Stephen Ireland

[Guest]

Heard on the radio earlier today that Ireland has put the word out that he "probably won't" be coming back to the Irish squad, even though we now have a proper manager, and that he doesn't want to attend the training camp in Portugal next month. Good riddance, then.

Watching Sunderland v Man City at the moment. Ireland got taken off earlier after a breathtakingly lazy performance.

Andy Reid has been much better and, a few minutes ago, created Sunderland's equaliser with a fine cross for Whitehead. Now it's 2-1 to City -- Vassell stays onside by the skin of his teeth, mis-hits his shot but it crawls past Gordon and over the line at about 5 mph.

[Jorge Porbillas]

Stephen Ireland

How did the Buckley Beckenbauer play?

[Tony C]

Stephen Ireland

Trappatoni will only ask once.

Talking about Ireland at the Chelsea match last week with other supporters and we all se him as a real curio. A very talented player, it must be said, and until a year or so ago an extremely undemonstrative one. His on-field persona was the definition of low-key. He made Paul Scholes look like Robbie Savage.

Then came the Daddy Dick website stuff, 'Grannygate', his international retirement, the Superman shorts goal celebration and that garish 4x4.

Bizarre. God knows what he's taking.

[Duncan Gardner]

Stephen Ireland

Bosch- given SI's problems/ eccentricities, does it really matter that much who the national coach is?

And are you sure the players will respect Trappatoni much more than Staunton? He's two generations older and doesn't speak English. It looked in the last campaign as if some of your players (Robbie Keane, say) were comfortable with one of their mates in charge.

[Guest]

Stephen Ireland

It looked in the last campaign as if some of your players (Robbie Keane, say) were comfortable with one of their mates in charge.

Robbie Keane scored four goals in the entirety of the Euro 2008 campaign. Three of those were at home to San Marino, and he got the other one in a meaningless match in Cardiff on the final day. If that's him looking comfortable, then perhaps it's time to see the lazy bastard looking distinctly uncomfortable.

And are you sure the players will respect Trappatoni much more than Staunton? He's two generations older and doesn't speak English.

Trapattoni does speak some English, though he's not fluent (yet).

There's no comparison with Staunton, who was a total fool, weakly allowed the players to get away with murder time and again (both on and off the field), and sounded like something from D'Unbelievables whenever he spoke. Trapattoni is a smart man with a forceful personality and a great track record in the game. If certain players refuse to pay attention to him, then they will have demonstrated that they are too stupid to be helped and he will get rid of them quickly.

I'll be very surprised, and disappointed, if he or Liam Brady fly over to Manchester and start chasing after Stephen Ireland. The guy has been named in the squad for Portugal and it is up to him to turn up and participate. If he doesn't, then he should never again be considered for the national team.

[anton pulisov]

Stephen Ireland

Well, I don't know about never again. The guy clearly isn't the full shilling, but then neither was Maradona. But we'll worry about that when Stephen Ireland becomes as good as Maradona.

[Guest]

Stephen Ireland

I was very impressed with Andy Reid today -- hopefully Trap will find room for him in the starting eleven from the word go.

[Oldelpaso]

Stephen Ireland

Ireland is strange one indeed. Talented but highly inconsistent, he seems to divide fans. Those I go with tend to rate him highly, but the bloke behind me can't go five minutes without abusing him. His strengths and weaknesses throw up contradictions too; he is often accused of shirking, yet stamina is the main reason for his habit of scoring last minute goals. The actions of his marker seem to affect him a lot. A couple of robust challenges from Essien early in last week's match and he disappeared completely.

Some would use the cliché about him having a good footballing brain, which stands in stark contrast to his non-footballing brain, as has been well publicised. Its not a recent thing though, the national team disputes go back to the under-18s, which is why Kerr never picked him for the senior side.

[Guest]

Stephen Ireland

In fairness to Brian Kerr, Ireland had only just turned 19 by the time he got sacked from the national team job, and he didn't have that much scope to throw in untested talent near the end of a World Cup qualifying campaign. But there was certainly acrimony between the two of them.

Ireland is a bit like Frank Lampard in that he arrives late in the box to get on the end of passes, but he doesn't score as many goals as people think (three in the league this season, one last season). Also, his dislike of doing the dirty work places a lot of pressure on the holding midfielder in a 4-4-2.

I know a journo who played a lot of football with Ireland's father Michael in Cork in the 1980s at junior level. Same story -- the guy was very talented (my friend used the words "best young player in the city") but other factors ensured that he never even made the grade with Cobh Ramblers.