“I would have loved to play for Derby so much more” – Mark O’Brien Exclusive Interview

Mark O’Brien joined Derby County in 2008 at youth level and went on to play 32 times for the Rams, while it might seem like he wasn’t around for long, his Derby career was hampered by injuries and setbacks during his seven years with the club.

I sat down and spoke with the former Derby defender and we discussed him joining the Rams, the impact that Nigel Clough had on him as a player and person, the 13/14 season under Steve McClaren and his inevitable departure from the club.

On joining Derby County, O’Brien said…

“When I was at Cherry Orchard, what really happens is because our Sunday league teams are so competitive and it is a really strong league, a lot of scouts go and watch a lot of the games, I’ve been on trial at Man City, Liverpool and Blackburn before I went to Derby so it’s just a process of a club asking and enquiring about you and from 14 and 15 you can go over on trial whichever team has asked about you.

“Derby asked me to come over for a day to play a game for the U14’s and we played Everton away, I flew over on a Saturday morning, met up with the team, we won 3-2 and scored the winner then went home that night.

“It was a good trial for me and they got me back over again for a week’s training, I loved every minute of it and because it felt like a home away from home I knew it was a place I wanted to start my football and move away and I knew it was a place I would hopefully end up getting a chance because they ended up making me feel so welcome, you could tell they really wanted me to sign there and there’s no better feeling than knowing that someone wants you”

On breaking into the Derby first team…

“It is pretty hard to forget that year in itself, I ended up getting Republic of Ireland U16 player of the year, Derby County Academy player of the year and at the end of that season,  I had a week’s training with the first team and it all felt so fast-tracked and so soon but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way and Nigel Clough had all trust in me and he could see something in me.

“I was lucky enough that at that time he was manager, when we played Watford away, traveling down on the bus and everything like that, I never felt so quiet in all my life, everything was going so great and I came on after 60 minutes and when I started playing I just knew this is something I wanted to do, playing in front of crowds of people, I just loved every minute of it.”

On his injuries hampering his game time…

“That’s the highs and lows of football, sometimes you can’t get too carried away with the highs but you can’t get too sad with the lows and I think that’s something that I learned really really early on from such a young age, I always knew that when things are going well just go with the flow and enjoy it for what it is because I knew from the heart operation and the ACL injury that things can change quickly in football.

“Obviously I would have loved to play for Derby so much more and there were injuries and a lot of other things that did hold me back but at the same time if it wasn’t for the likes of Nigel Clough who stuck by me through it all, maybe my career wouldn’t have happened and I wouldn’t have been able to make that small name for myself so early on that I was able to progress my career and people take chances on me because they already knew of me.

“If I was somebody with a different manager and after my first or second injury, they get rid of you and don’t want to help you through, I owe a lot to Derby as a club in themselves and the manager Nigel Clough, I owe them a lot for sticking by me and showing me that trust through the injuries I did have.”

On the support from Nigel Clough and Derby throughout his rehabilitation…

“It was brilliant because I was still only 16, 17, 18, I was still learning what football is about, I’m still learning what it’s like to live away from home, I’m still learning so many different things as well as being in the first team, the support of him [Clough], Andy Garner, Gary Crosby, everyone who was involved in the club were so supportive of me through really difficult times that 9/10 people don’t face.

“The support gave me an extra boost and that extra bit of confidence to get myself back to play for Derby and give everything I could for the club as I felt like I owed a lot to Derby rather than the complete opposite of if they had got rid of me or not support me you never know what sort of direction my career could have gone in.

“I’ve said it before that him [Clough] as a person and a manager towards me, if it wasn’t for him I may never have had a career at all and that’s the way I’ve always looked at it, after operations he would phone me to make sure I’m doing everything correctly, even to this day after this heart operation that’s retired me, I get a phone call off Nigel Clough to see how my recovery is going and see how everything is going.

“He’s somebody that if you do right by him and apply yourself and have the right attitude, he does right by you and sometimes you don’t get that enough in football and I was lucky enough that he was the kind of man that does that”

On Clough’s methods…

“He is a hands-on person, and he is someone that doesn’t take any rubbish from anyone, he’s very strict on his teams, he’s very organised, where if everything is going well, he doesn’t let you get carried away. He trusts in his whole method of if you’re good enough, you’re old enough and he puts a lot on your shoulders and tries to get the best out of you.

“There was one morning, the groundsman was cutting the park to play cricket on, we just thought it was going to be a fun day and we don’t know what’s happening, we had to wear all the cricket pads, there’s me from Ireland that’s never played a game of cricket in my life, there was Thomasz Cywka that’s never played a game of cricket in his life.

“The difference was as we were all doing it as a joking around session, his method behind it was that if you get thrown yourself an obstacle, if you don’t apply yourself right in whatever you are doing, then you’re not going to apply yourself on a Saturday.

