Stephen Ireland

I just heard Stephen on the radio this morning (5 live), he was talking when he first came over to England.
I am not sure I quite caught the gist of it but for one reason or another his wife/girlfriend? left him and went back to
Ireland and he had to look after the two? children himself while he was on YTS (low wages same as dole I think).
First time I had heard of that, I am not too sure about the context in which it came up but they were talking about
him returning to Man City today and it got mentioned.
Some of the programs are a available to listen to again as pod-casts but I am not sure that one will what it was called,
I think it was just general 5 live sport.

He's playing very well today. Very smart footballer. Also noticing a defensive element to his game that I haven't had reason to notice before. He had a super tackle on Yaya Toure and has broken up things a couple of times since.

"Yes, I would meet them half way." he reportedly says.

5 years later and he STILL just doesn't get it.

ah please would someone like maybe Tardelli who seems to do nothing anyway give him a call say we would like you to come back and compete for a place and let us add to our quality and if they fancied making that call to andy reid as well and stokes when he is fit that would be great

Get onto Stephen Reid too!

There's more chance of me getting a game than Trap including Ireland and Hoolahan in the same squad though.

Hes not a bloody child - if he wants to play for Ireland all he has to say is that and he is available for selection. End of.

Dont think Trap would like him in any case as he is often caught lacking defensively, as he was a number of times yday.

I really couldn't give a france about Stephen. It's not personal - he's got quality but he's still the kind of player who has to deign when he bothers to turn it on or off. Infuriating player. Add in his take it-or-leave it attitude to playing for Ireland, and the disrespect it would show to people who are actually committed, and it becomes a waste of time.

Let him declare his intention to fight for a place in the squad (which should be the minimum asked of anybody) and then let him play consistently well for more than two weeks, and I'll think again.

Someone has to get the ball rolling.
Didn't Levein contact Steven Fletcher a few weeks ago to get him back after Fletcher said he'd welcome a return on the twitter machine? (I could be wrong)

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Originally Posted by JGKyne

Someone has to get the ball rolling.
Didn't Levein contact Steven Fletcher a few weeks ago to get him back after Fletcher said he'd welcome a return on the twitter machine? (I could be wrong)

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Fletcher told Phil Bardsley he'd want back in before it was taken to Levein, and then spoke at length about his regret at missing two years of his international career. Moreover Fletcher has been playing well and scoring consistently. Ireland doesn't measure up to either criteria.

I'm open to being corrected on this but Ireland's talk about coming back so far has all come across as weak, weak sauce.

Agreed. He was told by Brady and Trap to pick up the phone and get in touch whenever he felt ready to return. The ball is in his court and always has been since they went to the bother of arranging a fruitless meeting with him in Manchester, but he's either got a bad memory or isn't all that bothered about international football.

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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible

Agreed. He was told by Brady and Trap to pick up the phone and get in touch whenever he felt ready to return. The ball is in his court and always has been since they went to the bother of arranging a fruitless meeting with him in Manchester, but he's either got a bad memory or isn't all that bothered about international football.

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...or he's a narcissistic **** who wants to be pandered to.

[QUOTE=elroy;1644595]Hes not a bloody child - if he wants to play for Ireland all he has to say is that and he is available for selection. End of. QUOTE]

I think he just did. He said he would meet Trap half way. In many minds, including mine, that's one way of saying come and get me. It's time to stop splitting hairs with Stephen Ireland - he has said it two or three times now that he would like to come back.

If Trap can't see it then someone around him should. Bury the hatchet and bring back Ireland and Andy Reid and also bring on board, Wes Hoolahan. We might have some constructive football to watch then.

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Originally Posted by mark12345

I think he just did. He said he would meet Trap half way. In many minds, including mine, that's one way of saying come and get me. It's time to stop splitting hairs with Stephen Ireland - he has said it two or three times now that he would like to come back..

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Well Mark if my interpretation is glib then yours is overtly generous. 'Meet me half way' to me means he wants to to negotiate HIS terms for a return to a manager who's already gone and met him at least once.

Simplest way to test his mettle is name him in a squad, or better again on a standby list, and see what he does next. There's his half-way for him.

Pick him and be done with it.

He should also apologise for being a dick previously.

The end.

I suppose Mark has a point if SI was sincere about meeting half way. Possibly SI has grown out of that 'emotional phase' that Trap alluded to. In that case, Trap could ask somebody to contact him and see if he was willing to answer a call-up to the squad, no conditions.
It's just that probably most of us doubt that he is sincere and proposing to meet half-way just does not cut it.
SI could initiate the contact himself with the FAI through Richard Dunne.

Imagine the reaction if Andy Reid had said he'd meet Trap half-way instead of saying he'd swim across the shark infested Irish sea to be in the squad.

The wording of 'meeting half way' is curious, to say the least. It suggests that there's an obligation on the FAI or Trap's part to break with policy, or to make a certain compromise, in order to accommodate Stephen Ireland. When Roy Keane came back into the fold under Brian Kerr, he did so under no 'conditions', compromises, or special treatment from the management. Why should Stephen Ireland expect any kind of preferential treatment? On his 2008/9 form, he would be an indispensable asset. On current form? Nothing of the sort. He hasn't been fully focused on his game, or in any consistent form, for about three years now. His general demeanour and lack of endeavour since joining Villa seems to suggest that he never wanted to move there in the first place, and that he views the club as being 'beneath' him. The France Football interview was probably closer to the truth, and less of a hack-job, than SI and his PR people want us to believe.

If he really wants to play for us, he should publicly declare his immediate, unconditional availability for international selection, something which would be very easy to do via a press release. I seriously doubt that it will happen. While we do need mobile, technical central midfielders, it would be folly to build the team around someone who is so frustratingly unreliable, inconsistent, uncommitted, and possibly a negative influence on the squad.

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Originally Posted by Supreme feet

When Roy Keane came back into the fold under Brian Kerr, he did so under no 'conditions', compromises, or special treatment from the management. Why should Stephen Ireland expect any kind of preferential treatment?

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Yeah, but I assume Kerr did make the first contact to Keane and initiated more contact later.

This SI 'meeting half-way' request could imply that the FAI have culpability in the matter of his exile.

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Originally Posted by geysir

Yeah, but I assume Kerr did make the first contact to Keane and initiated more contact later.

This SI 'meeting half-way' request could imply that the FAI have culpability in the matter of his exile.

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Geysir, with respect, two managers have gone to meet him on at least one occasion each to try and convince him to play for his country. I'm sure he believes the FAI do HAVE culpability. I don't doubt it or a second. But it's in much the same way that 16 year old Steven believed Brian Kerr had culpability for not picking him for an underage game when his mam and dad had turned up to see him in.

I understand those points well enough. There's only a small chance he has changed. In Roy Keane's case, he was in exile, he felt he was sinned against. Kerr had to ask him a few times if he would return. It's not unprecedented that a player who has fallen foul, has been asked to return.
Similar 'rights' should apply to all players.
Even if SI is bluffing, I'd have no objection if someone from the FAI phoned him up and called his bluff.

Well then we agree his bluff needs to be called. I admit I've no great desire to see him back in the Ireland setup. The level of skill he'd undoubtedly bring (though would probably not be favoured by the current managment) is, I fear, more than offset by a capacity to go overboard at an inopportune moment due to some percieved slight -imagined or real.

When it's Ian Holloway calling you 'mad as a sack of monkeys' it's time to sit up and acknowledge the very real chance you just may be as mentally unstable as the aforementioned hessian shrouded primates.