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25th Jul 2016

Nigel Clough signs Irish player, but doesn’t seem to rate the League of Ireland

Robert Redmond

Nigel Clough has made a comment that won’t go down well with League of Ireland fans.

The Burton Albion manager has just signed Ryan Delaney from Wexford Youths on a two-year deal, with the option of a further year, after a successful trial period.

The 19-year-old defender has been playing for Wexford for the past two seasons, and while Clough was complimentary of Delaney, his comment about the standard of play in Ireland won’t be met well with fans on this side of the water.

Clough said Delaney has yet to “play at a decent level.”

Ryan Delaney 2/7/2016

“He looked good again at Matlock. He’s someone who can play left-back and left-sided centre-half, and he’s looked comfortable,” Clough told the Burton Mail.

“He’s not been in full-time training and he’s blowing a bit at the end of games, and in the next month or two we’ll look to get him up to speed. We do (see him as a squad option). We’ve not got too many squad numbers but if we think he’s good enough, we’ll play him.”

“He’s only 19 and when you think he’s not really played at a decent level, he does a lot of things naturally.

Burton Albion will be in the Championship next season.

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