Houlston Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 He was chalked offside for his lob over the keeper too. If that hadnt been offside, that would have been an excellent goal. Turns out he was onside too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 He's after a new contract apparently so we may see a spike in his effort and performance over the coming weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbie09 Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Agree, I see him as a fake, a fraud of a player. He was shite at west ham, was rightly dropped. Let's see what he does on Sunday, if selected. He wasn't shite at West Ham, he was one of our better players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonic_bouma Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Gary MaCallister allegedly likened him to an empty crisp packet floating around the pitch . That is a superb comparison... hopefully if we sign Zarate Ireland wont be a starter and he can say toodle ooo next summer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 He played far to deep at west ham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 He's after a new contract apparently so we may see a spike in his effort and performance over the coming weeks. so he'll go from being the best player in claret and blue on the pitch whenever he plays to being... what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted August 30, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted August 30, 2012 He's after a new contract apparently so we may see a spike in his effort and performance over the coming weeks. so he'll go from being the best player in claret and blue on the pitch whenever he plays to being... what?A weekly pallbearer at his grandmother's funeral. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 He's after a new contract apparently so we may see a spike in his effort and performance over the coming weeks. so he'll go from being the best player in claret and blue on the pitch whenever he plays to being... what?A weekly pallbearer at his grandmother's funeral. pretty bad taste that given the actual reasons behind that whole fiasco tbf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieFacE Posted August 30, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted August 30, 2012 I like Ireland, and I want him to earn that contract. So far, he's not done it. Big season for him now, needs to be creative and chip in with a few goals. Though, when re-negotiating his new contract we should drop it by 20k ... he's too much of a luxury player. Hope he finds his form though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 so he'll go from being the best player in claret and blue on the pitch whenever he plays to being... what? So good that he's been unable to cement a place in one of the poorest villa teams in years and has been in and out of the side ever since he joined. Even the third villa manager (4th if you count MacDonald) he has had Paul Lambert dropped him for the second game of the season, and it was at home against Everton as apposed to away against Man City... still though I'm sure your right that he's the best player we have every time he plays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 He was carrying s knock for the everyone game, was he not? Hence his pre match fitness test. The other 2 games he was our best player and last season once he got back in the team he played whenever fit so I'm not sure how you can realistically make that assertion to be honest And every game he plays he's in our top 2 players. He's our hardest working player, always tracking back and now doing the dirty work that nobody else seems willing or able to do, yet he's continually called lazy. It's baffling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieFacE Posted August 30, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted August 30, 2012 He's our hardest working player, always tracking back and now doing the dirty work that nobody else seems willing or able to do, yet he's continually called lazy. It's baffling I think this is part of his problem, he seems to be all over the place and running around everywhere. When we do eventually get the ball he seems to be so deep, I'd rather he worked less and just waited for the counter attack and lead it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 It's baffling Its not really, you just think he's alot better than he is. It happens, lots of fans have players they like and over rate. I'll be shocked if he manages to get a new contract at Villa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skruff Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Agree, I see him as a fake, a fraud of a player. He was shite at west ham, was rightly dropped. Let's see what he does on Sunday, if selected. He wasn't shite at West Ham, he was one of our better players. He was the only player who tried to create something going forward. Yes, the passes got intercepted whenever he tried to thread something thru, but at least he tried. Besides there were 8 West-ham players between him and Bent. Lost the ball once, tracked back and won it back. Not saying he had a good game, went invisible time to time., it was a poor performance from the whole team. But singling Ireland out as the worst of them is in my opinion ridiculous. He said it himself in a post interview his job is to create chances, he plays with a high risk instead of playing backwards supportive passes. Even if it means he loses the ball more, it's all worth it leads to a chance or a goal. I think he's very well aware of his own performances, good or bad. I seriously don't get why he gets this amount of slate on this forum. Yes we haven't seen the best of him yet, but under Lambert i have faith that we will. Might not be another YPOTY performance, but a performance good enough for Aston Villa. He's in my opinion the best midfielder in our squad. Might just be me having a Man-Crush on Ireland though, but I RATE him! Edit: typos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 He's our hardest working player, always tracking back and now doing the dirty work that nobody else seems willing or able to do, yet he's continually called lazy. It's baffling I think this is part of his problem, he seems to be all over the place and running around everywhere. When we do eventually get the ball he seems to be so deep, I'd rather he worked less and just waited for the counter attack and lead it. Hopefully he'll be freed up as the others improve and get used to the system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiggyrichard Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Me too Skruff, integral to any success we might achieve this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulTheVillan Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 I like Ireland and have always hoped he would work out here. He seems happier than he has under previous managers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Have to say, I've never really seen anything in him to get excited about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laivasse Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 He's one of our better performers every time he plays, so I really have no idea what standard his critics are measuring him against. People seem to do nothing but clutch at straws when it comes to knocking Ireland - mentioning wacky shopping behaviour, grandmothers' funerals, saying he was disliked by some of the worst Villa coaching staff in decades... The one valid point is his inflated wage packet, and it's certainly up for debate whether he's worth £60k+ week. The problem is that under our setup over the past few seasons, there isn't a single £60k/week player who would actually play like a £60k/week player. My position is that if there's one thing that's driven us close to disaster over the last couple of years it has been panicking too rashly over wages, while the one thing that has kept us away from disaster last season was the effort of a couple of isolated players like Ireland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HolteEndRob Posted August 30, 2012 Share Posted August 30, 2012 Is Ireland taking the piss or what!?! He's already on around 60k a week and a new contract in football almost certainly means a pay rise. I blame you, yes, YOU, the people reading this post! I still can't believe people voted him as player of the season! It has clearly gone to his head and made him think that he's more over with the fans than he actually is! If Ireland agreed to a pay cut then he would win me over as it would show real commitment. The chances of this happening? ZERO! When he first signed, he did an interview where he said "Don't worry Villa fans, I'm a better player than Milner anyway!" The delusion of a footballer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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