With many Villa fans crying out for an attacking midfielder who can link the midfield with Darren Bent up front, many names have been vaunted and linked including players like Diego, Sturridge, and Milner. The question that I am asking is whether we already have that player within our ranks. The player, as is obvious from the article title, is Stephen Ireland.
One person, or two?
A couple of seasons ago, Ireland was player of the year in Manchester City’s ranks. It was this award which meant Martin O’Neill asked for him to be involved as a part exchange in the James Milner transfer.
On his day, few could argue that Ireland is a solid player, and one that would have represented value for the £8m that we got him for. That is, however, if we got performances from him that were representative of his ability. What we seemed to get instead was a homesick player who was largely apathetic, offering very little movement, and few glimpses of his undoubted ability.
In fact, looking at Stephen Ireland on differing games, one could be guilty of believing there were two Stephen Irelands: one was the free flowing flair player who worked hard for Manchester City, and the other was a player who would go missing for games on end, ultimately offering nothing to the team’s contribution.
Is there any way back?
So the big question is will Stephen Ireland ever make it as an Aston Villa player. With Alex McLeish now in charge of our beloved club, it will mark a clean slate from which Stephen can work from. In my opinion, I think McLeish will give Ireland a fair crack of the whip in order to get himself back in the team, but it will require a significant turn around from the player in order for this to be fruitful. I personally doubt that Ireland will be interested as he clearly doesn’t want to be in the Midlands, preferring to spend his time in Manchester rather than Birmingham. Of course, I’d love to be proved wrong.
For Stephen Ireland to make any kind of chance of getting back in the team work, he needs to be involved in our pre-season Asia tour. If he can work in a what will be a new look Aston Villa team, he has the chance of bringing that work ethic back to the Premier League and seeing him shine once again. If not, then we may well be looking at the back of one of the most under performing stars of the Premier League since Stan Collymore. Maybe Ireland is suffering from the same depression that left Collymore unable to perform. If it does, then we have to hope the club can find a way to help him through it.
After all, if Stephen Ireland comes good again, Aston Villa will have the player who can sit behind Bent and make our midfield far more dangerous.
*** ADDENDUM *** – As you may have noticed, the visuals for the site have changed. This is part of a restructure of content and a step towards turning the site into a portal rather than just a blog. In line with this, the news section will bring you the latest news from external sites, and the new fanzone will allow fans to write articles more regularly rather than having to stick within the current one post per day limits. If you have any direct queries, please contact me via the contact item at the top of the site. For general feedback, please feel free to comment below.
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