Irish Chelsea Wonderboy

Ichiro

Hello all,

After becoming so disillusioned with the Irish Senior setup I have turned towards our young hopefuls.
A friend of mine tells me there is a young Dublin fella by the name of Conor Clifford at Chelsea!
Is he any good and what have people heard?
Please pass on any players you reckon will show our nation some promise?
PS what Club did Conor come from ?

Cheers

Ichiro

KdjaCL

Crumlin United



Definitley one to watch, he is meant to be something special.

Regarded as prodigy but tbh they all are from there, club knows how to sell kids to bigger clubs.


kdjac

20 Times 20 Times

9 / 10 of these boys that go across water don't make thats the sad fact , what is good though is that the bigger teams are sending these boys to courses so they have SOMETHING to fall back on when they don't make it.

Ichiro

Who's calling him a prodigy?????
That's a lot of pressure on a young lad!
If he's that good why not hold on to him?
Also my mate was talking about a Hamilton Academicals player can't remember his name any ideas?

KdjaCL

Ichiro wrote: »

Who's calling him a prodigy?????
That's a lot of pressure on a young lad!

Crumlin United are, if all reports on this lad are true regardless of who he is playing for he will play full international for ireland at some stage, we all know it wont be at chelsea when someone else can be bought. if he goes to another PL club we will be happy.


kdjac

~Rebel~

Ichiro wrote: »

Also my mate was talking about a Hamilton Academicals player can't remember his name any ideas?

I know the chap you're talking about, his name escapes me at the moment, but Liverpool were hounding them to get him, to no avail as of yet. He wants to remain for another while. Meant to be something special.

<edit> His name is James McCarthy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/h/hamilton_academical/6638285.stm

James McCarthy has rejected a move to Liverpool that could have earned Hamilton Accies £1m for the 16-year-old midfielder, his agent has claimed.

Celtic, Rangers, Reading, Sheffield United and Tottenham Hotspur were also interested in McCarthy.

Agent Bill McMurdo told The Sun: "Liverpool wanted to take him to Italy for a tournament last week.

"They agreed to meet Hamilton's asking price, which would have earned them around £1m if James made the grade."

McCarthy has made 24 appearances for First Division outfit Accies after breaking into the first-team at New Douglas Park.

"Sheffield United were also desperate to sign him and said they would put him straight into their reserve side," added McMurdo.

"They said he would be in the first team within a year.

"Reading and Spurs were also after James, while here, Rangers and Celtic are interested.

"But he has decided that he wants to stay with Hamilton for another year.

"I can't fault his judgement. He has only just left school and is from a close family.

"If he feels happier waiting for another season then that is the right thing to do."

cson

James McCarthy. Courtesy of wiki

>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McCarthy_%28footballer%29

Couple of young players in the championsip I wonder how they're doing; Owen Garvan and Shane Supple at Ipswich and Adam Rooney at Stoke?

KdjaCL

cson wrote: »

Adam Rooney at Stoke?

Turned down a loan move to Pats in summer as he reckoned he could do better, dont think he has played again since we were in for him, but after shafting his brother i doubt we will get him

pats fan hope we get him.

ireland fan hopes he stays and gets to the PL.


so mixed


kdjac

cson

Billy Clarke was another Ipswich youngster whatever happened to him.

smackbunnybaby

KdjaCL wrote: »

Turned down a loan move to Pats in summer as he reckoned he could do better, dont think he has played again since we were in for him,

for a young fella he didnt have a bad record last season in england and he must be gutted in isnt getting a look in this year:

Years Club App (Gls)*
2006- Stoke City 15 (4)
2007 → Yeovil Town (loan) {{0}}3 (0)
2007 → Chesterfield (loan) {{0}}6 (3)

MrJoeSoap

cson wrote: »

Billy Clarke was another Ipswich youngster whatever happened to him.

