I was asked to leave Aston Villa because I was too good… my manager promised to give Sir Alex Ferguson a call

STEPHEN IRELAND has revealed that his manager claimed he was too good for Aston Villa and believed he should leave.

The former Premier League star claims his then boss Alex McLeish promised to phone his compatriot and Manchester United gaffer Sir Alex Ferguson to recommend he signs him.

Ireland begun his career with Manchester City, spending five years at the club before moving to Aston Villa.

Gerard Houllier was manager at the time and did not want to bring the attacking midfielder to the club.

He therefore refused to play him and publicly demanded that he needs to work harder.

Houllier left in the summer of 2011 and was replaced by McLeish, which led to the now retired 37-year-old enjoying a new lease of life.

Ireland told the story Ladbrokes Fanzone, saying: “In comes McLeish and I had a really good pre-season.

“At which point the manager told me I should probably look at moving on, because of my style of play.

“His exact words were ‘you’re too good to be here.

“‘You’re playing balls around the corner, doing things first time, that the lads just aren’t on the same wavelength as you. You’re going to jeopardise the team losing the ball.’

FREE BETS – BEST BETTING OFFERS AND BONUSES NEW CUSTOMERS

“I swear to God, this is how he finished the chat. He says ‘I’m going to give Sir Alex a call for you.’

“That’s what he said to me. I didn’t really know what to do with that information, to be honest.”

Ireland never moved to Man Utd and ended up staying at Villa for the 2011/12 campaign.

He ended up winning the supporters’ player of the season award as the club narrowly avoided relegation by two points.

Ireland spent another season at Aston Villa before moving to Stoke for five years and then retiring at Bolton in 2018.

He also opened up to Ladbrokes about his bizarre loan spell at Newcastle in 2011.

Ireland played just twice and has claimed that the deal agreed with Villa included a bizarre clause that restricted him to just four appearances for the Toon.

Each time he featured it would cost the club an extra £50,000.

Manager Alan Pardew chose not to play him more than twice after Newcastle had secured wins to push them away from the relegation zone in order to save the club money.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk