Stephen Ireland

[jmurphyc]

Well the article doesn't seem to provide any sources so it could just be idle speculation. If it is true and he decides not to come back then that is pretty much the end. As Sven said before, he may well regret it in 10 years time. I wonder if we were to qualify for a tournament whether he'd then tell Trapattoni that he's available.

[shakermaker1982]

let's wait and see before we all start slating him on here.

We need all the quality players we can muster for this campaign and Ireland will be a key man. Fingers crossed he gets some sense.

[HolylandsMan]

Completely ridiculous. We need all the good players we can get but he's pushing it too far now. There's no so many chances you can have. If he doesn't turn up for Portugal that should be the end of him internationally, certainly for the world cup campaign anyway.

[rambler14]

Idiot. He's not even that good.
I'd have Stephen Reid and Andy Reid as my central midfielders before i'd have him.

[shakermaker1982]

Completely ridiculous. We need all the good players we can get but he's pushing it too far now. There's no so many chances you can have. If he doesn't turn up for Portugal that should be the end of him internationally, certainly for the world cup campaign anyway.

that's my point. This is all pure speculation at this moment in time. Until it comes from the horses mouth so to speak we cannot slate him. If he doesn't want to play in the two friendlies next month then **** him.

[paul_oshea]

IF this true, I hope the fella gets sold off to some first or second division team and his careers lags in lower echelons of english football, I will take great delight. I want to "retire" at fcuken 21, its no retiring its called giving up.

[carloz]

Its on the back of all the papers today lads, there must be a bit of truth in it. If he even cared a little bit about playing for his country then he would have come out after the squad was named, say how delighted he was to be called up for his country, and ask the fans to try to understand the situation he was in and ask for a good reception. Trap shouldnt have to talk to him. Either he goes to Portugal and wants to play for us, or not. Its quite simple Stevie boy

[back of the net]

IF this true, I hope the fella gets sold off to some first or second division team and his careers lags in lower echelons of english football, I will take great delight. I want to "retire" at fcuken 21, its no retiring its called giving up.

will u grow the **** up - where did ireland say "I want to "retire" at fcuken 21", its no retiring its called giving up - there is nothing in the article saying ireland said that - christ ,thank god we aint all as small minded as you and dont believe everything we read in the papers - all the signs coming from manchester and interviews with ireland is that the guy wants to return and all that article from the guardian is some piece of toliet paper cos they have nothing else to write about and are trying to sh*t stir

[tetsujin1979]

All this conflicts with this report from football365: http://www.football365.com/story/0,1...414024,00.html

"I hope Trapattoni will come here one day and speak to Stephen," Eriksson told the Daily Star.

"I don't know if Stephen has decided to accept the invitation to return, but I know that he wants to meet Giovanni."

[back of the net]

All this conflicts with this report from football365: http://www.football365.com/story/0,1...414024,00.html

,all ireland has said is that he wants to meet trappatoni to discuss his return and what trappatoni's plans are for him in the international setup and traps plans for the international team as whole - its absolutely nothing to do with him wanting to retire

[greendeiseboy]

Does anyone on here know Ireland personally.

The reason I ask is because if you remember after he had the row with Kerr and around the time he got into the City 1st team there was speculation about him returning then and it was even suggested that he was going to declare for England as his father is English and as far as i know he lived over there whem he was younger. So maybe he felt as much English as he did Irish. He's now living over there full time and will probably stay there when he finishes his career.

So playing for us mightn't mean that much to him. I don't know i could be miles off but its something that stuck out in my mind when all this blew up.

[Superhoops]

.....Trap shouldnt have to talk to him. Either he goes to Portugal and wants to play for us, or not. Its quite simple Stevie boy

No problem with Trap talking to him when he shows up to join the squad. What Trap or Brady must not do is go to Manchester chasing after him. Ireland has been picked for the squad to travel to Portugal. Either he turns up, travels and stays with the squad until the Columbia game is played or he fu*ks off with himself for good. Last chance saloon.

[outside in]

Does anyone on here know Ireland personally.

The reason I ask is because if you remember after he had the row with Kerr and around the time he got into the City 1st team there was speculation about him returning then and it was even suggested that he was going to declare for England as his father is English and as far as i know he lived over there whem he was younger. So maybe he felt as much English as he did Irish. He's now living over there full time and will probably stay there when he finishes his career.

So playing for us mightn't mean that much to him. I don't know i could be miles off but its something that stuck out in my mind when all this blew up.

i know him,well not so much any more,his father is irish and steve was never going to play for england it was just the papers blowing the kerr thing way out of context

[outside in]

No problem with Trap talking to him when he shows up to join the squad. What Trap or Brady must not do is go to Manchester chasing after him. Ireland has been picked for the squad to travel to Portugal. Either he turns up, travels and stays with the squad until the Columbia game is played or he fu*ks off with himself for good. Last chance saloon.

agree 100%

[amaccann]

Even if he were to return, nothing about the guy suggests he won't be flakey & unreliable. It shouldn't the be prerogative of the managers to go chasing these players. I also can't see how many of the Irish players would be in any way enamored with this kind of behavior. For the sake of togetherness in the camp, perhaps he shouldn't be picked.

