Izzy Brown at Huddersfield: But could he still be a Chelsea star?
Friday 3 March 2017 00:34, UK
Chelsea’s Izzy Brown is impressing on loan at Huddersfield and could finally earn himself the chance to prove himself in the Premier League. The man who gave him his debut in 2013 thinks it’s about time. Adam Bate spoke to Steve Clarke to discuss Brown’s journey…
A week after the breathtaking performance of Monaco's Kylian Mbappe at Manchester City, one of England's top prospects, Izzy Brown, found himself rested for Huddersfield's trip to the Etihad Stadium in the FA Cup. Still playing the waiting game. Still a prodigious talent.
Huddersfield manager David Wagner hailed him as the "perfect signing" upon his arrival and Brown, 20, is already proving his new coach right. The Chelsea loanee's brilliant goal in his first home league game for the club was certainly the perfect start.
He has since opened the scoring in narrow wins over Queens Park Rangers and Leeds, taking his total for the Championship season to six given his earlier efforts for Rotherham. Among players under the age of 21, only fellow Chelsea loanee Tammy Abraham can match that.
One of the standout players in his age group and part of the England Under-19 side that got the better of Mbappe's France last year, it is no surprise to see Brown impress. Jose Mourinho once famously suggested that he would have failed in his job at Chelsea if Brown did not go on to become a senior international.
With West Brom, he became the Premier League's second youngest player as long ago as May 2013.
The-then Baggies boss Steve Clarke might have made him the record breaker but decided against it. "I didn't think it was right to put that sort of pressure on Izzy," he tells Sky Sports almost four years on. "The second youngest will do just fine." And there's a wry smile.
Clarke has fond memories. "He was great," he adds. "I brought him up to train with the first team and he didn't look out of place. Obviously, it was difficult for him physically and probably technically at first but he soon adapted and became a big part of the group."
It should have been just Brown's first foray into a long and successful Premier League career. It still should. But amazingly, despite his obvious abilities, it is 2017 and Brown is still waiting for his first start in the competition.
A summer move to Chelsea as a 17 year old put the player on a different path and left Albion questioning their entire academy system. "Why are we bothering?" asked chairman Jeremy Peace when told West Brom would receive no more than £1m in compensation.
Clarke remembers "a level-headed boy with a good family" and wishes him nothing but the best. But his departure is a source of regret even now. "I saw him as a big part of the future at West Brom," he says. "That was how I saw him. I wanted him to sign a new contract."
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"But obviously when a big club like Chelsea comes calling it is difficult for the player and his family to turn that move down. But in terms of his football development it might have been better for him to stay at West Brom.
"Of course, he probably tells it slightly differently but it was very, very disappointing for the club. This was someone they had brought in and developed. Now he was leaving. West Brom certainly didn't get market value for him because of the compensation rules.
"It was disappointing on a number of levels. For me, it was disappointing because this was a young player who I had promised would be part of the first-team squad week in and week out the following season. He would be in and around, he would get matches.
"He would have played. Obviously, he had to keep progressing but he had a role to play at West Brom if he stayed fit and well. It would have been really good for his development but he chose to go down a different path."
That path meant only 10 minutes of first-team football in the following two seasons - ironically coming at the Hawthorns in Chelsea's 3-0 defeat to West Brom there in 2015. But the talent has always been there when Brown has been given the chance to show it.
He helped Chelsea to two FA Youth Cup victories and was man of the match in their UEFA Youth League win in 2015. He was also part of England's European Under-17 Championship winning team in 2014 and impressed in the Eredivisie last season on loan at Vitesse.
The next step is the Championship, first with Rotherham and now with Huddersfield and it is a challenge that could prove to be the final stage in a lengthy schooling. It is telling that Chelsea were "so keen to send him" to Huddersfield, in the words of Wagner.
"Championship football will help him," adds Clarke. "That will toughen him up as it's a different animal, Championship football. It's a relentless grind week in and week out where you're always being asked questions of yourself physically, mentally and tactically.
"Rotherham was always going to be a struggle as they are fighting for their lives, which is a difficult atmosphere for a young player to be in and thrive. But Huddersfield is a different kind of pressure and maybe an environment where he can go and express himself."
It is proving that way so far with Brown already delighting the Huddersfield fans, but the big question for a player of such potential is whether he can have a future at Chelsea. Antonio Conte has shown he is willing to trust in youth - so is there a role in his 3-4-3 system?
Clarke spent more than a decade at Chelsea as a player before taking the role of assistant manager to Jose Mourinho during his first spell at the club. He is more confident than ever before that an opportunity could arise for Brown to flourish at Stamford Bridge.
"He will continue to develop and I think Chelsea are starting to show that they are preparing a pathway for these younger players," says the 53-year-old coach. "That has to be the next target now for a player as good as Izzy.
Izzy has all the offensive skills. We have also helped him with how to play as a man, not a youth footballer.
"When I looked at him as a young player, I saw him eventually becoming a midfielder as opposed to a forward. I think he disagreed with me slightly because young players all want to be forwards. But he has the capability and the physical capacity to be a midfielder.
"I could see Izzy playing as one of the two inside forwards, maybe in the Pedro position. But there's a long way to go before he gets to that situation. I don't think position will matter as much as the fact that he is getting matches. That will help him more than anything."
With big games against Newcastle and Aston Villa coming up, it is a chance for Brown to really generate some excitement about his progress. It has already been a great season for Chelsea, but there is a youngster at Huddersfield giving Conte yet more good news.
