Stephen Ireland

[TheTimVilla]

Yep, good riddance.

[manic-road]

I hope this story is true, good riddance.

[Ads]

Thank goodness for that.

[N'ZMAV]

What a fucking waste of breath he has been for us.

[supertom]

[not3bad]

Another one off the wage bill.

[Concrete John]

Another one off the wage bill.

Yep.  That leaves Hutton, Given and possibly N'Zogbia.  It'll be interesting to see how our current transfer policy changes once they've all been shipped out.

[SO Villa]

Another one off the wage bill.

Is it though? I can't believe Stoke are stumping-up the same ludicrous wage that we were paying him so it's possible we're still picking up some of the bill. How depressing

[London Villan]

Another one off the wage bill.

Yep.  That leaves Hutton, Given and possibly N'Zogbia.  It'll be interesting to see how our current transfer policy changes once they've all been shipped out.

£130k - 150k per week that little lot...

[supertom]

Another one off the wage bill.

Is it though? I can't believe Stoke are stumping-up the same ludicrous wage that we were paying him so it's possible we're still picking up some of the bill. How depressing

Because they're gonna get him on a free, I'd imagine they'll offset that lack of signing on fee and transfer fee by matching our wages. I dunno. Perhaps when he gets offered a new deal by them in the summer, he'll be taking a pay cut?
I think if we're washing our hands of him we'll do it clean. Hughes is no stranger to paying over the odds either. It's good for us, because he's probably the one manager around who'd actually take Ireland off us.

[Dribbler]

Free at last?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/aston-villa/10561690/Aston-Villa-make-Stephen-Irelands-loan-move-to-Stoke-City-permanent.html

And good riddance - overrated waster imo.

Agreed.  He is the epitome of what has been wrong at the club over the last few years.

Which is what exactly? I would say that responses like this are the epitome of what is wrong with some of the clubs fans over the last few years.

The signing of Ireland never really worked out for us and it's probably a good example of why you shouldn't sign players when you don't have a manager but i really don't get a lot of the vitriol that has been thrown his way by some fans.

Yes he's undoubtedly a talented player and he's never really been able to realise the full potential of that talent, but i think it's rubbish to say he never put in the effort either on or off the pitch. On the pitch he's had to play for several disjointed managers in a variety of poor squads with dodgy tactics, and i think you could see his frustration with that sometimes, yet he always put in a shift. After some games i would see some fans saying he'd been lazy, yet I'd seen him often tracking back and making important tackles on the edge of our area after running the full length of the pitch. Even when he won player of the season people would denigrate it and say 'well yeh, just goes to show how poor the rest of the squad was'. Well if that's the case then surely the rest of the squad deserved more criticism than him, but of course he was always the easy fall guy.

Off the pitch he has always been one of the players that puts in a hell of a lot of time to charity too and has been a good ambassador for the club in that way, and despite the way he's been treated, has never spoken out about it.

But lets forget about all that, lets focus on the faux dead granny incident, the dodgy pink range rover and the rather dodgy pictures of his house, or him with a sheisha. Yes i think we can all agree he's a bit of a numpty in that regard, but i'm not sure he deserves a lot of the criticism he's had.

That said, I'm glad he's gone, it will free up a significant amount of wages for us and if anyone can get the best out of him, it will be Hughes, who despite him being so poor for Stoke this season according to some, has wanted to sign him permanently.

[ASHTONVILLA]

I fail to understand all the celebration over losing Ireland.

He has been one of our best players whenever he has had a run in the team, was player of the season under McLeash, and is head and shoulders above Westwood, Delph, KEA, Herd, Sylla etc.

I want to see a competitive team on the pitch, having Ireland, NZogbia, Bent and even Hutton on the pitch would improve us at the moment. Yes the wage bill is down, but I will celebrate that the day I see it translate into new better signings on the pitch, and I am far from convinced that will be the case.

[Brend'Watkins]

Ireland isn't a terrible player, he's just not been god enough to justify the outlay for him.  I do agree he would be an improvement on our current midfield now apart from Delph obviously.  Hughes seems to have the measure of him and more importantly certainly knows how to play him. 

[charlie659]

Good riddance to the bellend.

[supertom]

The biggest point about being pleased Ireland is moving on is simply for us as a club to move on. Lambert never figured out how to play him. What was interesting to watch in the early days under Lambert, was that Ireland did put the effort in certainly. He looked lost though. He played in that 10 role mostly, but he looked isolated. No one picked him out. When he actually did get the ball, he'd have some nice touches and then play a pass into a good area, but no one would read the ball or he'd look up and as happens still, there's no movement beyond him. In some regards I just don't think we've been a side (up to this point) that's in any way well drilled in having a number 10 sort of a player. Midfielders have to be willing to break into the box for the 10 to pick out. Strikers need to drop short to make themselves available for the 10 to play off too, or make the right sort of runs in the box. You need better movement in and around a player like that, but it didn't happen for Ireland.

I don't put his failure entirely on his shoulders, certainly not. Houllier didn't give him a chance. McLeish played horribly rigid and flat systems (often 4-4-2) which doesn't suit Ireland. Lambert, despite getting good service from Hoolahan, forgot how to use a number 10. But Ireland still drifted out of games too easily and didn't always show enough application. Inititially his workrate did improve, but again, as always with him, when it wasn't working out, there came a time when the chasing back was less frequent, and I'm not sure his fitness was ever good enough to be a 90 minute player for us certainly.

This however does lead me onto a further Lambert concern: If we get this mythical number 10, will he know how to use him? I'm not sure. He's tried and failed with both Ireland and N'Zogbia in that position. Zogbia had a few okay games and produced some key matchwinning moments, but in terms of system we always seemed to be playing a misbalanced 4-2-4 with him in the side, and we still weren't winning enough with him, hence the switch to a more solid 4-3-3 with a workhorse like Sylla in his place.