A few days ago, we heard that young midfielder Conor Clifford was likely heading out on loan to League One side Portsmouth. While this would be great news for Clifford, the timing was a little odd with Portsmouth possibly days away from liquidation. This morning, Clifford had some quotes for The Portsmouth News:
I’m really happy to be here. Hopefully the club can get sorted and I can sign here for the season. From what I’ve seen, you wouldn’t know there were problems off the pitch. I’m not worried about that. It’s been good.
I’m on my last year at Chelsea and I’m looking to go out on loan. I got the call off the gaffer (Appleton) here to come down, have a look and see what happens. I’ve been playing games for the reserves at Chelsea but it’s such a massive squad at the club.
There are lads who are looking to go out on loan and look somewhere else because it’s so hard to break through at Chelsea. So my plan is to get out and play as many games as I can this year. Then I can see what happens next year. I just need to get out and play first-team football somewhere – and I’d love that to be at Portsmouth
Personally, I love this potential loan move. It's great for Clifford, as Portsmouth is a club where he'd almost certainly see plenty of minutes. It's great for Portsmouth, as they just need to save as much money as possible. If I was Michael Emenalo, I'd be watching the situation at Portsmouth closely. Should they not be liquidated, they will have plenty of minutes for young players. We have plenty of young players that need minutes. We'd also be doing a solid fanbase a huge favor by helping the club in a rough financial time. Cross your fingers that Portsmouth aren't liquidated, as that's really not good for anybody.