Stephen Ireland thinks Harvey Elliott is out of his depth, finally reveals story behind pink-wheeled Range Rover & issues Newcastle warning
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In the fourth and final part of an exclusive interview with Ladbrokes: Fanzone, Stephen Ireland talked about Jack Grealish, Newcastle, that pink-wheeled Range Rover and his Superman pants, but kicked things off by discussing Liverpool youngster Harvey Elliott.
Harvey Elliott is out of his depth in this Liverpool team
Liverpool just can’t get goin and I think that Sadio Mane leaving has hit them much harder than they perhaps thought it was going to. Don’t get me wrong, I think Luis Diaz is fantastic and they really need him.
I think Harvey Elliott is out of his depth. Despite how much of a talent he is and how much of a prospect he might be, I think he’s out of his depth right now. I’ve watched a lot of him because I love seeing all these prospects coming through, and as good as he is, I still think he’s a player who needs another loan, at somewhere like Fulham or Bournemouth – that’s where he needs to be right now.
I know Jurgen Klopp has put a lot of trust in him, but the more I watch him, the more I think he’s out of his depth with his decision-making,and how often he gives the ball away cheaply. I just think his team-mates are going to be getting on his back a little bit, especially when they’re up against it with their backs against the ropes.
Maybe in a couple of years, they’ve got a Phil Foden-level player in Elliott, but the way they’re playing, can Liverpool really afford to be putting so much trust in him? I really don’t think so.
The story behind the infamous pink-wheeled Range Rover
I was young, I didn’t start driving until I was 21 so I was always getting taxis everywhere. I was rocking up to the Etihad in a taxi with two kids, aged 17… people must have thought ‘who on earth is this guy?’ And then I’m playing on the pitch, against the likes of Man United, Arsenal and Liverpool, while I’m on £95 a week – it wasn’t easy at all. And – at the time – Manchester City were taking advantage of that. They were offering me new contracts which were just peanuts, to be honest with you.
I had two kids and it was tough. I was in a high-pressured job, working so hard both on and off the pitch to get to a point where I had a decent enough contract that I was able to treat myself. So I went out and bought some nice cars and made the most of it.
People always ask me about that black Range Rover with the pink wheels. It’s absolutely mental. I’m constantly asked if I still have it. It was something like 16 years ago, of course I don’t!
Stephen Ireland's Pink trimmed Range Rover. pic.twitter.com/FTBQQbR9
— Footballers Cars (@FootyStarsCars) February 5, 2013
But the story behind it is simple – that was actually my wife’s car. I had a white Range Rover and she had a black one with those infamous wheels.
I was late for training after coming back from a flight one day and her car was left at Manchester Airport, so the plan was for her to get a taxi home and I’d take the car into training. I think we landed at something like 8am and I had to be in training for 9 or 9:30am, so I was panicking a little about turning up late.
So, naturally, I just jumpee into her car and headed to Carrington for training. As I pulled up, I just see a load of paparazzi outside, and I’m just thinking ‘oh no… why are they here on today of all days?’
Anyway, I park up and head off for training, not really thinking too much about it. My team-mates weren’t really that bothered, there wasn’t much fuss made about it. But then on the way out of training, I see there’s no real cluster of fans or anything so I know I can just head straight home. I wound the windows down and all of a sudden I could just see a load of flashes and straightaway I just thought ‘here we go’.
I did not expect it to go as nuts as it did… to me, I was just like, what’s wrong with the car?
Why iconic celebrations are dying out – I’ve still got my Superman underpants in storage
I still have those underpants from that celebration against Sunderland. I actually have them in storage at the moment with a load of other stuff!
𝙄𝙍𝙀𝙇𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙄𝙎 𝙎𝙐𝙋𝙀𝙍𝙈𝘼𝙉 🦸♂️🎥
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— Manchester City (@ManCity) December 30, 2021
You don’t see many wild celebrations these days and I put it down to one thing and one thing only… VAR. That’s changed the game a little bit because you’d just be so reluctant to do something ridiculous. Imagine if I’d have dropped my shorts to show off my pants and then VAR goes back and spots a foul in the build-up or something, disallowing the goal – imagine how stupid you’d look?
Training with young Jack Grealish left me with one word… ‘Jesus!’
Jack [Grealish] is a good kid, a really good kid. I try to explain it like this: if you put 100 people in a room and Will Smith is one of them, he’ll just glow, instantly – he’ll stand out. I see the same things with certain footballers. I saw it with Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney. You put either of those two in a room full of people and they’ll just give off this aura; they’ll stand out more than anybody. Thierry Henry is another one… when I played against him at Highbury, I just remember my legs absolutely going to jelly because I couldn’t believe he was on the pitch. I couldn’t even stick my leg out to tackle him because I just completely froze. Jack had that exact aura, even at such a young age.
When I was at Aston Villa for two seasons he would always come over once or twice a week for training with the first team. Even at that point, when he was so young, you could see the balance and the talent he had. He had those monstrous legs for someone who was still just a kid. He had serious bravery about him as well. He’d receive the ball and breeze past players.
Looking back, I’d say the first team were horrible with him, actually. He was getting so much stick for that style and that part of his game. He was trying new things as a young lad and people were having a go at him for it, but I always just thought that if that’s how confident you are, why shouldn’t you carry on doing it? It doesn’t matter what level you’re training at or who you’re training with. It’s how I thought when I was his age, so I was always more than happy to see him trying out these different things in our training sessions.
Right at the end of those two years of Jack training with us, I was put into that Bomb Squad of players with the likes of Alan Hutton and Shay Given. I think there would have been about 11 of us cast out of our own changing rooms, in at different times, training on a pitch that was about 10 pitches away from the rest of the team. And Stiliyan Petrov became the coach to get us fit and we were told to make our way. Jack, and a handful of the other younger lads, were training with us for the whole pre-season. I must have spent a good month and a half with him, and by the end of it, it was just like ‘Jesus…’ he was so good, it was nuts.
He’s had a bit of a time of things off the pitch over the years, and there was always that question mark around whether or not he’d hit the heights or just fade away. He was at a bit of a crossroads, but I think the best thing that could have happened for him and his career was Villa going down, because it meant he could cement a place in the first team, find his feet and flourish, and go on to become the player he has.
I think Jack wanted that Almiron comment to be taken light-heartedly. It was just a bit of fun he was having and was probably something the lads would have said in the changing rooms as a bit of a tongue-in-cheek, throwaway comment. But he’s obviously gone and said it on the wrong platform, and it’s gone and spread like wildfire. But – for Almiron – maybe that’s the kick up the backside that he needed, because look at his stats now. Maybe he just needed to hear something like that to kickstart things again, and now he’s absolutely flying.
Newcastle owners need to be very careful in next transfer window
I faced plenty of problems in my time at Man City. I was coming in, outperforming people in every area, but then these new guys were coming in and earning five times as much as I was, but I was still outperforming them. I felt like some of those players coming in were cutting corners and you have to be very careful how that gets managed, because it can create quite a domino effect. That’s why it’s so important Newcastle get their recruitment right, because they don’t want to go and upset what they’ve got going for them right now.
They’ve really impressed – and shocked – me so far this season. I’m really surprised at how much they’ve gone from strength to strength in such a short space of time. It’s an absolute credit to them, and it’s exciting because they’re challenging the big boys in the division all of a sudden. They look brilliant – really, really solid.
This next transfer window is so key for Newcastle. Everyone is sitting in anticipation, waiting for them to make this marquee signing, and yes, they’re flying in the league right now, but there’s a massive risk in bringing such a big name into that dressing room. If they go and bring in – let’s say – three Real Madrid players, it’s going to be very hard to be able to manage them. Also, those players are going to be commanding £300-400,000 a week. Newcastle have got to be very careful with who they add to their squad in January.
They do need to add, but I just think they need to be very, very careful. I’ve seen so much of it in the past, even as recently as Casemiro at Manchester United. I’m just not sure it was needed, especially with how much he’ll be on a week. Newcastle don’t want to start doing that. They need to bring in players who are going to be easy to manage, who understand the project, who aren’t going to end up being absolute nightmares on these colossal wages.
But everybody is watching for a Neymar, or somebody, to turn up, because they’re always being linked with those crazy names. They’ve just got to make sure it’s the right names that they’re going after.
