City fight for fourth as Ireland lives it up in the sun

It had been far too since we’d had a ridiculous Stephen Ireland story and so it came as a welcome relief really when the Manchester City midfielder was back in the papers this week on the rather curious basis that he has spent £100,000 on a fish tank. Perhaps next time it emerges that he has told his manager that a relative has died he can put it down to a simple misunderstanding involving a lie-in and the fact that his boss is Italian.

 

The fish tank, it seems, includes some real coral from Fiji which is pretty grim but it’s still not the most tasteless thing in the room. That prize would go to the pool table beside the tank (all pictured in a recent edition of the Sun) which the player’s name emblazoned on the playing surface. Would it be overly charitable to suggest that he reckoned somebody might steal it.

 

It’s not entirely clear why Ireland and his girlfriend seem to think it’s such a good idea to keep parading their questionable taste before the photographers of the British press. The possession of more money than sense is a fairly common condition in the whacky world of football, many might well consider it an enviable one, but most of his colleagues seem to be copped on enough to try to keep their more laughable excesses behind closed doors.

 

Part of the problem for Ireland is that this season has not gone nearly as well as the last one did. A year ago he was being widely hailed as one of the most exciting players in English top flight. Now, he no longer seems to assured of his place in the City team and things reached the stage recently where his agent was issuing threats about him leaving in the summer (is the fish tank moveable, we ask) and he then had to come out with some guff about how poorly he was treated by Mark Hughes but how much he actually loves life under Roberto Mancini.

 

It all brings to mind the Johnny Giles quote about publicity being oxygen to Posh Spice’s career but cyanide to David Beckham’s. At some stage, one suspects, Ireland is going to realise that it might be better to stop taking the capsules but in the meantime he remains little more than a figure of fun.

 

City, as it happens, are involved in the biggest game of the weekend with Mancini’s men up against Liverpool in a game that looks like going some way to deciding who comes fourth in the league and gets the last of the Champions League places for next year.

 

It’s the question of which of the three teams above them can avoid further slip ups that is more intriguing in the long term, however. On paper, Chelsea and Arsenal should win rather comfortably against Wolves and Sunderland respectively but the same would have been said about Arsene Wenger’s side ahead of the same fixture last year when they ended up playing out a rather tame nil all draw at the Emirates.

 

The rather comical manner of their defeat (a costly one for me) won’t do much for confidence ahead of the game but on the face of it, it’s still United who appear to be at greater risk of dropping points this weekend with Everton at Goodison a rather tougher looking prospect.

 

I’m going for the home side to get at least a draw despite the fact their former striker, another darling of the tabloids, Wayne Rooney, is in such blistering form at the moment. Elsewhere, West Ham, look and Villa look the pick of the bunch but I’m throwing in Blackburn to beat Bolton to complete this week’s doubles.

 

Bets

 

€25 double on Everton (+0.5) to beat Manchester United and West Ham(-0.5/1) to be Hull City @ 4.15.

 

€25 double on Aston Villa (-1/1.5) to beat Burnley and Blackburn (-0.5) to beat Bolton at 3.72.

Categories: Soccer