Ireland set to go on loan to Newcastle
The size of local disillusionment with the Irishman became clear yesterday as the result of a survey conducted among some 1,500 Villa fans was published by local newspaper, the Birmingham Mail. In it, Ireland, runs away with “most disappointing Villa player this season” award with an impressive 41.7 percent of the vote.
Richard Dunne, as it happens, makes it an Irish one-two with the big central defender, whose future at the club is also a source of some speculation in the past few months, gets the nod from 33.1 percent of respondents. Thin, but at least one back in the team of late and play significantly better than he did at the beginning of the campaign, but Ireland’s Villa career looks likely to be over with Newcastle to sign him as long as they can Villa have to pay what they think is an acceptable percentage of his € 84,000 per week salary.
At the time he was widely discussed as one of the brightest prospects in the Premiership and his performances Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni cause stubborn problems such as the Italian was repeatedly questioned by the media about his efforts to convince the player his own the end-imposed international exile.