Anthony Stokes (F free agent b.1988)

Chelsea sign Ireland U-16 player

from stellargroup.co.uk:

Ireland Under 16 international Connor Clifford signs for Chelsea.

Chelsea have beaten a host of clubs to the signing of one of the most talented young players in Ireland, fourteen year-old Connor Clifford.

Connor will sign a contract with the Premiership champions on his sixteenth birthday following an agreement reached earlier this week. The Crumlin United central midfielder became the youngest ever player to represent the Ireland Under 16 side when he made his debut against Switzerland last year aged just thirteen.

His performances for both Crumlin and the various Irish international youth sides attracted interest from a number of English Premiership clubs, but it is Jose Mourinho's Chelsea who have won the race to sign Connor, to the delight of the player and those around him.

Stellar's John Stokes, who was in Ireland on Thursday along with representatives from Chelsea to meet with Connor and his family and complete the formalities of the agreement, hoped that the move would see the player go on and fulfil the excellent potential he has shown up until this point:

"Everyone is delighted for Connor. He has worked very hard and is an exceptional young footballer as well as a nice lad.

"There was a lot of interest in him from English clubs but we took our time deciding what was the best option for Connor to take in order to go on and fulfill his ambitions and he and his family all agreed that Chelsea was the club he would progress best at.

"I would like to wish Connor the very best of luck, he knows that the hard work begins now, but I have every confidence in him to go on and prove that Chelsea were right to make such an enormous effort to sign him."

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Originally Posted by dodgycanadian

Stellar's John Stokes, who was in Ireland on Thursday along with representatives from Chelsea...

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Father of Anthony Stokes, if I'm not mistaken.
Based in Dublin, he works for the Stellar Group in London.

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Originally Posted by Peadar

Father of Anthony Stokes, if I'm not mistaken.
Based in Dublin, he works for the Stellar Group in London.

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Yeah, that's him. He's working as a scout for Irish talent, getting them moves to England, and helping them settle over there when they do move

Is he what you would call a 'pimp'?

Personally I think that's wrong.
Here's a kid, obviously with talent, who at 14 knows he will be joining Chelsea in two years time.
At that age would you be bothered with school knowing that you have a move to a big premiership club and dreams of millions.
Now I don't know his circumstances, maybe he's a grounded young lad who realises his education is important but I think it stinks. What next, signing a pre contract when you're still in primary school? To me this is a typical example of all that is rotten in professional football.

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Originally Posted by Soper

Is he what you would call a 'pimp'?

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No he isn't .. you see a pimp at least doesn't pretend to be anything except that...

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Originally Posted by Reddladd

Personally I think that's wrong.
Here's a kid, obviously with talent, who at 14 knows he will be joining Chelsea in two years time.
At that age would you be bothered with school knowing that you have a move to a big premiership club and dreams of millions.
Now I don't know his circumstances, maybe he's a grounded young lad who realises his education is important but I think it stinks. What next, signing a pre contract when you're still in primary school? To me this is a typical example of all that is rotten in professional football.

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True... Its nothing more than a ridiculous distraction. If only they couldn't be so distracted by the bright lights(probably a ot easier said than done) and think logically abut their career down the line. Somewhere like Ipswich would be perfect. A burgeoning youth academy, emphasis on education and if Clifford is as good as they say he is, he'd probably break into the first team at 17, and make his mark.

Or Bohs with all their money.

I saw a report on Newnight about the date of births of top sportmen it was making the point that those who are old for their school year tend to do well, the theory being that they were noticed by spotters/scouts as being better than other in their year, however you would expect this because they were older.
It said that most of the players in academies where born Sept - Dec (about 75% I think, not sure exacly what they said) compared to only 2% for August
(which means you are the youngest in your year).
It seems Conner was born in October so he fits into that group. The point I am making is that some players may appear to be good simply because of their birth date and this will be negated as they get older, however they will obviously benefit from being in an academy.

Actually I found the report however it appears to have no sound :rolleyes:
I guess that is what I pay my license fee for!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/u...toryid=6194160

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Reddladd

Personally I think that's wrong.
Here's a kid, obviously with talent, who at 14 knows he will be joining Chelsea in two years time.
At that age would you be bothered with school knowing that you have a move to a big premiership club and dreams of millions.
Now I don't know his circumstances, maybe he's a grounded young lad who realises his education is important but I think it stinks. What next, signing a pre contract when you're still in primary school? To me this is a typical example of all that is rotten in professional football.

