How was I going to get past Ramires and Lampard at Chelsea?
IF Juan Mata found it hard to get a game at Stamford Bridge, then spare a thought for Conor Clifford. Few players have a better understanding than Southend’s midfielder of the labyrinths and tripwires that surround Chelsea’s first-team squad.
It is almost four years since the west Dublin youngster captained Chelsea to their first FA Youth Cup win since 1961. He scored in that 2010 final against Aston Villa and Carlo Ancelotti liked him. He was also there when Andre Villas-Boas banished the reserves to stop them eating with the stars.
Today he is l ooking ahead to Southend’s FA Cup fourth-round tie against Hull City. The League Two side have a chance, Clifford reckons, ‘because we’re at home’. He talks about ‘magic’ and Phil Brown, a ‘good man manager’ and ‘pool bandit’ who is facing his former club. More than any of that, though, he talks about playing games.
‘I love being at Southend,’ he said. ‘It’s great, being in that routine of preparing for games and playing. Or at least knowing you’re not far from the team. It’s so important for a player.’
Clifford is 22 and a year on from his conversation with Neil Bath, the Stamford Bridge academy head, who has had to say the words ‘it isn’t going to happen at Chelsea’ to so many talented players.
Clifford makes it clear that he loved Chelsea and admits that six years at Cobham ‘definitely made me a better player’. But he also has the familiar story of a homegrown player who failed to break into a side that can afford to buy the best.
‘The reason I signed at 15 was Chelsea had the best young players, the best coaches, the best facilities, they play the best teams,’ said the former Cherry Orchard and Crumlin United player. ‘It was a dream. You go there wanting to be a star but it’s very hard. You won’t play unless you are a world-beater. Even then you probably won’t get a chance in the seniors.
‘You could name 10 or 15 players who could have made it at Chelsea and just didn’t get the chance — the likes of Michael Mancienne and Gael Kakuta.
‘They have all had little glimpses but how do you keep Frank Lampard or Ramires out of the team? You can understand why they won’t throw a kid in but maybe in the cups they could give a youngster a chance, like Arsenal and Manchester United do.’
Of the 16 in Chelsea’s victorious Youth Cup, only four are still there. Of those, Josh McEachran is the only one to play for the seniors and this week he was sent to Wigan for his fourth loan spell. Of those who left, only Jeffrey Bruma at PSV Eindhoven gets regular first-team action in what might be deemed a good league, though Jacopo Sala has played three games for Verona in Serie A.
Clifford feels he was about to be called into the first team shortly after that Youth Cup final, but Chelsea’s rapid turnover of managers ended that hope.
‘When you are a young player you need to build momentum with a manager — get his trust,’ said the Dubliner. ‘There were eight or nine while I was at Chelsea.
‘Jose Mourinho was the first. He knew everyone. You’d be walking along and he’d say, “Good morning, Conor”. He was like that with the cleaners right up to John Terry. That’s why everyone loves him.
‘Ancelotti was very nice — a big people person. AVB not so much. He pushed the reserves out of the first-team building. First team and reserves had always eaten together so you can get to know them, meaning that when you get called up to train you are not nervous. Roberto Di Matteo brought us back in.’