Pipe down, McLeish tells Ireland
“Was it a shisha pipe or something?” McLeish asked after a photo of the bare-chested Cork man appeared on his girlfriends twitter account with the comment: “Shisha, alcohol and Xmas songs — doesn’t get better than this.”
“I don’t know what is in that stuff,” McLeish continued. “For all I know he could have been blowing bubbles in it or something.
“It is not my world the way the players live nowadays with the tweeting and posting pictures of themselves and stuff.
“Any opinion I have on that will be delivered to Stephen rather than discussing it in the newspapers.
“He has been training well and played really well in the first half of the Arsenal game and he’s got to take that kind of attitude into other games.
“We know what he can do when he has got the ball. We know he has a decent touch but he showed the other attributes in the Arsenal game with his closing down and harrying. He has to do more of that.”
Ireland impressed against Arsenal before coming off with a niggling injury but was then an unused substitute in Villa’s last game at Stoke.
McLeish says he needs to impress like young Ireland defender Ciaran Clark, who has been waiting on the sidelines for months.
McLeish said: “It is the same with a lot of players. As I’ve said before, I’ve been tossing coins and juggling balls with players waiting for outstanding individual performances. I’ve had a couple.
“Ciaran Clark has come in and done exceptionally well so he stays in the team. You cannot drop someone if they play as well as that. So it is up to the players. Good performances are not just enough for the expectations of this club.
“When I saw Stephen in training this morning his attitude was great. He was terrific but we know that he has not really done himself total justice in a Villa shirt.
“There is still a chance for him, there is still a chance for everybody.”
Meanwhile, Chelsea captain John Terry expects to end his career as a one-club man — but hinted he may go elsewhere to fulfil his managerial ambitions.
The 31-year-old is the most successful captain in the Blues’ history and is fifth in the club’s all-time appearance list.
Terry has been with Chelsea since the age of 14 and, aside from a brief loan stint at Nottingham Forest, has played for the west Londoners his entire career.
“For me, you don’t see (one-club players) in this day and age,” he said.
“You see a couple of the Man United lads and Stevie G (Steven Gerrard) at Liverpool, but other than that you couldn’t count five people on your hand.
“It is a rare breed and I am really proud to have spent my whole career here.
“I have been fortunate enough to start at a very young age and to see different managers come in, big managers, and for me to keep improving.
“One because I have wanted to and secondly because I see this as my club and always will.
“When I finish playing I want to come back to Stamford Bridge and bring my kids to watch games and things like that.
“For me, I am really proud to be at one club and no other club. I could never see myself in another shirt anyway.”
He is already looking to the future and a career in management.
“I have learnt over the years from managers I’ve had and I have worked out [training] sessions from the last seven or eight years,” he said.
“I have got stacks and stacks at home. It is just a case of putting it into my way.
“Dennis [Wise] said about having your own people within and it is so important if you are a manager that you are controlling everything.
“It is all or nothing for me and if I don’t get the chance to take the reins on everything, that would probably make my mind up whether I do take a job if I get the opportunity.”
Those ambitions may well be affected by the outcome of a pending court case on a charge of racially abusing QPR’s Anton Ferdinand.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
