In Part I I used a little slight of hand when comparing detailed playing stats for Milner and Ireland by putting two different seasons against each other. I was open about that and it was done with the expressed purpose of illustrating that at their best, they are extremely comparable players. But will we be getting Stephen Ireland at his best?

That remains to be seen, there’s obviously no guarantees, but for what it’s worth, here are their key stats over the last four years. Milner was obviously at Newcastle for the first two seasons and first two games of 2008/09. Ireland has been with Man City since he was 15 and there’s a revealing video at the bottom of the post about that.

Milner turned 24 last January, Ireland will celebrate his 24th birthday this coming Sunday.

Note: If you were eagle-eyed enough to spot a couple of minor differences where the data overlaps with Part I, well done, this is because I’ve sourced much of this data from season summaries at ESPN. I compiled the data in Part I myself game by game from The Guardian. Both outlets obtain their stats from Opta, so minor differences aside, it’s the same thing. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it and nor should you.

Mood Player?

This Football Focus interview from May 2009 possibly reveals a little of Ireland’s character. He talks about how much confidence played a part in his ’08/09 season and also how he chose City from more than 20 clubs he trialled with as a boy, essentially because he liked the feel of the place. Along the same lines, he also tries to explain why he no longer plays international football and it once again seems to be based on emotion more than anything he can be really specific about.

So, if Villa Park suits him, if he clicks, he’ll undoubtedly be a great player for us. If it doesn’t though, I think we’ll get a glimpse of why City are willing to value him at around £8m to Milner’s £26m.