Conor Clifford

[SkStu]

could be a great move for him to get regular football. Exciting.

[Predator]

Although League One isn't ideal for a player of his calibre (I reckon he's good enough for any Championship team), I'm sure he'll learn a lot with Plymouth under Peter Reid. Good luck to him.

[Charlie Darwin]

I think League One might be better for him - it's more important that he get game time and adapt to the physical demands of playing 90 minutes at a quicker tempo than he's used to in the reserves. If he succeeds, he'll be able to make the step up to a Championship club after Christmas.

[The Fly]

.....

[Junior]

Hope it goes better than Cillians loan move there.

[carloz]

http://greenscene.me/2010/10/conor-clifford-joins-plymouth-argyle/


few videos at the bottom of the post. By god the guy has an eye for some cracking goals

[Stuttgart88]

He sure does. Very impressed. I never even scored one like that in Subbutteo.

[Charlie Darwin]

He started the game for Plymouth against Huddersfield. It's 1-1, with the lesser Wright-Phillips scoring for Plymouth. According to BBC, Clifford's had a shot and is taking the corners, while Graham Carey set up Huddersfield's goal.

[rebelmusic]

Future midfield of him and McCarthy is pretty exciting. They been playing U21 together?

[Charlie Darwin]

They've been playing in a three-man midfield, with McCarthy on the right I believe, for the past few games. I think Clifford was only recently promoted from the U19s, though, and McCarthy is probably finished from a U21 perspective.

[Eirambler]

Apparently played a blinder for Plymouth today, their best player even though he's only been there two days.

He has gone there on a 'rolling' one month loan deal, so could end up staying there for the season.

[Crosby87]

The Plymouth website is interesting, the first thing you see is a pair of tighty whities underwear in green. Surely some lads on here have already oredered theirs as a Xmas stocking stuffer.
Also apparently there is a Connor Clifford in the youth team which caused some confusion whom Pete Reid was unaware of...
They play at Oldham next Saturday and I would like to see an England based Foot.ie'er or two there in person to give a scouting report. So someone get the gumption up. Surely one of you could take the time to go there and get your Green Plymouth underwear as a bonus.

Plymouth also has someone on the team named Craig No One. Who are you? No one. Im just No One.

[Sullivinho]

Here's a bit of reconnaissance for you Crosby, albeit secondhand from an Argyle forum:

http://www.pasoti.co.uk/talk/viewtopic.php?t=47586

They seem impressed with him. Apparently he was getting well stuck in too.

I'd expect him to impress at that level in fairness though.

[Charlie Darwin]

They're about to move onto the League One highlights on BBC1 now.

[The Fly]

Started today for Plymouth against Oldham, and played the whole match.

Plymouth lost 4 -2.

[tetsujin1979]

Started today for Plymouth against Oldham, and played the whole match.

Plymouth lost 4 -2.

Plymouth had 2 players sent off, and were leading 2-1 at one point

[The Fly]

...and two of Oldham's goals were in injury time.

[The Fly]

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/sport/CLIFFORD-S-DESIRE-PRAISED-REID/article-2836342-detail/article.html

[tommy_c12000]

Looks to be made of hard stuff

[dr_peepee]

Yeah!! All he had to do was take a picture of his vommit as proof he couldn't play!!

[The Fly]

Yeah!! All he had to do was take a picture of his vommit as proof he couldn't play!!

...err, doctor.....that's not how you spell vomit.

[co. down green]

Chelsea not allowing Clifford to play in the FA Cup game for Pymouth tomorrow

[tommy_c12000]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/fa_cup/9140359.stm

[The Fly]

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/sport/CHELSEA-SET-LET-CLIFFORD-EXTEND-STAY/article-2841193-detail/article.html

[Charlie Darwin]

Chelsea not allowing Clifford to play in the FA Cup game for Pymouth tomorrow
Makes sense - they don't want him being cup-tied putting off other potential loan options.
As long as Chelsea don't draw a Premier League team in the third round he'll probably be in the mix for an appearance there, too.

[The Fly]

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/sport/Clifford-bolster-Pilgrims-midfield/article-2850768-detail/article.html

[Sullivinho]

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/sport/Clifford-bolster-Pilgrims-midfield/article-2850768-detail/article.html

The main man after three games. Fair play.

[The Fly]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/plymouth_argyle/9194298.stm

[The Fly]

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/pafc/argyle/CLIFFORD-GUNNING-GOALS/article-2914299-detail/article.html

[The Fly]

http://www.plymouth.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=223776

[Yard of Pace]

66% of the vote! Rare for football fans to agree to such an extent. Can anyone tell me what kind of midfielder is Clifford? I've yet to see him play.

[Brendan 82]

Midfield General

[tommy_c12000]

66% of the vote! Rare for football fans to agree to such an extent. Can anyone tell me what kind of midfielder is Clifford? I've yet to see him play.

