Leaving City was best decision I ever made.. it led me to a whole new football world

BRUM STAR CLAYTON ON LIFE AFTER SKY BLUES

ADAM CLAYTON knows more than most just how tough it is for a young player to succeed at Manchester City.

Clayton (right) began his career at City at the age of seven, before leaving at 20 when he realised he would not make the grade at his boyhood club.

They had just been taken over by Sheikh Mansour and were using his billions to buy the world’s best players, with Clayton’s path to the first-team blocked.

Now 31, he returns to City tomorrow in the FA Cup with Birmingham, insisting leaving was the best decision he ever made.

Despite the success they have since enjoyed, Clayton has no regrets and said young players should not feel a failure for leaving a big club. “What I would say for young players at clubs like City i s that it i sn’t an embarrassment if you can’t get into a team of that calibre,” said midfielder Clayton, whose career has also taken him to Leeds, Huddersfield and

Mi d d l e s b r o u g h

(below, right).

“What I found when I left is that t h e r e’s a n o t h e r whole football world out there.

Before that, for me it was just City.

“That was my world and the centre of the universe, nothing else out there.

“But once you get out of the bubble, there are so many brilliant teams and so many ways of building a fantastic career.

“I did the whole preseason with them one summer and they brought

Gareth Barry in who, at that time, was probably one of the best midfielders i n England. He was playing for England, signed for £20million-plus, so it was a bit of a hard argument to knock on the manager’s office as a 20-year-old and s a y, ‘I think I should be playing.’

“Unfortunately I c o u l d n’ t q u i t e make the final step at City but they gave me a career to be more than proud of and I wouldn’t change anything.

“If I had my time again, I’d have left a year earlier, j ust to have got more playing experience in league football.”

In 2015, Clayton and team-mate George Friend were part of the Boro side that knocked City out of the

FA Cup at the Etihad Stadium and are hoping for a repeat tomorrow.

“We’ve done it before, why can’t we do it again?” said Clayton. “You need your goalkeeper to have a really good game.

“In the first 15 to 20 minutes of that game, I think they probably had eight to 12 shots.

“We kept the score at 0-0 and, in the second half, we nicked one on the break and got another one in the last five minutes.

“You’ve got to have a lot of luck and work hard for each other because many teams have been there and got beaten, including the best in the world.

“At times it’s not too enjoyable – you don’t touch the ball for long periods – but you’ve got to work hard and when you get your moments, hit them on the break.”