I take it you haven't been following Ipswich recently so?

smackbunnybaby

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

I take it you haven't been following Ipswich recently so?

they are the new sunderland.
i heard they have a young fella called george o callaghan on the books too but he is out on loan. anyone have any info on him?

MrJoeSoap

Hmmm, I may have heard of Gorgeous George somewhere before...

He's on loan at Brighton at the moment. Not exactly young any more though, 28 now.

eirebhoy

cson wrote: »

Couple of young players in the championsip I wonder how they're doing; Owen Garvan and Shane Supple at Ipswich and Adam Rooney at Stoke?

Garvan is the man man at Ipswich, Supple is the number 2 keeper. Garvan is top of the assist stats in the championship with 7.

cson

Would he be worth a call up to the senior squad?

eirebhoy

I think so anyway. He's a cert to be an Ireland regular at some point and it's another year before our next competitive.

iregk

Cliffy is certainly making quite a bit of noise in the academy. Last time I was over there I had a good half hour long conversation with some of the club staff about him. All of them saying he is a great player. Certainly on the fans borads they are raving about him.

Ichiro

Irky,

Out of curosity what had you over in the academy?
and are there any more Irish there?

eirebhoy

Ichiro wrote: »

Irky,

Out of curosity what had you over in the academy?
and are there any more Irish there?

This guy but he'll probably be released soon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Simmonds

growler

KdjaCL wrote: »

Crumlin United are, if all reports on this lad are true regardless of who he is playing for he will play full international for ireland at some stage, we all know it wont be at chelsea when someone else can be bought. if he goes to another PL club we will be happy.


kdjac

yawn.


Why would Chelsea invest so much in building an academy and focus so much on developing their own talent in order to sell them, its been a key objective for chelsea, what they have doen in the past (with virtually no youth set up) doesn't mean they will do the same in the future.

Your chelsea bashing is geting really fvcking tiresome.

And as Iregk points out all the feedback from Chelsea about him has been really positive.

shoutman

that clifford lad turns into a legend in Football Manager, those guys are never wrong! lol.

PHB

growler wrote: »

Why would Chelsea incest so much in building an academy and focus so much on developing their own talent in order to sell them, its been a key objective for chelsea, what they have doen in the past (with virtually no youth set up) doesn't mean they will do the same in the future.

Do you want a real answer? It's to stop other clubs from getting them.
Also, maybe, maybe, maybe Kenyon has an ounce of a conscience and is hoping to set up a solid youth system in case Ambrovomich ****s off and leaves the club with huge huge huge huge huge huge debts.
Or maybe it's because UEFA rules will state soon that you must have 4 players from your academy to play in the Champions League.

Personally I think it's a combination of three and one.

growler

PHB wrote: »

Personally I think it's a combination of three and one.

same as everyone else then

PHB

No, I don't think that United/Arsenal buy young players in order to stop others getting them, I think they buy them in order to bring them into their team in the long run.
I do not believe that Chelsea have any intention of suffering a short term loss of blooding a youngster for the long term gain of it. Man Utd and Arsenal are willing to accept that.

cson

Ok, lets say we got 4 similarly talented youngsters. One at Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea. Which one would have the best chance of making the breakthrough? The real answer imo is that none would. Its very very seldom a youth from a big club breaks into the first team, chances are we might never see the likes of Beckham/Scholes/Nevilles/Butt or even Fowler/McManaman/Carragher again.

You'll see that most clubs are now doing the Arsenal method with regard to youngsters (I may be a tad biased but I believe it was Wenger who started this change in policy amongst the big clubs). The big clubs buy in their youngsters, think Fabregas at Arsenal, Pique at Man Utd and Palacio (sp? Argentinian CB) at Liverpool, even Mikel at Chelsea.

Mr Alan

I agree to a large extent with Cson's point, but i do think that there will be home-grown players coming through as well, certainly at Liverpool. I fully expect Ray Putterill and Jay Spearing to be featuring in the first time, or at least giving it a good go over the next few years, both are good scouse lads far as i know

iregk

Ok PHB. Give me 1 example of a player Chelsea bought to stop anyone else getting him?

This seems to be a common theme and in my opinion is clutchin at straws from opposing fans.

Ichiro, I wasn't over in the academy. I was in the bridge (on a tour) and got talkign to the two tour guides. Turns out one of them runs the fan site I'm a member of. Anyhow met the two of them the following day for a few pre match drinks as we were all heading there and we had a great chat about the youth system/players coming through etc... Apart from Fabio Fererra and one of two others who we know about Cliffy was the one guy there were all excited about apparently.

growler

he doesn't know coz we already bought them , but if we hadn't Man U would have , which would have been ok , because they made Beckham and Scholes into footballers.

see ?

PHB

Ok PHB. Give me 1 example of a player Chelsea bought to stop anyone else getting him?

Eh, Shaun Wright Phillips?

growler

are we not talking about kids here ?

Thanx 4 The Fish

That was not the question you asked though growler, was it ?

zAbbo

This young lad might be good, but he's no Steve Sidewell

DonJose

Remember all the talk about Anthony Stokes and all the clubs trying to win his signature. So far he's proved a flop, hasn't scored in the PL and only scored 2 goals in the CL.

PHB

He apparently got a bit too big for his boots and I think Keane is taking him down a notch, getting his mindset right, then I think he will make an impact in the long term.

growler

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote: »

That was not the question you asked though growler, was it ?

i didn't ask any question, iregk did, but as the discussion was about producing premiership quality talent form youth academies I figured that any example of a player bought to prevent the opposition getting him would be in relation to said youth schemes.

If not, then we probably have a long list of players we've bought to prevent others getting them, most notably the Mikel saga.

iregk

PHB wrote: »

Eh, Shaun Wright Phillips?

Ok, so at a time when Chelsea were looking for 2 good players for every position and only had one for the right hand side, who had a somewhat injury stricken spell, what do they do? They had been playing Arjen Robben out of position to cover a problem position and needed a proper out and out right winger.

A player playing for Man City has just had a great spell and all of a sudden half the country is looking for him and he seems like a really good transfer. Ok the price was too high but as soon as the blues come in clubs up it by 10m! Chelsea got a player who was one of the most sought after in the country at the time and seemed to be the perfect answer to the problem RM position.

So tell me exactly how is that buying him just so others couldn't? Do clubs not buy players they think they will need or is this another case of its Chelsea so lets all have a go?

~Rebel~

iregk wrote: »

So tell me exactly how is that buying him just so others couldn't?

Because they proceeded to not play him very much for the next year. He got a precious few starts, most of which he was taken off for, and a couple of cameo's for the last 20, or 10mins.

I would have said fair enough if they paid over 20million for a player they then put effort into integrating into the side, but instead it was like they just got bored of him quickly. For a confidence player, he couldn't have been handled much worse, and we're now seeing what he can do when handled properly, encouraged and shown some faith.

growler

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Because they proceeded to not play him very much for the next year. He got a precious few starts, most of which he was taken off for, and a couple of cameo's for the last 20, or 10mins.

I would have said fair enough if they paid over 20million for a player they then put effort into integrating into the side, but instead it was like they just got bored of him quickly. For a confidence player, he couldn't have been handled much worse, and we're now seeing what he can do when handled properly, encouraged and shown some faith.

all that shows is that it wasn't a match made in heaven, that SWP didn't quickly or slowly fit into the team / style of play and that chelsea may not have handled his integration very well, all easy so say with hindsight, but it doesn't show we bought him so no one else could have him.

~Rebel~

In all fairness though, even if he were a cheap player, it would have been a harshly poor effort to give him a chance. To not give a serious proper chance to a player who just cost over 20million pounds is not the mark of a team that bought him with thoughts of him being a final piece of the puzzle/important cog in the machine.

