Stephen Ireland has moved to put the record straight on quotes attributed to him regarding Aston Villa and his hometown in Ireland.
Midfielder unhappy with mischievous reports
Newcastle United's on-loan midfielder Stephen Ireland has moved to put the record straight on quotes attributed to him in Friday's newspapers regarding his parent club, Aston Villa, and his hometown in Ireland.
In an interview with French football magazine
So Foot it was suggested that the 24-year-old had made
derogatory comments regarding Villa and the cities of Birmingham and Cork.
However, having read the papers on Friday morning, Ireland was upset with the nature of the comments and felt the opinions that he aired during the interview were taken completely out of context.
"I'm upset with what has been printed this morning because I feel like I've been portrayed in the wrong way," Ireland told
skysports.com in a statement issued from his agent.
Misquoted
"I was misquoted and things have been blown way out of proportion. That is the reason why I feel like I needed to say something because the quotes are very unfair.
"What I said during the interview has been twisted to sound particularly blunt and a lot of what was written about my hometown of Cork - which me and my family visit regularly - was just plain ridiculous.
"The comments regarding Birmingham were also taken way out of context as I had only been at Villa a few months and didn't even live there so I have no idea what Birmingham is like to live in and everyone I have met from Birmingham has been nice, my girlfriend's father is from Birmingham so why would I say that, it's just crazy.
"I can only apologise if anyone was offended, but the way the interview was written made me sound very harsh, and I am not that kind of person."
Ireland is hoping to make his Newcastle debut against Everton this weekend after recovering from injury.
