ALEX McLeish wants Aston Villa’s players to show their passion with their performances after drawing a line under Charles N’Zogbia and Stephen Ireland’s outbursts.

Ireland was spotted swearing in the direction of the dugout during Sunday afternoon’s 2-1 Premier League defeat to Newcastle at the Sports Direct Arena.

And, after the match, N’Zogbia wrote a post on internet site Twitter, claiming he was not enjoying playing football for the first time in his career, although the Tweet was soon deleted.

But, as McLeish prepares Villa for Sunday’s Villa Park visit of title-chasing Manchester City, he insists the situations with both players have now been dealt with.

“I’ve said it before, Twitter and the social networks are not a world that is familiar to me,” said McLeish.

“If Charles is not enjoying football then he needs to do something about it on the pitch and that’s the same for every single one of the players, not just Charles N’Zogbia.

“I always tell these lads that these are the best days of their lives, better than coaching, better than managing, you can’t beat playing, but it goes by in a flash.’’

He has urged N’Zogbia to summon up the memory of his first goal in claret and blue against QPR last week and told the winger hard work is the key to enjoying football.