Superman's End

Seems like one of our old boys, Steven "Superman" Ireland is being told he can leave Villa...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/aston-villa/10118947/Stephen-Ireland-told-he-can-leave-Aston-Villa-by-manager-Paul-Lambert.html

His last appearance for Villa was back in December, when they took a caning from Wigan and left them in a relegation spot.  Since then, he's been taking his sixty five grand a week for nothing, and it seems Lambert would rather spend the money on more unproven youngsters.

But should we be surprised?  Personally, I was never a massive fan of Ireland.  For two or three seasons I found him to be one of the most irritatingly inconsistent players on our team, combining flashes of brilliance with sheer crapness.  Then he had that one season under Hughes where he was our best player and would've won the PFA player of the year, had it not been for Giggs' retiring and getting it for his "services to football".  Which he should've given back when he decided not to retire, but that's another rant.  And after that season he went back to being pony again.

So - Stevie Ireland.  Does he qualify as a cult hero for his Superman pants, do we remember him fondly for his one season of greatness, or do we thank him for helping us bag the infinitely harder working James Milner?

Stevie was one of our best players when on his day. He let himself go sad to say.

One season wonder......end of!

Now Hughes is at stoke I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up there.

His partnership and understanding with Robinho was the key to that season for me.  They worked very well together, but he has never come close to recapturing this at the Villa or with us after Robi left.