Had this interview been arranged 12 months ago, it is doubtful whether Stephen Ireland would have turned up and even had he done so, the conversation might well have been peppered with so many untruths as to make the exercise pointless. This, after all, is the man who invented the deaths of two grandmothers to secure his release from international duty with Ireland.

Trust is a difficult thing to re- establish, but Ireland is trying hard, that much is obvious. He is, by his admission, a complex character, but the person who sat down to talk this week has a clear idea of what he wants from life and is almost unrecognisable from the one who was in such a dark place a year ago that he resorted to inhabiting a world of make-believe, one who briefly seemed in danger of turning his back on football for good.

Speak to anyone at Manchester City and they will tell you that the transformation Ireland has undergone in the space of a year is even more pronounced than the one experienced by the club, with City on the brink of financial meltdown one minute and bankrolled by an Arab billionaire intent on global domination the next. While 2008 may be remembered as the year that Sheikh Mansour came to City’s rescue, it was also the year that Ireland decided to rescue himself from himself.

The result is an inspiring tale of where a willingness to change can get you. On the pitch he has been City’s best performer this season; off it, he finally appears to have got things together. “I suppose I am a different person in many ways,” Ireland, 22, said. “I don’t know if I take pride from what I’ve done. I just know what I want from life now.”

Ireland’s life was a mixture of chaos and disorder long before September last year, when he decided to tell the (grand)mother of all porkies to Steve Staunton, the Ireland manager, the FA of Ireland (FAI) and City, rather than offer the simple truth that his girlfriend — now fiancée — Jessica had suffered a miscarriage and that he would not be able to play in a European Championship qualifying fixture against the Czech Republic.

Nothing should excuse Ireland’s behaviour and he is still deeply embarrassed by the affair, but the midfield player was neither thinking nor behaving like a rational person at the time, even if that did not stop the hate mail from stacking up.

“Grannygate” was the most public example of his troubled and muddled state of mind, but there were plenty of others that would almost seem comedic did they not hint at deeper issues. The black 4 x 4 with pink alloys, the seemingly uncontrollable pet dog that helped to turn an otherwise impressive family house into “a tip”, according to one friend, the rumoured hair transplant, the Superman underpants. Then there was that infamous post on his Bebo social networking website when, under the name “Daddy Dick”, Ireland professed to “hate” football.

Ireland denies that he was responsible — “it was a friend who did all that, not me,” he said, somewhat unconvincingly — but what he does not dispute is that he had fallen out of love with the game. For a time, he wondered whether he would ever fall back in love with it, but then City were beaten 8-1 away to Middlesbrough on the final day of last season and a switch seemed to go on in his head. It would prove a turning point in his life.

“In previous years I just wanted to get away from football and go on holiday \, but after losing that game to Middlesbrough, I said, ‘No, I’m staying here for the summer and getting myself in shape,’ ” he said. “A lot had happened that season, but I don’t know what it was that changed, I just realised I needed to get my head down. It’s a short career and there is no time to waste.

“I’m a lot more determined as a person now. I want to do something with my life. I felt like I didn’t know where I was going and I just seemed to say, ‘I need to get myself together’. I’m happy again.”

That has certainly been reflected on the pitch, with eight goals and a string of man-of-the-match displays to his name. City may have smashed the British transfer record to sign Robinho for £34.2 million from Real Madrid, but even the Brazil striker’s form has been overshadowed by that of Ireland.

Unfortunately, the high standards set by the midfield player have not always been matched by his team-mates and City will find themselves in the Barclays Premier League relegation zone by the time Ireland makes his 99th top-flight appearance away to West Bromwich Albion tomorrow, should Sunderland overcome Hull City this afternoon.