Stephen Ireland

[Villadroid]

Looks like I am going to be contrary again.

The case of Stephen Ireland demonstrates just about every lousy aspect of Villa over the last couple of years.

When he was at Man City he was a stroller and it was no surprise that City swapped him for Milner, who, although not quite so technically gifted, could provide the engine for any team, as he had at Villa.

Villa's decision to buy him stank of the transparent PR bollocks which has since been exposed for what it is.

To make Milner's departure seem like less of a betrayal and a retrenchment Villa management deliberately exaggerated how much Ireland was worth to make the trade seem more of a like-for-like swap than another bit of asset-stripping.

This lie, which the fans swallowed with relish, created expectations the player was never going to fulfil, and yet again, where Villa's management were actually guilty, the fans found themselves another scapegoat.

Ireland has never been great for Villa because he is not a great player but was good enough to earn more man-of-the-match awards than anyone else in the squad last season.

The papers have him down as the fans' player of the year.

But now we come to the real disgusting thing.

Now that Ireland has become maybe the fourth or fifth player to be ostracised and put under pressure to leave, the fans are willing to pretend that it is not the result of a disgusting, dishonourable and legally dubious policy of the shysters who run the club these days, but that it is because he is a lousy professional and a bad apple.

I would say that Ireland was never going to fit into Lambert's team of headless chickens and that he is being paid far too much to fit in with Villa's cheap-jack hiring policy these days.

He is a luxury player; a luxury player Aston Lidl cannot afford these days.

He is definitely better at football than Lerner and Faulkner are at football management.

[eastie]

Apparently Pubehead agreed it before walking out and the club felt honour bound to stick with the deal.

Well Pubehead left 2 weeks before the Milner deal went through - i know you don't like him but lets not blame him for a signing that happened more than 2 weeks after he'd left.  That's totally down to the people in charge of the club.

nothing to do with disliking him. It's what the General said at the time and it makes more sense than the club buying players for a manager who they haven't appointed. My guess is they agreed in principle for Ireland to be part of the Milner deal, but it took a while for Ireland to agree his pay-off with Citeh. hence the delay

Ok well even if your account is correct surely all signings should have been called off, especially those involving player swaps, the second MON flounced out the door.  Tough shit if a deal had been agreed, the bloke who agreed it is gone.

well hindsight is a wonderful thing. From memory with the noticable exception of Chris Smith everyone wanted him. Looking back he deffo had "form" at Citeh for being trouble but most on here were swayed by his performances. Also, how would us pulling out have affected the Milner deal as although the two deals were seperate officially it amounted to Citeh paying less in cash for Milner. Would Milner have come back or would we have been in a situation of a very unhappy player seeing his dream move scuppered?

City would have paid the asking price if they wanted him that much - in fairness it doesnt need hindsight to tell us that signing an expensive player on a 4 yr deal without a manager is stupid.

[rob_bridge]

Ireland has been a huge flop - very hard to move him on with his wages but not really of benefit making hom train with the kids - if we could loan him to a championship side it could suit all parties even if we had to pay most of his wage.

Someone like ireland can be a poisonous influence on younger players .

Why not just drop him off at Small Heath I'm sure we have sent other ill-willed morons over there. Robert Hopkins springs to mind.

[saunders_heroes]

Fantastic post 'Villadroid'. Sums up the real problem at the club - Lerner and his policy of Managed Decline.

[paul_e]

Fantastic post 'Villadroid'. Sums up the real problem at the club - Lerner and his policy of Managed Decline.

Not sure fantastic is the word I'd use.  I don't recall anyone at the club trying to make out it was like-for-like, I do recall lots of discussions from Villa fans who thought Stan and Ireland could be a more effective pairing than Stan and Milner.

As for the idea that he's been left out for anything other than shit performances, that's the biggest pile of conspiracy theory bullshit going.  Warnock, Hutton and Ireland have been left out and made to train with the kids because they're shit, that's the be all and end all.  It's not a to save money on their wages, it's that they're rubbish football players who have fleeced the club out of millions and provided feck all in return (other than warnock having 3/4s of a good season under MON).  Bent has been left out because his form wasn't very good and BENTEKE IS A BETTER PLAYER, it's not wages, it's not any other bullshit, it's that, in our system, Bent and Benteke can't both play, and Benteke rightly deserves to start.

