Stephen's week

On his international future:"I won't come back. I feel nothing for the national team. I don't feel at all guilty when they lose and when they win I never say 'oh dear, I could have been there'. International soccer doesn't interest me. Going away for three days to play in Andorra? I've got better things to do."

On Giovanni Trapattoni

“I’ve never seen anyone so arrogant. I met him once. He was taking calls every two minutes and made me hang around for 15 minutes in his office.”

On the recession

“Ireland is reaping what it sowed. We built blocks of flats just for the sake of it and now there’s no one inside them. It cost huge amounts of money and nobody is in a position to pay.”

On Roberto Mancini

“He never liked me. He’s doing everything wrong. He got rid of everyone at the club – even the cook left.”

On Birmingham

“(Gerard) Houllier asked me to come and live in Birmingham because it was taking me 75 minutes to come to training . . . Birmingham is a crap city and I wasn’t going to make the effort, especially as I wasn’t playing.”

On the interview where all these quotes came from

“It’s been blown out of context so far, it’s just not fair. I feel really picked on. It is really important to me that I try to rebuild some bridges.”

Good luck with that, Stephen.