Clifford has Blues potential, claims Clement
Ireland youth international midfielder Clifford, 17, played his first full game for Chelsea’s reserves in Wednesday’s 2-2 draw with St. Patrick’s Athletic in a friendly at Richmond Park.
Clifford, who captained Sean McCaffrey’s Ireland at last May’s UEFA Under-17 Championship finals in Turkey, is making good progress and Clement says he has the right attributes to do well in the game.
“Conor is doing ok,” said Clement. “It was one of his first games at this level. He did OK, it’s a bit quicker — men’s football — but he’ll grow up quick. It was good for him to play, to play here in front of his family. He’s a very good trainer and works hard.
“He plays most of his games at youth level and is in the team almost every week. He’s making steady progress.”
Making the breakthrough at a top club like Chelsea, who can spend tens of millions to bring in ready made superstars, is an awesome task for any youth team player.
“It’s difficult to say, but everyone has a chance as they’re in the system,” said Clement, who worked under Don Givens for three years until pressure of work at Chelsea forced him to give up his post with the FAI last September.
“You never know where they might end up as there are a lot of hurdles along the way. But they’re in the right place to learn.
“Conor is a decent passer, he has a good range of passing. One of his best things is that he runs hard and his work ethic is very good. He has a good attitude to learn and improve.
“They can have all the talent they want, but if they don’t have the attitude to want to get better they’ll go nowhere.
“It is tough to break through, but there are two ways you can look at it. You can go to the best and give it your best shot, and if you don’t make it maybe you can find your level afterwards. Or you do it the other way. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way of doing it.
“What we can offer at our club is excellent facilities, training, give the players every chance and really help them to try and achieve their potential. But it’s very difficult to try and predict what will happen.”
Clifford relishes working with some of the world’s top professionals.
“It’s going well. I’m doing all right over there and I love it really,” said Clifford. “I’ve been in with the reserves training a lot, but this was my first time going away with them. Hopefully I’ll stay with them now and get a game on a regular basis.”
The club encourage interaction between their trainees and top stars.
“We see them every day. We are in the same building and we eat lunch with each other,” Clifford explained. “At the start of the season we had meetings with the first-team players in our positions. They were just telling us what to practice on and what skills we need to be a midfielder. Ballack was in talking with us and then Essien.”
Clifford accepts it was a gamble to go to Chelsea when he might have a better chance of breaking through earlier at a smaller club.
“It was. I could have gone somewhere lower where I would have had a better chance of getting in, but the best facilities in the world are at Chelsea. I’m playing with the best players in Europe and from around the world and that’s going to help me play. That’s going to make me better.
“I’m getting the best of coaching. And if it doesn’t work out at Chelsea I can go somewhere else hopefully and get in there. I feel like I’ve got better. Training every day, your touch, awareness and match tempo gets better.
“My goal for this season would be to stay in the reserves and keep pushing on, let the first-team manager see what I can do. You never know, if I get a chance I just have to take it.”
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