Ireland puts the boot into City and Mancini
He may well have banked £2m (€2.4m) as part of the severance of his nine years in Manchester – but he is just finally glad to escape the madness.
Departing players like Craig Bellamy queuing up to take pot-shots at City’s Italian manager is becoming something of a national sport, and Ireland became the latest to fasten on to the trend when he spoke with genuine relief at finally completing his £8m (€9.7m) move to Aston Villa, as part of the transfer that sees James Milner head in the opposite direction.
He believes he has had “over a year” to prepare for his departure speech, such has been Mancini’s determination to force him out. The club is nothing like the family run concern he joined as a teenager almost a decade ago.
Manchester City is now hideously grotesque and bloated with money with teenagers “coming in with £10,000 watches on their wrists and walking around as if they have played 200 Premier League games.”
Under Mancini the warmth, loyalty and togetherness has all departed according to Ireland, and it is with genuine relief he is no longer part of Sheik Mansour’s master-plan for Premier League domination.
He has nothing but contempt for the majority and most of it is reserved for Mancini, who has not spoken to him for months.
“It is heartbreaking the way it all finished. The last manager I had a relationship with at City was Mark Hughes. Mancini doesn’t really build relationships with players. He brought Patrick Vieira in and when I spoke to him about his relationship (with Mancini) he said he doesn’t really have one and he’s worked for him for seven or eight years.
“I think that’s the way he is. He has everybody a bit on edge,” he said.
Mancini told Ireland last season that he had to change his attitude, a piece of advice that still rankles deeply.
The Cobh man said: “I think that was really unfair, all the players know I was the first player into training and the last to leave. I worked the hardest. With all the heart-rate monitors and tests, I was always number one, far ahead of everyone. If he’s standing there watching that, I don’t know how he doesn’t see that.
“I’m not a highly self-confident person. But I can honestly say Manchester City have tried to replace me for the last three or four seasons. I can easily say I’ve got, if not more ability, as much ability as any player they have signed this year. But I felt I was banging my head against a concrete wall at City. That’s a benefit to Aston Villa now so hopefully I can show that for them.”
Meeting Villa owner Randy Lerner was certainly an eye-opener and it was reassuring for Ireland to sign for a club “that a gentleman knows how to run.”
There might not be the billions, but obscene wealth guarantees nothing. “We might not have the finances of City but I think we’ve definitely got team spirit, a good bunch of lads who really want to achieve something. James Milner obviously sees the chance to be one of those so-called superstars at City, but he is in for a shock and the grass is not always greener,” he added.
His fall from grace at City was certainly spectacular, going from playing 67 games and winning the club’s player of the year award under Hughes, to just 16 appearances under Mancini.
That is something he expects to alter significantly at Villa, starting at Newcastle United tomorrow and he is confident he will soon be wearing a similar look to one familiar face he bumped into first on his arrival at Villa. “I saw Richard Dunne first and he welcomed me. I can see how happy he is a year on. He’s a great guy and great professional and he’s always smiling. I hope I can get all those same things with Villa.”
For someone who claimed he had signed a confidentiality agreement with City, it leaves you wondering just how much he could have said, had he not scribbled his signature for the City lawyers.
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