Ireland eyes NUFC transfer.

Stephen Ireland is finally fit - hurrah - and claims that he is ready and willing to prove his worth to Newcastle in the final few games of the season and earn a summer move to St James' Park.

The loan of Stephen Ireland from Aston Villa has turned into a bit of a farce if I'm being honest as a string of injuries have meant that the 24-year-old has been unable to pull on the back and white shirt and show his worth to the Newcastle faithful.

Some 'church-going' NUFC fans have even singled Ireland out for criticism after he was photographed in a nightclub with fellow Irishmen Leon Best and Stephen Folan shortly after St Patrick's Day, despite the trio not being involved in any club engagements that weekend. Heaven forbid.

It's all in the past now of course, and now Ireland is looking to repay the faith, time and effort that has been shown in him by the Newcastle backroom staff. Speaking to The Chronicle, Ireland had this to say about his injury 'nightmare':

“It has been an absolute nightmare – it feels like I have not kicked a ball for so long. I have not played competitively for so long and it has been difficult."

It's been just as frustrating for Newcastle fans aswell in all honesty. Here we have a player who can be excellent, but seems to have lost his way a little bit. At only 24 though, Ireland still has plenty of time to regain the kind of form that he displayed for Manchester City which made him one of the most highly-rated midfielders at one point.

It hasn't worked out for him at Aston Villa, but to be fair he wasn't given much of a chance. Gerard Houllier seemed to take a dislike to Ireland, for whatever reason, and then treat him like rubbish by leaving him out of matchday squads and criticising him in public. Players have different personalities and character traits, and some of them need handling differently. I think that Ireland could be one of those who needs an arm around him. Ireland said:

“When the new manager came in at Villa, I was left out of eight squads in a row – and that hurts. The lads were going away to hotels and playing games, and I felt really isolated at home.”

What matters going forward is whether or not Ireland can perform for us. After four months it will take him time to get back into the swing of things, but he'll have to do that if he wants to earn a move. Talking about earning a summer transfer, Ireland said:

“This is a good place for me to settle in the next few months, and who knows what could happen in the summertime. It could turn out to be permanent. We don’t know, or it could turn into a loan again. We will see what happens in the next two months.”

We'll see indeed!

In other news...

I've read a few comments about how much Stephen Ireland gossip there is about compared to news about other players like Hatem Ben Arfa and Dan Gosling, so to address that I thought that I would give a quick update on the pair.

Dan Gosling is a week or so away from resuming training apparently, although whether that is full training, light training or whatever is unknown. I'd hazard a guess that we will only see a fleeting glimpse of him this season, if at all.

Hatem Ben Arfa is still stepping up his training as he recovers from that horrific leg break. This week he is training with the reserves before making the step up to training with the first team next week. There have been no setbacks so far although it is still early days.

So there you go!