I've only seen him twice play last season in the FA Youth Cup. Think they were playing Villa in the final. As described in the piece on the website, he looks to be well able to tackle and has a good eye for a pass. He got a cracker of a goal in last yr's final from distance so looks to be equipped with a powerful shot. Haven't seen him enough to make a proper judgement though, but he seems to have it all

[tetsujin1979]

66% of the vote! Rare for football fans to agree to such an extent. Can anyone tell me what kind of midfielder is Clifford? I've yet to see him play.
I've seen him play twice this year for the U21s, vs Armenia in March, and Estonia in August.
My comments from those games:
from the Armenia thread: http://foot.ie/threads/132399-U21-Vs-Armenia/page2

The one positive was the performance of Chelsea's Conor Clifford in midfield. Full of energy, running and tackling, he looks a definite talent.

and from the Estonia thread: http://foot.ie/threads/138607-Under-21-ROI-Squad-V-Estonia-10-8-11/page3

The midfield of McCarthy, Gleeson and Garvan controlled possesion well in the middle of the park, and linked up with Clifford on the right. The Estonain right winger had previously enjoyed some space between Clifford and Coleman at right full, but with this space eliminated, his threat was removed.
To be honest, I don't remember him having much impact on the game, and he was playing right in front of where I was sitting in the second half. However, he was out of position as an old fashioned inside right, and seems to be far more comfortable in centre midfield.

There isn't really anyone like him in the squad at the moment, unless you count McCarthy. He like to receive the ball from the defence, and drive forward through the centre of the park to either pass to a teammate or shoot himself. He's mentioned a few times that he's learned a lot from Frank Lampard, but I think he plays a little behind where you would normally see Lampard on the pitch. He's be closer to Alonso in terms of position on the pitch, if not ability (yet) and while I would like to see him in a Chelsea jersey before the end of the season, a full season on loan with Plymouth would not be the worst thing either.

Just let's not start calling for Trapattoni's job because he is not called into a squad, ok?

[passinginterest]

I was at those two U21 games too and I said:
Armenia:

...Conor Clifford was a class apart from everyone else on the pitch... I expected more from Garvan as he was the most experienced but he was overshadowed by Clifford...

Estonia:

Clifford who got better and better as the game went on... Clifford looked the fittest player on the pitch to me, he seems to have a great engine, he is very small though.

Basically he's a bit small but a real box to box style midfielder, good eye for a pass, technically very tidy and a good shot on him.

[Charlie Darwin]

It's hard to tell what kind of player Clifford will be at Premier League level (should he make it) but he does seem to have similar attributes to Essien: low centre of gravity, power (obviously not as much as Essien), passing ability, shooting ability. If he could be even half the player Essien is I'd be happy.

[ken foree]

compilation here, some (brilliant) goals were likely posted earlier on in this thread. looks some player, at that level at least:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOahS8Dg9KM

[tommy_c12000]

Looks like an amazing talent. Fingers crossed. . . . . . .

[AlaskaFox]

Greenscene's League One player of the month:
http://greenscene.me/2010/12/greenscene-players-of-the-month-for-november/
"The Chelsea midfielder is on loan with Plymouth, and has had an immediate impact, winning the adoration of their fans with very consistent performances in the centre of the park. An astonishing percentage of visitors to the club’s official website (66%) voted him their player of the month for November."

[paul_oshea]

So he likes going from box to box

[tommy_c12000]

So he likes going from box to box

Don't we all

[tommy_c12000]

Another man of the match performance today in Plymouth's 2-0 victory:

http://www.pasoti.co.uk/talk/viewtopic.php?t=49235

[Sullivinho]

Another man of the match performance today in Plymouth's 2-0 victory:

http://www.pasoti.co.uk/talk/viewtopic.php?t=49235

"Clifford for me was like watching Paul Scholes at times in a green shirt"

We can certainly hope.

[The Fly]

Clifford unlikely to stay at Plymouth

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/plymouth-argyle/8216807/Clifford-unlikely-to-stay-at-Plymouth.html

[Yard of Pace]

Bad news that.

Also, there was a big enough feature on him in the Sunday Times just gone, for anyone interested.

[drummerboy]

SSN reporting that his loan has been extended until Jan 22

[Kingdom]

Bad news that.

Also, there was a big enough feature on him in the Sunday Times just gone, for anyone interested.

Yeah read that, wasn't bad. The move to Plymouth might have been decent, he says himself that he is seeing the harsher side of football life, with the Pilgrims being up the ****ter metaphorically speaking. Looking to go to a championship club on loan next and then seeing what happens with Chelsea.
I got the feeling from reading what he said that he's not going to hang around the reserves at chelsea for long, and that if there isn't significant progress he'll move. He's seen the likes of Kakuta and McEachrain move to first team despite being young so it is happening there.

[Closed Account]

Gone back to the Bridge
http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10268~2249618,00.html

[Charlie Darwin]

He'll have no problem getting another loan at the same or a higher level, if that's what he wants.

[AlaskaFox]

Exactly, hopefully a Championship side will take him on loan.