[keenanboy]

Stephen Ireland is your typical spoiled footballer, made in the same mould of the likes of Ashley Cole. He fails to appreciate his own talent and is glaringly struggling to keep either one of his feet on the ground. It must do Richard Dunne's head in to work with a guy like this day in day out, on the one hand admiring an obviously gifted footballer but on the other a sense of near-loathing of one who sees no pride or honour in pulling on a shirt for his country.
In my honest opinion the door should soon be shut on him to rejoin the set up. The national team has suffered from bad blood on one level or another for too long now. A clean slate is needed, a fresh start. Trappatoni doesn't strike me as the type who panders to man-children like Stephen Ireland and you could argue the point that his return will cause more upset than happiness in the camp. He devalues the pride and passion shown by countless footballers who donned the green of Ireland, John Giles, Tommy Eglington, Paul McGrath, Roy Keane, Liam Brady, Mick McCarthy and so on...countless figures who played out of their skin for the green. Stephen Ireland does not belong in the same category of these men.

[Superhoops]

...Well the article doesn't seem to provide any sources so it could just be idle speculation...

Emmet Malone in the Irish Times isn't normally the type to write stories without substance and his take on it is:

Ireland's return to Irish squad in doubt

EMMET MALONE, Soccer Correspondent

STEPHEN IRELAND'S anticipated return to the Republic of Ireland set-up for the training camp in Portugal next month and the friendly internationals against Serbia and Colombia is in serious doubt with the 21-year-old player said to be considering retiring from international football on a permanent basis.

The midfielder is said to have reacted coolly to the news he had been included in Giovanni Trapattoni's preliminary squad of 40 and Liam Brady's comments last week that he would be amongst the travelling party of 28 players unless he indicated he did not want to travel.

Sources close to the player have indicated he will meet Trapattoni in order to discuss the situation when the Italian formally takes on the job in May. However, the feeling amongst those around him is the most likely outcome of the talks at this stage is an announcement that the Manchester City player - who has scored four goals in six appearances for his country - will not be returning to the squad.

Such a decision would provide another remarkable twist to his colourful international career. Back in October 2002 he was told by Brian Kerr, the then Irish Youths manager, he would never call him up again after he reacted to being omitted from two European Championship qualifiers by requesting to be allowed return to his club rather than stay in Cork for the mini-tournament's third game.

Ireland subsequently vowed never to play again for Kerr and, sure enough, it was under Steve Staunton he graduated to the senior Irish squad. After his debut against Sweden he made quite an impact, scoring a number of very important goals. But he subsequently secured his release from the squad before last September's game against the Czech Republic in Prague by first claiming his maternal grandmother had died, then that his paternal grandmother had, and finally that these stories had been concocted so he could travel back to his girlfriend who, he said, had had a miscarriage.

It subsequently emerged Ireland was unhappy at the reaction of some other squad members to what appeared to have been a hair transplant. On the night before the Slovakia game a small number of players had apparently held him down and tugged at the hair, severely upsetting Ireland in the process.

It is this incident some team officials have privately admitted to believing is behind his reluctance to return to the squad. Nevertheless, when Don Givens derided him for his attitude when announcing his squad for the Brazil game in January, Ireland described the caretaker manager's comments as "childish" and suggested he would happily to return to the squad when a permanent successor to Staunton was appointed.

Now, it seems, despite constant support and encouragement from Sven-Goran Eriksson, who has said many times he believes Ireland's development as a player would be helped by being involved with the international set-up, he is far less certain about what he wants and one of Trapattoni's first tasks is likely to be talking the midfielder out of giving his temporary exile a far more permanent air.

© 2008 The Irish Times

[Razors left peg]

This has been blown out off all proportion with people jumping to abuse him again.Until we actually hear from Steven Ireland himself or Trapattoni we are not going to know either way and all speculation before we hear for certain is a waste of time. If he does decide to retire from international football at the age of 21 then by all means he deserves every bit of slating he gets but if he does come back then let him get on with it and let everyone start under the new management team with a clean slate

[TheBoss]

Is it true that he was fed up of the players saying jokes about his hair that came from nowhere ?

[gilberto_eire]

I remember there about 2/3 years ago when all of Frances retired stars started to come out of retirement, sometime maybe last year i remembered hearing Makelele saying that he did'nt want to play, but there he was in the squads.
My first impression was ''stop talking **** why would you be there then'' it emerged then that if he did'nt turn up he'd recieve a domestic ban, i found this shocking to say the least that he was been forced against his own will to play since Domenech woud'nt take his retirement wish and leave him be!. A stupid rule, but 99% of managers won't force it upon players and accept there wishes

If he did decide to retire i think he should be called up anyway but never played, just made go with the team, that would really get up his nose!!