Ireland interviews

The Sunday papers are all full of Stephen Ireland interviews, which are certainly worth looking at. The topics are the usual ones with Ireland - his serious commitment to extra-curricular fitness work, his ambition to stay in the team no matter how well we do. Some of the details are new, though, and make for interesting reading.

Like this from the one in the Sunday Times:

The desire to push his limits extends to his career as a whole. He talks about being to City what Keane was to United. “I want to lead. I want the players, staff and manager to know they can rely on me. I want to put my body on the line and that’s why I do this extra training. I never want to be left out, I want to play every minute,” he says. “We had an open day at the stadium. The old names (of City legends like Colin Bell) were written there and Gareth Barry says, ‘Stevie, the next one to join those names could be you, so don’t hold back and go for it’. I said, ‘That’s the plan’.”

Or this:

“The more games go on, the more I come into my own, fitness-wise. Most games get into the last 15-20 minutes and I’m on my own, running box to box, gambling on things. If you look at many of my goals — like the one recently at Blackburn — teams switch off and when they do, I come into my own and score.”

You can also find it in the Observer and the Sunday Telegraph.