Too many people on here seem to want to turn Lerner into a dr. evil style comedy villain, sat in his headquarters laughing manically whilst the club goes down the drain.

[PeterWithe]

I really want Lambert to succeed but he doesn't half make things difficult for himself, the squad is paper thin, why on earth would he want to ostracise one of the few senior pro's we have? He's not going anywhere till the summer and we are still paying his wages, he may come in useful.

[Ron Manager]

I really want Lambert to succeed but he doesn't half make things difficult for himself, the squad is paper thin, why on earth would he want to ostracise one of the few senior pro's we have? He's not going anywhere till the summer and we are still paying his wages, he may come in useful.

The voice of reason.

[saunders_heroes]

It's funny how all the players that have been given the cold shoulder over the last couple of years are the ones on the most money. Anyone who thinks its nothing more than an amazing coincidence is off their rocker.

[Percy McCarthy]

It's funny how all the players that have been given the cold shoulder over the last couple of years are the ones on the most money. Anyone who thinks its nothing more than an amazing coincidence is off their rocker.

CNZ? Gabby? Bent, Given and Hutton have been replaced by better players. So no, not an amazing coincidence. Do you think a healthy, superb professional like Petrov would have been frozen out this season?

[supertom]

I was pleased when Ireland came. We lost one decent player and got, what we thought was another decent one. We hoped that he'd sort out the attitude problems he'd gradually become known for at City, but obviously, not to be.

I think what we hoped more so, was that the rest of the 16, or more of it, odd million from Milners fee would have been used that summer for players. Obviously it was never the case, and getting a player in return was probably a somewhat cynical attempt to appease the fans. You might argue we did eventually spend that money on Bent, but then you could further argue that it was at that point a foregone conclusion that Young and Downing were probably going to leave in the summer. Certainly it was in the case of Young.

As for O Neill, was part of the reason he left not because he  wanted all of the Milner money re-invested? I think the whole Milner deal to some extent was done over his head. He didn't want that to happen and he probably didn't want Ireland in return. If that was the case, then it probably makes the money he got from the club more feasible. Obviously the situation we're now in, with having to trim our wage bill so drastically was also bought to O Neills attention too, and he didn't like that one bit. I  got the impression though that he wasn't keen on the Milner deal, both in terms of losing him, and the way the money would be re-invested. O Neill doesn't strike me as a manager who could find space for Ireland either. I don't see how he'd rate him, want him in the side, or want to put up with someone to challenge his authority. He'd already all but confined NRC to permanent bench warmer, only to fill in when absolutely necessary. 

[Villadroid]

It's funny how all the players that have been given the cold shoulder over the last couple of years are the ones on the most money. Anyone who thinks its nothing more than an amazing coincidence is off their rocker.

Exactly!

[Ron Manager]

It's funny how all the players that have been given the cold shoulder over the last couple of years are the ones on the most money. Anyone who thinks its nothing more than an amazing coincidence is off their rocker.

Might well be something in that SH. Trouble is we will never find out. I would suggest the only people who would know for certain are Lerner Lambert and Faulkner. Actually thats pretty obvious isnt it?

[Percy McCarthy]

It's funny how all the players that have been given the cold shoulder over the last couple of years are the ones on the most money. Anyone who thinks its nothing more than an amazing coincidence is off their rocker.

Exactly!

Yeah, spot on. Except for it not being true.

[supertom]

It's funny how all the players that have been given the cold shoulder over the last couple of years are the ones on the most money. Anyone who thinks its nothing more than an amazing coincidence is off their rocker.

Exactly!

There's something in it certainly. You could argue that if they were a player worth the money and proved it week in week out they wouldn't be frozen out.
BUT...If they were earning there 50k a week keep, they'd almost certainly be sold at the first decent offer too.

[Concrete John]

I really want Lambert to succeed but he doesn't half make things difficult for himself, the squad is paper thin, why on earth would he want to ostracise one of the few senior pro's we have? He's not going anywhere till the summer and we are still paying his wages, he may come in useful.

Why?  Because he's shit, has taken the piss and we're better off without his attitude disrupting things.

And because of the above, he won't be useful.