He was off the back of a fantastic season with Man City where he was one of the most exciting talents in the league. He was then never given the chance to secure a place in the team he deserved. Would have been fine if given a real chance and flopped, but he wasn't.

mikemac

While it's exciting to read about future Irish international stars, as already said the fact remains that very few of the players will make it.
Full of talent maybe but that's no guarantee of a successful career.
So lay off knocking Kevin Kilbane!

Richie Partridge at Liverpool anyway.
A few years ago everyone was hyping him up.
Was awarded best player for Liverpool reserves two years in a row afaik.
That's quite an achievment for a young player considering how many international and experienced players played in Liverpool Reserves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richie_Partridge

Playing League Two football now and I'd wager most of the "prodigys" in this thread will end up there too.
Sad but it's a fact

~Rebel~

micmclo wrote: »

While it's exciting to read about future Irish international stars, as already said the fact remains that very few of the players will make it.
Full of talent maybe but that's no guarantee of a successful career.
So lay off knocking Kevin Kilbane!

Richie Partridge at Liverpool anyway.
A few years ago everyone was hyping him up.
Was awarded best player for Liverpool reserves two years in a row afaik.
That's quite an achievment for a young player considering how many international and experienced players played in Liverpool Reserves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richie_Partridge

Playing League Two football now and I'd wager most of the "prodigys" in this thread will end up there too.
Sad but it's a fact

I firmly believe he had the talent to make it, which he showed while on loan, but crippling injuries really destroyed his career. He never manager to get the right build either, always seemed a bit light.

This i suppose agrees with your point really, that there's any number of things that can go wrong to a player with all the potential in the world.

Unearthly

You only need to look at the successful youth teams under Brian Kerr, not 1 world beater came out of them

Ichiro

Just read our Under 18's lost 4 nil to Germany what of the guys in that sqaud????
Any of them worth anything? (taken from the fai.ie website)

Republic of Ireland:
Kieron Thorp - Crystal Palace
Gareth Matthews - Norwich City
Gavin Gunning - Blackburn Rovers
David Joyce - Birmingham City
Danny Kelly - Norwich City
Kurtis Byrne - Hibernian
Conor Clifford - Chelsea
Damian McCrory - Plymouth Argyle
James O'Brien - Birmingham City
James McCarthy - Hamilton Academicals
Sean Scannell - Crystal Palace
Substitutes:
David Maguire - Shrewsbury Town
Laurence Gaughan - Celtic
Joe Collins - Portsmouth
Jamie Devitt - Hull City
Shane O'Connor - Liverpool
Patrick Madden - WFTA
Jack Roberts - Lincoln City.

~Rebel~

Connor Clifford and James McCarthy are the only two i've heard of, both tipped for big things (already mentioned in this thread as well).

Ichiro

I hear Kurtis Byrne scored a Hat trick for Hibs on the weekend in a youth cup match, hopefully some good will come of him!

iregk

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Because they proceeded to not play him very much for the next year. He got a precious few starts, most of which he was taken off for, and a couple of cameo's for the last 20, or 10mins.

I see the point your trying to make and its a common theme when this comes up. The fact remains SWP started 10 straight games after his transfer. Tactically he didn't track back and didn't look interested in fighting to win the ball back when he lost it. Now under Jose this was not the way as Joe Cole also found out, but nobody mentions hime. The result is he was dropped. It wasn't until last season (only his 2nd season btw!) that he brought this into his game and was rightly rewarded for it and played regularly throughout the 2nd half of the campaign.

This year he started like a man possessed and rightfully held down his place. Now in recent times he has lost form a little and has been in and out of the squad.

I'm more curious to see this list of players PHB can produce to back up his statement that Chelsea buy players (that's plural) with the sole intention of stopping other clubs.

Mitch Connor

Unearthly wrote: »

You only need to look at the successful youth teams under Brian Kerr, not 1 world beater came out of them

keane and duff have done well enough for themselves.

zAbbo

Ages 17-21 are the most important for footballers these days, You can't blame Brian Kerr for the lack of development of his successful underage teams during that period.