Last updated at 12:40, Tuesday, 03 November 2009

If Adam Clayton could bottle the confidence and positive attitude he exudes, he’d be as rich as the Manchester City superstars currently blocking his route to the first team.

Adam Clayton

The 20-year-old midfielder has his career path clearly plotted - and he isn’t going to let self-doubt knock him off course.

Clayton can already picture the day when he is starring at Eastlands alongside the likes of Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez and Robinho, and he has the talent, hunger and determination to back up his ambition.

He has already been on the bench twice for City in a Premier League game against West Brom and FA Cup tie against Nottingham Forest last season, but the youngster has been squeezed out of the first-team picture for the time being at least by their mega-rich Arab owners promising to build a global super-team.

However, the England youth international, who starred at this summer’s Under-20 World Cup in Egypt, believes his short-term move to Carlisle United will propel him a step closer to Mark Hughes’ first team.

“I’ve trained with Manchester City and personally think I’ve done OK and I think I can play in that team,” he said.

“If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out, but I have in my brain that I will play for Man City and Carlisle could be my first stepping stone towards achieving that. I just have to work as hard as I can and play as well as I can, and see where it gets me.

“If it gets me into the Man City team then great, if it doesn’t then I can always play for Carlisle.

“I would like to be a mix of Stephen Ireland and Nigel De Jong because I like attacking and I like the defensive side of it as well, as I like getting stuck in.”

Clayton, who has five England under-20 caps, may at times feel over-awed by the big names in the Eastlands dressing room, and he admits their arrival came as a blow to his first-team chances this season.

It’s not surprising he had high hopes of featuring in the Premier League this season after Hughes blocked Carlisle’s bid to sign him on loan last season and drafted him into his first team.

But then new owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan handed the City boss a blank chequebook in the summer to sign some of the world’s greatest players and home-grown youngsters like Clayton, who has been connected with the club since the age of seven, are facing a frustrating wait in the shadows and having to be content with reserve-team football.

He said: “When I was on holiday in the summer I got a text from a friend saying Emmanuel Adebayor had signed and another the next day saying Tevez had signed. I was crying into my lilo!

“I’ve never been star-struck in front of anyone but the first day Robinho walked in I was, like, ‘Wow, it’s Robinho!’

This season we’ve got Adebayor, Barry, Tevez.

“In training the standard is different class.

“You have to pinch yourself sometimes. Sometimes you have to stand back and think ‘Wow, how do they do things like that?’

“City are going to go from strength to strength and they are going to be a top three team.

“I have the chance to learn from them and hopefully I can become a better player and take it into proper games for Carlisle.

“You need to play games. Reserve games are all right but I want to play for three points and in games that mean something. That’s why I’ve come here.”

Playing reserve team football in front of a sparse crowd, often against teenage opponents, can be soul-destroying and it doesn’t always equip players for competitive, first-team action.

The opportunity to play in League One for Carlisle is heaven-sent for Clayton, who admits he owes much to City’s bad-boy striker Craig Bellamy for his words of encouragement in training last Friday when he told his team-mate that Carlisle were interested in signing him.

Clayton said: “Carlisle isn’t a club I knew too much about but since agreeing to come here I’ve done some research and it’s a good club. I couldn’t have asked for better since I got here. The lads have been great and the gaffer has told me exactly what he wants.

“Everybody is a winner – me, Carlisle and Man City. My career needs to start now as I have been playing reserve football for two years.

“I need games and I need experience and the gaffer here is going to give me a chance here.

“I was on the bench last season against West Brom. The gaffer told me to strip off and, while I was waiting to go on, they scored – and he told me to sit down. So I was quite close. I was also on the bench against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup.

“I’ve just come back from the Under-20 World Cup where I played in front of 30,000 people and that was the first time I’ve played in front of a crowd at Carlisle. I can’t wait to play in front of a crowd and if I score I’m going to go and run straight to the fans.

“I can’t wait to run out in front of the fans – it’s going to be a great buzz.”

First published at 11:37, Tuesday, 03 November 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk