Stephen Ireland is looking at the list of big-name players who will take part in Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match on Wednesday night, working out how seriously he should approach the occasion.



It will be the first time that Ireland has been involved in a game of football since Stoke City played Swansea on May 13, 2018. He had a spell at Bolton last season but didn’t make an appearance at the crisis-hit club.



“I know I’m not a City legend,” he says during the course of a frank, three-hour assessment of his life and career, which touches on frustration, regret, vulnerability, and defiance.



Yet he is not weighing up his opponents because he needs to manage his fitness, or to avoid aggravating an old injury. He doesn’t want to be the only man out there tearing around the pitch at full pelt against retired greats like Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.



Ireland is 33 and, for now, without a club, and he still feels he has...