The dawn of a new Ireland?

IS it time to talk about a new bail-out for Ireland? I refer to the man, not the country, sorting out the former being by far the more taxing challenge.

I mean, if Stephen Ireland can get his career back on track, lifting the burden off the nation’s broken back should be a cakewalk by comparison.

At least the pre-season noises out of Villa Park are encouraging. Darren Bent says Ireland is like “a new signing” and manager Alex McLeish has gone out of his way to talk up the player. “There are people like Stephen Ireland who for one reason or another never really figured last season so I’ve been trying to find out the reasons why,” he said this week. “I’ve seen terrific application on the training ground and really good quality from guys like Stephen Warnock and Stephen Ireland, for instance, who never really made as much of a contribution as you would expect. Ireland hardly kicked a ball last season, but two years ago he looked like a world-class player. That’s in him, the evidence is there. We’ve just got to bring that back out of him.”