Stephen Ireland talks of World Cup 2014 return
Aston Villa midfielder Stephen Ireland has admitted that he would like to return to the Republic of Ireland setup after Euro 2012, perhaps in time for the start of World Cup 2014 qualifying.
In an interview with BBC’s Saturday morning television show Football Focus, the 25 year old stated his ambitions. “I think it’s highly unlikely that I’ll be involved in the squad for the Euros,” Ireland said. “I’ll be massively interested. They’ve done amazing to get there. I know they’re in a tough group but I still think anything can happen. When you’re watching every game and kicking every ball, I’m really excited to see how they do and I’m sure they’ll do really well. And you know after the Euros in September I can review it and see what happens.”
Ireland, who has not played for his country since ‘Grannygate’ in 2007, says that he regrets his actions at the time – claiming that his grandmother had died so he could be with his girlfriend Jessica who had suffered a miscarriage. “Obviously I left in bad circumstances that I would love to change but it happened, unfortunately,” he said. “I’ve missed these couple of years and I’m in the scenario because of myself. So if it ever comes to reviewing it again, I’ll have to think long and hard about it.”
Asked whether he had been in contact with the FAI, Ireland said “Nothing’s happened yet. If the question comes my way, I’ll deal with it then, but it’s very hard to talk about it when the questions haven’t come my way. It’s just speculation again.”
Most of the recent speculation came from Jessica, now Ireland’s fiancé, who told various newspapers including the Daily Star and Irish Independent that the pair would love it if Ireland returned to the international fold.
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Have no real problem with him coming back at this stage. What happened in the past happened a long time ago and anyway he is technically a better player than the rest of our midfield. Green or Ireland?…hmmmmmmm
I’d deffo have him back after the euros, on his day he’s a brilliant player, buy don’t see why he’d he expecting a call, trap and the FAI already did that, he’s gonna havta make the move if he wants to play again
I still don’t get why he didn’t just say “My girlfriend miscarried, can I go be with her”…. Is that not reason enough?
He stills sounds tentative. And frankly he is an average player. He will have to concretely say he really wants to play with us in order to be given a chance by Trap.
Whelan was shocking again this weekend, Andrews looks like a decent player when he has the shackles taken off, but he is 32 in September and not a long-term prospect, the jury is out on Gibson, Fahey is Fahey and Green is terrible.
We cannot afford to exclude Ireland. Then again, you could say the same thing about Hoolahan and McCarthy and that has been happening for aeons.
Whelan must be laughing all the way to the bank. He’s guaranteed his spot in the team no matter what even though he is an at best, average player.
Ireland should have handled things differently but being stupid isn’t a justifiable reason to exlude someone.
As I recall, Trapattoni met Ireland and showed absolutely no desire or initiative to bring Ireland back into the fold, like Brian Kerr did with Roy Keane.
The fact is that Trapattoni did that for his own pr and had no interest in selecting Ireland because he can actually pass the ball unlike Whelan or Green.
Whelan has been horrendous. Trap should have a good look at him during the upcoming preparations. If Whelan practices like he has played of late, Trap should strongly consider starting McCarthy or Fahey, paired with Andrews. I am scared to think what Spain and Italy will do to Whelan. When Fahey is on he passes the ball well. No chance of that with Whelan even if he is playing well.
The key word is composure. Fahey is composure personified. Maybe to his detriment but he doesn’t get flustered. Whelan has no nous whatsoever, goes flying willy nilly into tackles, passes the ball like a hot potato, runs around like a headless chicken at setpieces.
Listen, we qualified for the Euros and Whelan played in every? game. I’m happy for him but I don’t think anyone would be disappointed if Whelan was dropped for Fahey, McCarthy or Gibson against Spain or Italy.
Whelan was not the reason we qualified, although I do remember Fahey scoring a crucial goal against Armenia, Keane scoring against the smaller teams and Dunne’s mythical performance against Russia.
It’s all a bit half hearted still from Mr. Ireland – “I’ll have to have a think about it”, not yes, I want to play, give me a call Trap.. I get the feeling he is making these conciliatory noises to please others rather than because it’s what he really wants to do. I can’t help wondering how enthusiastic he’d be about the whole thing if, say, he gets called up in September, has to spend 4 days with the squad travelling to and from Kazakhstan and then ends up sitting on the bench for 90 minutes. Would he say feck this for a game of soldiers and jump ship again?
He’s been one of Villa’s better players this season but that isn’t saying much. That spectacular 6 months or so he had in 2008/09 looks increasingly like a one off. Not that I wouldn’t prefer him to be available for the national side but I think people might be disappointed at the impact he’d make. The one position we could really make use of his skills would be the advanced midfielder role in behind the srikers, which is a position I’d like to see introduced with the Ireland side. Only used by Trapattoni so far in the Uruguay friendly with James McCarthy, but if it became a regular thing it might also open up the door for the likes of Hoolahan to get another look in.
Bring him back for the Euros. We need our best players playing.
So what if he didn’t contribute in qualification. Other nations do that kind of thing all the time. Remember England trying to bring a retired Paul Scholes back for the WC. We could then field a team like this.
4-2-3-1
…………Given
O’Shea , Dunn, St Ledger, Wilson
……..Andrews, McCarthy
…McGeady, Ireland, McClean.
…………Keane
or 4-4-2
…………Given
O’Shea , Dunn, St Ledger, Wilson
McGeady. Andrews(Ireland), McCarthy, McClean
……..Keane, Long
The reason I’d be slow to play Ireland in a 4-4-2 is because that would give up too many offensive players. Not sure if he’d be able to sit too well as a defensive midfielder. Probably start Andrews and if we needed a goal turf Ireland on in his place.
But then again if he’s going to come back and start acting the langer who wants him.
All I can really tell you is that it’ll be a sin to leave McClean & McCarthy out of the squad.
Definitely let him back. The kid made a stupid mistake–it was over 5 years ago now and I’ve never really understood why everyone was so pissed about it. So he lied? He lied because he didn’t really want to embarass his girlfriend and expose her to so much press–it backfired and he had to pay the price for that, but lets move on.
“I still don’t get why he didn’t just say “My girlfriend miscarried, can I go be with her”…. Is that not reason enough?”
I’m guessing just because he didn’t want to say to the press–maybe the girlfriend didn’t want everyone knowing that quite yet?
Whatever, though, it’s not like he lied so he could go home and buy a hooker or score some blow–he was going home to attend to his miscarried girlfriend.
To: Trent Hill
Well said and Amen to that – the voice of reason.
Agree with Trent Hill and IrishRI on this one. Doesn’t the thought of a McClean-Ireland-McGeady attacking trio set the pulse racing?
I am glad to see that there are some rational people on this website unlike certain imbeciles on Foot.ie or YBIG.
Anyone who thinks Green should be in an Ireland squad ahead of Ireland or that Whelan or Andrews are better players than Ireland don’t know much about football.
Whelan better get his act together at Stoke or he’ll have a one way ticket back to The Championship.
As for the cliched Hoolahan/Ireland don’t track back nonsense, Whelan has went missing during several goals, conceded in our qualifying campaign and has offered no protection for conceded goals in various other matches, Norway… Czech Republic.
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