.

"I was seven or eight pitches away, training on my own. He goes, 'Here's a couple of balls. Go down and do some keep ups, or take the crossbar challenge'. I'd have Saturday, Sunday, Monday off. Come in Tuesday, do that. Have Wednesday off. Do it Thursday. Don't come in Friday because the media could be driving past seeing me, and could be asking the gaffer questions. I was getting paid to come in Tuesday and Thursday.

"Me, Darren Bent, Alan Hutton, Shay Given - there were about 15 of us - came back one pre-season, and we weren't in the locker room anymore. We were moved down to some academy side of the building. We were told that we were in something called 'The Bomb Squad'.

"The club said it was [Paul Lambert's] decision, and then he said it was the club's decision. He probably didn't want to be the face of it. They were saying that it was because they wanted to take us off the wage bill, but they were paying for us to be in the Bomb Squad - it made no sense. It's a shame really," Ireland said about his time at Villa. "I was wasted. It was wrong."

[LeeB]

Quite possibly my least favourite Villa player of all time.

Nobody forced you to come and sulk on £70k a week, you gutless little wank

[The Charmer]

With virtually every sentence, he has reminded me what an 18-carat, deluded cnut he was.

[Nev]

Always somebody else's fault. We didn't want you either, you slapheaded ******.

[olaftab]

******
How I wish Dunne had not turned up when he did.

[algy]

Doesn't come as a shock at all. We shouldn't have touched him with a bargepole, felt that way when we signed him. To be fair from his perspective, we were the last place he needed to be - a club in massive turmoil where it was clear from the moment he joined that he wasn't the manager's choice of signing.

No hard feelings towards him personally, it was just clearly the wrong move for both parties, and that's not even saying anything in hindsight as I remember having the exact same conversation with my dad before he'd even kicked a ball.

[pauliewalnuts]

Wanker though he is, he’s right about the club being an absolute shambles back then.

[LeeB]

I hate/hated him more than Hodge, honestly.