“You look back at it now and see the point and method to it but at the time, you’re trying to play a game you’ve never played before and he’s having a go at you for not swinging the bat properly or he’s having a go at you for not bowling the ball properly, you kind of think, well I’m not a cricket player, I have no idea what I’m doing.

“Thomasz Cywka was throwing it like a baseball and it was crazy but his method behind it was if you don’t want to apply yourself for this cricket game properly, then why will you apply yourself for a game on Saturday properly and you do understand it but it was a strange training session to know we were playing cricket with all the gear, that is something that sticks out in my mind.”

On Clough’s man-management and the incident between Clough and Cywka at an away game at Portsmouth…

“I recall there was a couple of times where Nigel Clough has had a go at a couple of people, and I remember I was in the firing line for a couple but again it’s between manager and player.

“When things didn’t happen like he expected them to happen, like you say it’s kind of the old school art of kill the game, take the ball to the corner, time waste, go down and stretch your hamstrings and let the physio come on and slow the game down, obviously away at Portsmouth at the time, if you didn’t do the horrible, tactical side of the game, it really got under his skin.”

On how Clough liked his team to be and Clough’s departure… 

“During his time at Derby when I was there, he tried to create a good, tight-knit team where everybody got along with everybody and that’s something that goes a long way in football if you have a great changing room, great attitudes, good characters in and around the place it goes a long way and it shows when you’re out and performing on the pitch, everybody wants to work hard for each other.

“That was something he installed into the team, as a manager obviously if things aren’t going well, he has that other side to him and he will let you know about it if he’s not too happy about things but he’s also a very family-orientated man that if players had new-born babies or certain things were happening at home with people’s families, he was just as sympathetic, he was very understanding and had both sides to him and he was brilliant for it.

“I was disappointed to see him leave because at the time I was just returning from a knee injury, with me being so close to returning, he was saying how excited he was to see me back out on the pitch, it was just one of those things that when he did leave, it was just unknown territory for me because all I knew was Nigel Clough as manager so when Steve McClaren came in, I enjoyed every minute under him and I felt myself improve more on my technical side of the game like playing out from the back and being more comfortable on the ball.”

On how Steve McClaren helped him improve as a player…

“I was just adding things to my game, whereas Nigel Clough helped me perfect the basics which I was good at, he helped me grow up and mature very quickly, then McClaren came along and I was enjoying training but I was feeling down when Nigel left but at the same time my heart was still with Derby and playing as many games as possible for Derby so if that meant trying to force my way into a Steve McClaren side then that’s what I was going to try to do.

“When a new manager comes in it’s a clean slate, players that didn’t play under Clough could have been playing under McClaren. That’s what happens in football, a new manager can come in with all new ideas, but I was just a couple of weeks off getting back into training before Nigel left and I would have probably been in better stead had Nigel left a few weeks later after being able to train.

“That’s just sometimes how football works, when I did get myself back fit, I made the bench a few times, but it was a whole different way of playing football and what I was used to because of playing under Clough for so many years.”

On being part of that 13/14 season squad…

“Richard Keogh and Jake Buxton played every game that season right the way to Wembley and it was a great experience being part of a squad that was on their way to Wembley and being part of success at the time, it was a whole new experience for me at the time and I enjoyed every minute of it.

“Everybody to a man was brilliant, there was Jeff Hendrick, Will Hughes, Chris Martin, Craig Bryson, and Johnny Russell and then the lads who weren’t playing, Zak Whitbread, all players like that.

“Zak is someone who I trained alongside and played next to him in some reserve games, he was great for me and for the experience he had playing for the likes of Liverpool and all teams like that.”

On trying to force his way into the team and learning from others…

“When you have two centre-backs in the main team who are playing every minute of every game, there isn’t much you can do at the time as a player sitting and waiting for a chance, they’re the kind of people that if something wasn’t going right, you’d hope to get a chance but I just sat back and tried to learn from them and what they were doing and how they had managed to change their game from Clough over to McClaren and training with players like that day in, day out, it just improves you as a player.

“It is frustrating because when you’re a player, all you want to do is play games and I would have loved to play in that team but sometimes you have to just get along with it and train hard every single day, sometimes even harder than the others because you never know when that opportunity might fall your way but when you have two centre-backs that are playing each week, are on a great run to Wembley, you have to try and turn it into a positive and see the good that they’re doing and how they apply themselves.

“When you can’t get into the team with players playing so well you have to turn it into a positive and when you’re not playing you have to learn from them and hopefully when you did get in the team or if push comes to shove and you have to move on, which I did in the end, it will put me in a better position as a player”

O’Brien has more recently been in and around Newport County still, acquiring his coaching badges and helping out with coaching on occasion.

On behalf of everybody at Prost I would like to wish Mark a happy retirement and good luck for all future endeavours.

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