In the early stages of 2016, the Irish midfielder Stephen Ireland was believed to be nearing a move to the Arab Emirates as rumors were linking him with Al Jazira as the club was attempting to replace the Brazilian midfielder ThiagoNeves.
Stephen Ireland is performing with Stoke City and has been with the Premier League club since 2014 but he has failed to make a real impact with the club despite being in the English outfit for over 2 years.
In his debut season with Stoke City, Ireland made 25 appearances which is a very good number as the Irish midfielder was a regular starter but his amount of appearances started to drop after that season.
In the 2nd season of Ireland with the English club, he made 17 appearances and it was later dropped to 13. Stephen Ireland is currently struggling with a knee injury that he sustained back in May of 2016 and this injury has kept the Irish player out of the playing grounds ever since then.
Taking into consideration the fact that Ireland has been making fewer appearances with Stoke City and his knee injury, it remains uncertain if he will become a regular starter for the Premier League club anytime soon and it might be better off for him to simply join another club and Al Jazira was one of the teams that were linked with Stephen Ireland but a transfer was never done.
Whether or not Stephen Ireland makes a move to Al Jazira or to another club is something that remains to be seen but it does look like he has fallen out of favor in Stoke City and this knee injury will only makes things even harder for him to get back into the first team and be a regular starter like he used to be during his debut season.