Stephen Ireland came in for a lot of heat earlier in the year, for claims made about his career in the Premier League and some of the top midfielders that he faced during his time playing for the likes of Man City and Aston Villa.
In an interview last May, he said that,"Steven Gerrard for example, Frank Lampard, every time I played against them I’ve got the better of them."
Ireland, a former international and no stranger to causing controversy with his statements, has spoken about the comments for the first time, in an attempt to clarify exactly what he meant:
I went on to say I thought I always held my own in those bigger games, against those opponents, and never really felt like I was outperformed on the day. People then ran with the story of me saying I was better than them!
The careers those guys had, and the trophies they all won... there's no way I would even want my name in the same sentence as them.
It really affected me for a few weeks; it hurt me because I'm just not that guy at all. Then I was stressing about if it got back to those three players, and would they just be thinking 'who's he think he is?'
Stephen Ireland Clarifies Gerrard/Lampard Comments
7 October 2006; Stephen Ireland, Republic of Ireland. Euro 2008 Championship Qualifier, Cyprus v Republic of Ireland, GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus. Picture credit: Brian Lawless / SPORTSFILE
READ HERE: Stephen Ireland Says He Couldn't Afford To Travel For Ireland Call-Ups
Ireland's most infamous media controversy came back in 2007 when Steve Staunton granted him leave from the Ireland squad on the grounds that Ireland's granny had passed away.
However, the press quickly found out that this was untrue, leading to further lies and further hounding from the press.
Ireland has now claimed that the 'Irish Press are always gunning for me'.
"It's really hard for me to be open about it all," continued Ireland.
"Because I've always found that the more open I am, the more things get twisted and taken out of context... especially in the Irish press. The Irish press are always gunning for me... any small thing just goes nuts over there!"
"I don't know what it is about me; why I get such a hard time in the press. I speak to my wife about it a lot, and a couple of my close friends. That recent story about Gerrard, Lampard and Scholes, started off as something so harmless, and blew into this absolutely crazy story where I was getting worldwide abuse."
