Top 5 wasted football talents

4. Stephen Ireland

Just around the time when Manchester City were starting to show their financial clout, Stephen Ireland was the star in the Citizens’ midfield, playing in a team that had the likes of Robinho, Carlos Tevez, Patrick Vieira, Gareth Barry and many others. He was even adjudged the team’s Player of the Season in 2009.

However, as his attention on the game decided to wane, Ireland saw a sharp decline in his performances, with then-manager Roberto Mancini saying: “I don’t know what he is thinking about his future but, for me, Stephen is a fantastic player and if he can change his head I think he can start to play like he used to earlier.”

Ireland eventually left City for Aston Villa, but didn’t enjoy the best of times in the Midlands either, as his time at the club was disrupted by the lack of playing time and spats with manager Gerard Houllier.

“After 15 matches on the bench (at Villa), Houllier told me to stay at home,” said Ireland. “I trained during the week and on Fridays he told me, ‘no point you coming, you are not in the team’.

“Yet I was the best player in training. It was my team that won in every session. One of the few times he played me, we drew 0-0 at Chelsea and I ended up man of the match.

“Apparently that didn’t matter to him. I was stuck with being paid for doing nothing at all. I was left to myself. I had to pay out of my own pocket for medical treatment. Can you believe that?”

He spent half a season on loan at Newcastle United but played only 49 minutes of football for the club, and was in the centre of controversy again when a picture of him smoking from a sheesha pipe was posted by his girlfriend on Twitter during the regular season.

After failing to perform as well as his managers would have wanted, Ireland was made to train with the reserves, and has been sent out on loan to Stoke this season.