When was the last time Arsenal looked so pathetic? Today, they were defeated 3-0 away against Manchester City in a game where it could have easily been 4-0 or 5-0 to the blue half of Manchester. I've never seen so many poor passes from Arsenal in one game. Their first half performance was dire. Man City's play [. Click to continue reading...

You know all the Irish jokes, but why would you want to have you head screwed on the wrong way up?


Man City's Stephen Ireland DOES have his head screwed on, cos he scored twice for Man City this afternoon in their draw at Premiership newcomers, Hull City. Click to continue reading...

In what's becoming a common theme for our blog recently, those "one month bargain wonders" (First Denilson (remember him?!?), then Armand Traore, and now Stephen Ireland) that fantasy premier league managers oooed and ahhhed over for the first 1/4 of the season now look like dead weight...
Only 32% of the season is over, but managers are in mid-season crisis mode - wondering if their high-priced studs Ashley Young and Mikel Arteta will break out of their slumps, or if their mid-priced bargain buys Ireland and Traore should be shipped out. Click to continue reading...

MANCHESTER, England (AFP) - Robinho produced another captivating display to inspire Manchester City to a thumping 6-0 win over Portsmouth here Sunday.

This crushing win left his new club fifth in the Premier League table while Portsmouth dropped down into 12th place.

Robinho, making his second league appearance since joining from Real Madrid for a British record 32. Click to continue reading...

In less than three weeks, my wife and I have a new arrival planned for our household: our first baby boy. So while my wife was enjoying her baby shower yesterday, I ended up watching our three other children. Needless to say, I didn't get a chance to watch as much live football as I [...] Click to continue reading...

Despite all the rumours of human rights abuse, Thaksin Shinawatra passed the Premier League club owner "fit and proper test". Why? Because he had money. Lots and lots of money. But now Shinawatra is in all sorts of trouble. The Thailand Supreme Court has issued a warrant for his arrest, after he failed to appear in [. Click to continue reading...

Spare a thought for Sparky Hughes. The poor lad did a magnificent job managing Blackburn but having jumped into the hot seat at Manchester City, he now finds his position increasingly untenable as key decisions are being made behind his back. Hughes, despite supposedly having a say in the shape of his squad, is facing the [. Click to continue reading...

Manchester City's nutty Stephen Ireland is all set to stop offering up half baked excuses to miss international football, and finish from playing football for Ireland. The fact that he is just a 21-year-old whelp means that this decision is a tad out of left field to say the least. The Guardian tries [. Click to continue reading...

Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson is ready to keep the players that he has with him at the club. Sky Sports quotes the Swede saying that come what may, he wouldn't be inclined to let go Richard Dunne, Nedum Onuoha and Stephen Ireland. Eriksson says this about Dunne: You don't sell your captain! Click to continue reading...

Fears were growing last night that Stephen Ireland, the troubled Manchester City midfield player, will give up international football at the tender age of 21.

The player is already on temporary "leave", having withdrawn from Ireland's squad for the European Championship qualifying matches at home to Germany and Cyprus, after missing the previous international week amid sensational developments in which he misled his club and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) about the reason behind his unavailability.

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Manchester City midfielder Stephen Ireland has withdrawn from the Republic of Ireland squad for the upcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers because he "would not do his country or himself justice".

The news comes as a further blow for manager Steve Staunton for the Group D meetings at Croke Park with Germany on Saturday and Cyprus four days later following full-back Stephen Carr's withdrawal earlier today with a hamstring problem.

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Stephen Ireland has today pledged his future to Manchester
City by signing a five year contract with the Club.
The new deal sees the 21
year old midfielder, who made his debut for the Blues in 2005, commit to the
Club until June 2012. Ireland, who first came to prominence at City's
successful youth academy has played over 60 times for the Blues and has won six
Republic of Ireland caps.

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Has the Stephen Ireland issue got the potential to be a little more serious than first envisaged?

Left out of the squad on Sunday for the Villa game, not as a disciplinary measure but more that he was perhaps not 100% focused on the game following the midweek incident that saw him leave the Ireland camp ahead of the Euro qualifier.

Sven-Goran Eriksson (and the club) had appeared to be very supportive of the player but The Times reports that Eriksson was less than happy he had not returned to training and has urged him to see a psychologist to resolve problems, all of which suggests there maybe a far greater issue than first thought for him wanting to leave the squad. Click to continue reading...

Back to it in the league after an eventful international break, which included Micah Richards first international goal, Elano scoring and been sent off and Stephen Ireland deciding that honesty is never the best policy, for full details of that bizarre story click here.

Sven and Micah have also been named Manager and Player of the month for August. Click to continue reading...

- It turns out both of Stephen Ireland's grandmothers are still alive. The Irish international was excused from the Ireland team prior to their Euro-qualifying fixture with the Czech Republic earlier this week because he told Steve Staunton, the manager of the squad, that his grandmother had died. Upon receiving word that Ireland's grandmother in Cork was in fact, alive and kicking, Staunton confronted the 21-year-old Man City midfielder. Click to continue reading...

Is it just me or has Man City made all the right moves? First they accept the bid of the Thai version of Abramovich. Then they hire one of the most successful unemployed-at-the-time coaches in Sven-Göran Eriksson. Finally, they give Sven a huge spending purse to buy what he feels the team needs.

The thing is, though, it's no coincidence that Eriksson chose to come to Man City. Click to continue reading...