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It all depends on the kind of mammy he has doesn't it? :)

Arsenal could do with a goal or two from Stokes these days.

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Originally Posted by tricky_colour

I saw a report on Newnight about the date of births of top sportmen it was making the point that those who are old for their school year tend to do well, the theory being that they were noticed by spotters/scouts as being better than other in their year, however you would expect this because they were older.
It said that most of the players in academies where born Sept - Dec (about 75% I think, not sure exacly what they said) compared to only 2% for August
(which means you are the youngest in your year).
It seems Conner was born in October so he fits into that group. The point I am making is that some players may appear to be good simply because of their birth date and this will be negated as they get older, however they will obviously benefit from being in an academy.

Actually I found the report however it appears to have no sound :rolleyes:
I guess that is what I pay my license fee for!


http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/u...toryid=6194160

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Surely the kids who's birthday is January should fare best....

For underage soccer teams it's your age on the 1st January that is the defining factor... eg a kid born January 1996 and a and one born Dec 1996, would both have an age of 9 on January 1st 2006. Thus at the start of this season (Sept) both would be eligible to play on an under 10 team, even though the kid born in January could in theory be up to 363 days older than the kid born in Dec.

He's talking about the school year.
I always thought I was at an advantage because people in my class were almost a year older than me so I was "mature" for my age. :D

I can see the other side of the coin though.
Having said that, Thierry Henry and William Gallas have the same birthday as me.

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

Yeah, that's him. He's working as a scout for Irish talent, getting them moves to England, and helping them settle over there when they do move

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So basically he kills domestic footabll in Ireland by sending them all off to England rather than play at home.

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Originally Posted by DmanDmythDledge

So basically he kills domestic footabll in Ireland by sending them all off to England rather than play at home.

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That's one way of looking at it. Someone else could say that by helping players to settle when they've moved abroad, it can only help their development - how many promising players have come back and failed because they couldn't settle in the first few months?

Either way I'm not going to call him a pimp.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DmanDmythDledge

So basically he kills domestic footabll in Ireland by sending them all off to England rather than play at home.

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Domestic football is killed because the teams here don't have enough money, the coaching is not at a high enough level to develop talent on a consistent basis, the facilities are ****, etc etc.

If they're going to move to England anyway, they may as well get support.

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Originally Posted by irishfan86

Domestic football is killed because the teams here don't have enough money, the coaching is not at a high enough level to develop talent on a consistent basis, the facilities are ****, etc etc.

If they're going to move to England anyway, they may as well get support.

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Sure any kid going to england should get support... that's not the same as been signed up by an "agent" who is only interested in how much they stand to make out the kid... hence the already mentioned reference to pimps

sure look at john paul kelly..... left liverpool to come back to bohs and with rumours theres afew clubs looking at him to go back to england!!!

Heard he had trouble with where he was living and stuff like that.... surley bringing a youth to liverpool on his own, whom liverpool in fact rated very highley, had to look after him better!!!!

Back to the topic of the thread:

Celtic confirm interest in Arsenal young gun


December 1, 2006

Bank of Scotland Premierleague leaders Celtic have confirmed that they have watched Republic of Ireland ‘B’ international striker Anthony Stokes “on four or five occasions” with a view to a January transfer swoop.

Stokes has made a massive impression in Scotland since joining Falkirk on loan from Premiership big guns Arsenal earlier in the season.

Currently top scorer in the SPL with 11 goals from as many appearances, he is due to return to Arsenal at the end of the month.

Falkirk manager John Hughes is keen on keeping him at the club until the end of the season, but news of Celtic’s interest could scupper those plans.

Bhoys chief scout Ray Clarke said: “What we said to [the Celtic first-team management] was that we would watch Anthony Stokes on four or five occasions and then make our decision.

"To be fair to the lad, we’ve just about done that, and my understanding is we’ll maybe have one more good look at him in action.

"Once the Champions League group campaign is over with next week’s final match in Copenhagen, we’ll sit down on all our activities and the manager will decide the way ahead.”

Stokes will miss Saturday’s meeting with Rangers due to suspension having been sent off against Motherwell last weekend.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tuff Paddy

Yeah but you were in the slow learners class Peadar!

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Wouldn't it have been that the slow learners were in my class, considering that I was so much younger than them? :confused:


:p

Short interview with Stokes...
Celtic confirm Stokes talks with Arsenal...