QuoteI remember in Sofia a new song starting to take off, "Oooh Stephen England, used to be Irish, he's a rent boy now"...wonder will it get another airing in the pubs around Nicosia
Ok they are not statements but these interviews always seem to be published on the eve of a big International which in turn will have all the irish hacks in a spin instead of us all concentrating on the build up to next saturday.Originally Posted by geysir
I don't think S Ireland is coming out with these statement as such. If he does an interview he will be asked. If he does one interview then that will be used as fodder for desperate hacks in a hundred papers looking to fill a few lines.
As SI has not said "never", I assume Eirebhoy will cling to that technicality to keep the thread here.
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I remember in Sofia a new song starting to take off, "Oooh Stephen England, used to be Irish, he's a rent boy now"...wonder will it get another airing in the pubs around Nicosia
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist thinks it will change; the realist adjusts the sails.
Superman Stephen Ireland aims to be Manchester City's Roy Keane
• Midfielder practises kick boxing for "explosiveness"
• Has no plans to resume playing for Ireland
The only bad news is that Ireland the player has no plans to resume playing for Ireland the country. "Nothing has changed on that front," he says. "Retiring still feels like the best decision I ever made. It gives me eight more days at Glossop for a start. I've already made plans to spend the international break training."
He's well on Track to be Ireland's next Roy Keane.
With all that training where's he going to get quality time to spend with his girlfriend and share the photos with his family OR to attend all those Granny funeralsF*uk!n' Cork Hillbilly!!
Wishing all the worst on CityBank for the season (shame now that Given is there!)
It's strange that he doesn't want to play for his country but it is his decision at the end of the day. I'm not going to wish him harm, he's still Irish and I hope he goes on to enjoy a good career.
It's a pity he doesn't want anything to do with us because he is a quality player and he could have added so much to the team but alas it isn't to be. We will need Whelan, Andrew's and Gibson to step up to the plate and make sure we forget about superman.
He has mentioned a number of times how he wants to be remembered as one of the greats of the game, yet he precludes himself from playing in the World's biggest tournament. I'm obviously not trying to imply that he's ever going to come close to the standard of Maradona or Pele, but I would ask if either of those players would be remembered as the true greats of the game that they were, if they had not been such stars of the World Cup. If you want to be remembered as one of the greats, then you have to play in the great tournaments.
As an aside, I know some people will say that the Champion's League is bigger. To me though, that is simply not true. I'll take a World Cup or a European Championship any day of the week. Anyway, that's an argument for another thread.
Bloody shame
It's a bloody shame.....the chap is so talented but he's made his mind up and we all need to move on now....were stuck with Whelanhe'd better step up to the plate.
Can't help but think dat Ireland will regret this decision down the road.....
That's it then. I don't think he's coming back in time for the WC next year.
It no longer should be a case of if hes coming back, even if he were he should not be allowed back now, no way. The earliest he should be allowed return now is the start of the next campaign. If we do actually qualify it will be interesting to see if his stance changes then.
Yesterday was the first time ive seen SI play where I havent had a real interest in his performance.
Cant wait for Hull against City, Hunty will sort him for us.
All the best Stevie, in the long run its your loss.
I actually cant believe this is such a hot topic on the forum at the moment, we all knew he wasnt coming back for the cyprus game and he hasnt said anything that he hasnt said before i dont see what the big deal and all the major interest is this time round to be honest??
He seems to be back to making passes to imaginary players, anyway he was hauled off halfway through. Must have suffered a blow to the head in Glossop.
Last edited by tricky_colour; 31/08/2009 at 8:27 PM.
two things I'd imagine. He used the word 'retired', suggesting he knew all along that he has decided never to play for his country again. Yet in every interview, whenever asked about this he is coy, hinting at a return, disrupting our preparations for big games and no doubt unsettling players in the squad (particularly central midfielders).
This time he's also had the gall to say that it's "the best decision he has ever made". Not that he's agonising over it. Not that its in his best interests for now but one day he'd love to play in a WC. Not that he loved pulling on the green jersey. Not that he'd like to do something for his country one day. Even Stephen Ireland has never been so flippant about it before.
Personally I think he likes the attention and I think he likes winding up the Irish fans and perhaps even players in the squad or people in the FAI he feels wronged by, hence his refusal to come out and say he wont ever play again, knowing this will be a thorn in the side of the Irish time all the while. He's a good player, but an absolute embarassment of a man. It's been two years since Slovakia and he's still acting like a 7 year old. I would absolutely love for us to get to the WC using guys of limited ability like Whelan, Andrews and Gibson and be in a position to tell that fruit-cake his services won't be required in South Africa if he does offer to return. Which he wont. The mentalist.
Last edited by Jicked; 31/08/2009 at 5:09 PM.
Given hes a soccer player i dont think hes spent to much time choosing his words carefully, theres a list as long as i dont know what of ppl that have come out of retirement.
Also I would be guessing he means for his own personal development its the best decision he ever made,,
All im saying is that considering hes said so little i think its been blown out of proportion in comparison with other times
Oh and personally i dont think he gives a sh*t about the Irish fans otherwise he would of been back long ago
The circumstances of Ireland's retirement, and his laughably young age at doing so suggest this isn't a standard retirement which will follow the 'rules' of players coming out on International retirement.
Also, as a Premier League player, particularly one at a club which needs to be as PR savvy as Manchester City, Ireland would be well versed in how to deal with the press. Players nowadays take lessons in how to deal with such things. He knows exactly what he's saying.
Stephen Ireland quote "Retiring still feels like the best decision I ever made"
Eirebhoy, will you be sticking to your word? Do we have to continue to see this idiot talked about in a forum about the national team?
"Can I have a Kit-Kat, chunky?"
"you mean a big one"
"No a normal kit-kat you fat bitch"
This is true the players do receive alot of media training ect but I wudnt think his IQ is that high to begin with,
If Ireland fell out of favour at city i wouldnt be surprised if he came back knocking at the door to try and get game time and prove himself again , he is still young as you pointed out and lots of things change
Is there any limit on squad sizes?? I know some teams name 23 man squads and others 25 man squads. I only ask because i'd love to see some hard-nosed/stubborn manager come in and say "you might not wanna play for us, but i'm gonna stick you in every squad and force you to turn up for every game, home and away, and if you refuse you'll be banned from playing in domestic games!!"
Like Domenech did with Makalele, causing Mourinhio to say they were treating him like a slave.
If there is no limit on squad size you could just tack him on at the bottom of the list.
As far as I know we could call him up for Ireland, if he refused to play/stay 'retired' he would be unable to play for Man City until at least 4 days afterwards. Something like that anyway. Would be fantastic to see
What's the point though? Trap is a gentleman and doesn't screw around.
Calling up Stephen Ireland is a waste of time and effort if he doesn't want to play, and if he decided to come and just make a joke of the situation it would be even worse.
Makalele is a different situation, because the French knew about his character- he loves his country enough that he played to his best when he was called up, even though he wanted to be left out; Makalele retired from France after winning everything he could with them, and simply wanted to prolong his club career (nothing wrong with this in my view).
The Ireland situation is completely different.
"Hunty will sort him out for us" ...what a ridiculous thing to say. If Stephen Hunt were to deliberately injure SI would be scandalous.I know Hunt is an idiot but I don't think he would be that stupid
That said , I have defended Ireland all along but am now starting to run out of patience with him.I don't think that our qualification would make a differance to him either - he just won't play
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