Tim Clancy says ‘the sky is the limit’ for defender James Abankwah as the clock ticks down on his summer move to Udinese.
The St Patrick’s Athletic defender joined the Serie A side last month in a deal worth roughly half a million euro but was immediately loaned back until the summer.
18-year-old Abankwah will continue to play with the Saints until he completes his Leaving Cert in the summer, at which point he’ll link up with Udinese’s first team.
He played his first competitive game of the season on Friday night as the Athletic lost out on penalties to Shamrock Rovers in the President’s Cup.
Abankwah had already departed at that stage, however, having sustained a minor knock to his achilles in a collision with centre-half partner Joe Redmond.
Clancy confirmed that neither Abankwah’s injury, nor the one that forced off Jamie Lennon soon after, are serious and he expects them to return for the league opener at Shelbourne.
“He got raked in the achilles and it was a bit sore,” an upbeat Clancy said following the full-time whistle.
“When the [subsequent] set piece was taken, you could see he was limping again and it was just more precautionary. When he came off, he actually said he was fine.”
Eoin Doyle scored a debut goal to put the FAI Cup holders in front before Hoops captain Ronan Finn equalised, both in the second half.
Amid atrocious weather, it went all the way to penalties, Saints captain Chris Forrester the man to slip up as his spotkick was saved by Alan Mannus.
Jack Byrne, making his second debut for the Tallaght club, rolled home the deciding penalty on what was otherwise a difficult evening for the champions.
Abankwah gelled well with Redmond, who followed Clancy from Drogheda United in the off-season, in what could become Clancy’s first-choice centre-half partnership.
Clancy said: “James has shown again [his quality] there tonight for a kid that's just turned 18, and obviously he's got a big move to Serie A.
“It shows his quality there and, over the next five months, we're going to see James develop and keep getting better and better.
“That's the reason why [Udinese] have invested heavily in him. The sky's the limit for James and his career.”
Abankwah was the only member of the back five surviving from last season’s squad - Paddy Barrett missed out with injury - and Clancy gave out six debuts in total.
It was a mistake from one of those, West Ham loan keeper Joseph Anang, that led to Finn’s equaliser but Clancy was pleased overall with how his new men performed.
“Coming to the home of the champions of the last two seasons, with the quality they have and what they've shown in the last few years, I think [we] were very good,” he said.
“If we were a little bit better and had more quality in the final third, I think we possibly might have won the game.
“We're looking at things and we're only a new squad together. There's a lot of continuity and you can see that they all know each other.
“We're still in the early phase of that, getting to know each other. We still created a few chances and plenty of positives to take.
“It's going to take a few games but again I think we're going to get stronger as each game goes by and certainly tonight is something we can build on.
“I thought [the new signings] were excellent, really good. Good fitness levels showed and obviously we created a good few chances.
“As the season kicks in, we'll be hoping that we get sharper in the final third.”
