QuoteEvery time I see this thread bumped I assume Clifford has pulled a wobbly and decided to go back to Chelsea. Not very good for him if he's the one to make way, although it's disappointing to see Long slipping out of favour too.
The manager clearly doesn't fancy him, so it's in his interest to leave. He needs to be playing first team football at this stage. Even if he drops down to League 2, at least he can make a name for himself and get the attention of other clubs. After all, his contract is up in the Summer and I can't see Chelsea renewing it.Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Every time I see this thread bumped I assume Clifford has pulled a wobbly and decided to go back to Chelsea. Not very good for him if he's the one to make way, although it's disappointing to see Long slipping out of favour too.
Sounds like his career is over. If he can't even get a roster spot on a team that poor, he must be a terrible player. Wages certainly aren't the issue. Too bad, I follow him on Twitter and he seems like a very nice young man. Maybe he'd consider a move back to Ireland?
Yep, just announced now on twitter that his career is over:
Sky Sports quotes him as saying: "If I can't even get a roster spot on a team [Portsmouth] this poor, I must be a terrible player. So it's the knacker's yard for me."
Shame.
Remember seeing him play for Ireland u19s at a 4 team tournament involving Portugal, Holland and Turkey and he was voted the player of the tournament. It was around the time he was captaining Chelsea to the FA Youth Cup. He was absolutely outstanding.
Football is a funny game. Guys can come from nowhere like Roy Keane and become greats of the game and very lauded guys like Richie Partridge or Graham Barrett can fade away into obscurity, for a variety of reasons.
What Conor needs is to get himself into a team where the manager trusts him like he seems to have had with Peter Reid last year. He played great stuff apparrently.
Roy Keane was a first team footballer for Forest when he was 19 so I wouldn't really say he came from nowhere.
I think Clifford will have a good career. He has got himself out on loan a few times and things just have not worked out. Same age as henderson who has never played a league game in england but has obviously been victim of horrible injuries. They both have a lot to prove but hopefully do. Remember hourihane was named in top 10 players at under 17 euros 2008 and is at plymouth now but still good footballer
He was probably referring to Cobh.
I meant that when he was 16/17/18, he wasn't on the radar at all. He was lucky that all the pieces fell into place for him (good scouting to get him to Forest and a great manager like Clough who recognised his brilliance and was maverick enough to trust him and give him his debut at Anfield when Liverpool were magnificent) and he went on to become one of the greatest midfielders of all time. Clifford on the other hand, like players like Partridge and Barrett before him was very highly rated by top English clubs. This in itself isn't enough to make it in the game but I'm just trying to highlight how funny a game it is.
Do you think coming from Ireland at an older age than most (19 or 20) is better than being in England from 15 and being hyped up? (Roy Keane, James McClean, Kevin Doyle)
Do you think players lose their focus/concentration when they're constantly being told they're the next big thing or if they're captaining their clubs to FA youth cups.
They might think, well I'm a shoe-in to be making it in at least a mid-table premiership team if I'm captaining Chelsea at 18 etc etc.
I could be wrong but I imagine it is much easier to go from Pat's to Sunderland for example and just get stuck in. It's fresh for the player and the player is more mature
Folding my way into the big money!!!
Yeah, I think that there is alot to be said for that. I have seen very good players from my area who come back during the summer when they're off from their clubs and even though they are still on the whole very decent and likeable lads, you can sometimes see that they are getting dragged in to that Premiership footballer world of fast cars and girls throwing themselves at them. You could see how they could lose their hunger or if they don't fulfill their talent, they could become disillusioned.
Yeah, I noticed the same thing with a certain player too. He's still playing football (semi-pro at best, possibly amateur) but his career trajectory has been nothing but downward.
It's very difficult to definitively say which is the best career path for young players. It suited someone like Long, who focused on hurling for much of his youth and someone like Doyle, who was somewhat of a late bloomer. On the other hand, coming up through Prremier League and SPL clubs suited Dunne, Given, Keane and Duff. It all depends on the player I guess.
One thing must be said, imagine if James McClean had gone to England as an even less mature 16 year-old. We'd probably never have heard of him again.
Heard of a young guy who joined a prominent Scottish team last year and returned home soon after because of homesickness and he also missed his girlfriend. Didn't get a great reception from some locals who felt he was being stupid to turn his back on a professional career. Made harder by the big local media interest that occured before he left.
I have also seen people go up to a bloke in a pub who seemed to be 'the next big thing' (which was not to be) and cruelly say to him 'so the dream is over then'. It must be very hard at a young age to have to deal with rejection in another country and then face life with this 'stigma' attached to you in your own country.
On the other hand, John O 'Shea was very lucky to finish his Leaving Cert before joining Man U. I suppose what I am saying it is very much an individual journey.
Last edited by gastric; 17/09/2012 at 11:34 PM.
The thing is that often players returning from England are not only demoralised, but they've played so few games at a high enough level that they are physically behind the players who stayed behind. So at least Clifford has had experience at a decent level, which shows he can mix it so if he had to return to Ireland he could probably be a really good player. Not that he will return to Ireland, I think he's too good.
It's nice to see Christy Fagan find some regular goalscoring form post-Manchester United. I spoke to a QPR scout at the Kennedy Cup the year that Clifford was playing for DDSL. He was raving about Clifford but maintained that Fagan was still the best player he ever saw in the competition.
McClean left Derry for Lincoln Town post Wellvan and relegation to First Division - returned a few weeks later, too homesick. Rest is history etc.
Last edited by SwanVsDalton; 18/09/2012 at 10:20 PM.
Ou-est le Centre George Pompidou?
Am I right in saying that McClean employed a personal trainer to help him get super fit and this helped him in achieving his move to Sunderland? if so, it shows determination and ambition to make it in football. I remember too reading that Stephen Hunt did similar and this helped him get to Wolves. Again, Hunt strikes me as someone with great determination to succeed.
He he, I have managed to multi-quote, never done that before I must be getting smarter in my old age
I don't think there is a simple answer to who is successful and who is not and why.
You certainly have to have the will and determination to succeed and Roy Keane certainly was not lacking in that.
But you also need some natural ability, will power alone won't do it.
There is so much competition these days you are going to need plenty of both, you probably need a fair bit of luck too.
McClean, in spite of what you might call his loose tongue on social media and networking sites, has terrific self-discipline with regard to his fitness. He doesn't drink at all and I'm sure I recall Stephen Kenny advising him to cut down on his nightly jogging whilst at Derry, in case he overdid it. So, he did it behind Kenny's back instead.
Last edited by DannyInvincible; 18/09/2012 at 10:12 AM.
I've been told, by one of his teammates at the time, that Paul McShane, when he was at my boyhood club, Joeys, spent a summer training intensively with his father, and I mean intensively, in a bid to make it. He wasn't the best player there (as you can imagine!) but after the training he was in good enough shape to go to England.
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