Conor Clifford

[Angell Delight]

The problem with Clifford is Brown clearly doesn't trust him to play a disciplined role in his team - unlike Leonard, Timlin, Deegan, Atkinson who are given roles and are capable of sticking to them. It's another reason why we have a decent defensive record under PB who likes his midfield to be well-drilled. Clifford can be hot-headed and I always got the feeling he was never far away from a poor challenge that would put us in trouble. Admittedly he had improved this part of his game somewhat early on in the season but he still drifted at times positionally and I believe this could be one of the main reasons he's not had a look in (unless there's been a falling out between player and manager of course).

He could go on to have a good career elsewhere, good luck to him. Fact is we have an awful lot of CM's and Clifford clearly isn't going to play, best to let him move on and kick-start his career. Clearly he will move for free but hopefully PB and RM will be smart enough to insist on a sell-on incase he develops under new management.

 

[spoons]

Brown must have rated him when bringing him in, so either bad decision or poor managent of a promising player. He always gave 100% and improved his discipline with better tackling.
Not many of our players improve under Brown, a good example being Hurst who is a shadow of what he was. Straker and Mohsni further examples.

 

[Ricky Otto]

Brown must have rated him when bringing him in, so either bad decision or poor managent of a promising player. He always gave 100% and improved his discipline with better tackling.
Not many of our players improve under Brown, a good example being Hurst who is a shadow of what he was. Straker and Mohsni further examples.

I’m not sure the examples you give illustrateyour point very well. Hurst had a very good season last season under Brown,with a very good scoring return, fair enough he hasn’t done that this seasonbut wouldn’t write him off all players have blips. Mohsni is an awful exampleas he was only here for a few months under Brown and the issues were there longbefore Brown came in. Straker didn’t go backwards under Brown either, ifanything he was better under Brown although he wasn’t great under either manager.

 

[mrsblue]

The problem with Clifford is Brown clearly doesn't trust him to play a disciplined role in his team - unlike Leonard, Timlin, Deegan, Atkinson who are given roles and are capable of sticking to them. It's another reason why we have a decent defensive record under PB who likes his midfield to be well-drilled. Clifford can be hot-headed and I always got the feeling he was never far away from a poor challenge that would put us in trouble. Admittedly he had improved this part of his game somewhat early on in the season but he still drifted at times positionally and I believe this could be one of the main reasons he's not had a look in (unless there's been a falling out between player and manager of course).

He could go on to have a good career elsewhere, good luck to him. Fact is we have an awful lot of CM's and Clifford clearly isn't going to play, best to let him move on and kick-start his career. Clearly he will move for free but hopefully PB and RM will be smart enough to insist on a sell-on incase he develops under new management.

Agree with this.

They must of fallen out so Phil unloads CC.

 

[WESTY_SUFC]

I am sure you remember Steve Tilson's disastrous misjudgement of Hooper. The Clifford situation could be a re-run of that.

Hooper had lots of chances but didn't perform for us. Plus he wasn't released...we got a very good amount of money for him. Also I don't remember any comments on this message board about that so called disatrous decision at the time.

Kightly would of been a better comparison.

Just for the record I don't rate Clifford anything beyond an average league 2 midfielder. He has the potential to improve but if we want promotion now wages are best spent elsewhere.

 

[rigsby]

Brown must have rated him when bringing him in, so either bad decision or poor managent of a promising player. He always gave 100% and improved his discipline with better tackling.
Not many of our players improve under Brown, a good example being Hurst who is a shadow of what he was. Straker and Mohsni further examples.

How come if a player is transfer listed it MUST be PBs fault. We don't know all the reasons but could there be just a small chance that CC has had something to do with this decision. For what its worth Straker was no great player, or loss to us. Im told he could be disruptive. So PB done what every other manager, who has been in the job for a year would do.

 

[KiwiRob]

I don't agree Hooper had loads of chances. He was rarely given a series of starts in the first-team and when he played Tilson would stick him out on the wing more often than not. However, Hooper got a fair amount of chances as a substitute.

Hooper was loaned to Hereford and started scoring freely. He was recalled to Southend and given one start before being dropped again. That spoke volumes. The fact that most of Southend's rivals, including Scunthorpe, were prepared to pay big money for then a young striker should have alerted the Southend management team that Hooper had genuine ability.

Prior came out publicly and said Hooper would be better than Eastwood. But Tilson and Brush thought they clearly knew better. They did not.