Stephen Ireland – The Forgotten Man

Stephen Ireland is a controversial figure, his ability is undoubted and many drooled at the prospect of his signing when James Milner joined Manchester City last summer.

But if James Milner is the type of player who likes to do his talking on the pitch, Ireland is the complete opposite.

He arrived at Villa Park back in August and immediately hit out at his former employers, having a dig at the younger City players by calling them ‘money-obsessed’, bizarre comments once you consider the fact his move to Villa was stalled because of his unwillingness to leave Man City unless they paid him £2million to do so.

This was just the first of a few ill-advised comments, not least of all the now infamous ‘Birmingham is a crap city’ line in an interview with a French magazine.

But despite all that, Ireland remains a talented individual. Although he didn’t perform well for us in the few games he featured in (some would argue he wasn’t utilised correctly) and featured for a total of just under an hour for Newcastle during his loan there, he can still be a very good player for Aston Villa.

Usually a new manager brings about a lot of change and some players who were previously guaranteed to feature are replaced in the starting eleven by the out-of-favour, i.e. a new manager more often than not means the slate is clean for the entire squad.

So with all that in mind, players like Ireland and Stephen Warnock might be relishing the arrival of the new boss, of course they might have already decided that they want out.

But with the slate clean could this be an opportunity for Stephen Ireland to shine under new management?

Well that all depends on whether he wants to be part of it or not, take away the silly comments and what you have is a midfielder who is creative and knows where the goal is and I don`t need to tell any Villa fan about how much we have lacked that sort of player in recent years.

It is an old cliché in football but if Ireland decides to stay and knuckles down, it would be like having a new signing.