Girlfriend Jessica Lawlor posted a picture of a bare-chested Ireland on the internet apparently puffing on a hookah pipe, with the caption "shisha, alcohol and Xmas songs - doesn't get better than this". McLeish will keep his thoughts on the incident private between himself and the player although he admitted "you don't want to be bringing attention to yourself". But it is in a Villa shirt that McLeish is hoping Ireland can finally make an impact 18 months after move from Manchester City. McLeish said: "It is not something I want to be discussing in the newspapers. Was it a shisha pipe or something? "I don't know what is in that stuff. For all I know he (Ireland) could have been blowing bubbles into it or something. "It is not my world, the way the players live nowadays, with the tweeting and posting pictures of themselves and that. "Any opinion I have on that will be delivered to Stephen rather than discussing it in the newspapers. "You don't want to be bringing attention to yourself." When asked about Ireland's prospects at Villa, McLeish said: "He has been training well and played really well in the first half of the Arsenal game. "He's got to take that kind of attitude into other games. We know what he can do when he has got the ball. We know he has a got a decent touch. "But he showed the other attributes in the Arsenal game with his closing down and harrying of people. He has to do more of that. "We know that he has not really done himself total justice in a Villa shirt. There is still a chance for him, there is still a chance for everybody." McLeish added: "I think every player will be wanting to play and the longer Stephen and others don't play, they will become unsettled. "But there will be opportunities over the next two or three games for him to show us what he is really capable of." Meanwhile, McLeish has intimated he wants goalkeeper Brad Guzan and defender Carlos Cuellar to remain at Villa when their current contracts expire next summer. The duo have impressed in forcing their way into the team after injuries and suspensions in recent weeks. McLeish said: "With Brad, he did ask questions about what I thought the future holds for him. I want him to stay here and I told him that. We were always right behind him. "It wasn't a case of 'Shay Given is out injured, can you play in goal now'. We have spoken to the big man about how we want him to stay. "We realise he is 27 and he may want to play some regular football and this spell will have given him a huge appetite for it. But we are very pleased with him. "With Carlos, he is a big, steady individual. I knew him from Scotland (with Rangers) and he's got his chance over the past few games and taken it well. "His contract is up in the summer and, if Carlos continues to perform at the level he is playing at, then I like to see people like that staying at the club. "That will probably be a subject for us to discuss at administrative level."
