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By Tom English
BBC Scotland
Sitting at the Hall of Fame room in the Hampden museum, Steve Clarke has a six-foot cardboard cut-out of Kenny Dalglish standing behind him and a different six-foot cardboard cut-out of Alex Ferguson facing him. He puffs his cheeks and scans the walls. Busby, Stein, McNeill, Greig, around the icons and On proceed. “Some sum of leaders within this place, eh?” He says. “Scary.”
This place is his soccer home today, that the irony not lost on him. It gives him a chuckle when he thinks about the different life is these days during his bout at Kilmarnock. “I get a small badge to wear,” he cried. “I can go through all the doorways. I think of the staircase and that I don’t need to have my short to struggle with an SFA charge. I go down the stairs and I’m not walking out having a ban. It is good.”
Clarke is two games into his Scotland reign, a late win against Cyprus followed by a 3-0 loss in Belgium and a house double-header against Russia and Belgium that has the feeling of foreboding on it. He can’t quit on qualifying out of the team, however in the actual world the weeks ahead are all about acquiring his principles based and his staff settled in time to get the Nations League play-offs year.
The director hoped to instil some continuity in his defence because of all these forthcoming games. He wanted to go with the Charlie Mulgrew-Scott McKenna centre-back partnership but that idea took a dive early when McKenna had been invalided from the squad. The second in line was Stuart Findlay, but he went down too. In addition, he withdrew, although after Findlay has been Grant Hanley hurt.
Insert from the absent John Souttar and you’re discussing a country with a shortage of centre-halves losing four of those that they do have prior to playing the aspect that knocked Spain from the last World Cup. And then a few days later playing the country that eliminated Brazil from the identical championship, who’ve scored seven goals in their past two encounters together with Scotland and, oh , are currently ranked number one in the world.
Clarke needed a struggle – and that it is, with bells on. He is in his infancy in the job, but he’s adjusting to the scene. “Those who know me know that I am really decided, but I am not one which goes around shouting about it. I keep everything to myself. I am a quiet person, which explains exactly the reason why this task is a tiny challenge as you will need to come outside, you want to do more press, you have to speak to more individuals.
“It’s not me. I’m a guy who enjoys his boots , tracksuit whistle around his neck and some training notes. That is what I am most comfortable doing. The other hand, the business entity, moving into the boardroom earlier matches – it’s a tiny bit strange to me, but I’m going to be the best I could be.”
As a coach, a participant and a manager, resilience has been Clarke’s watchword. He was the type of character who watched Dan Petrescu arrive at a fanfare to take his position and took advantage. Petrescu, he reminds us, ended up playing . He smiles at the memory of it. A glamour player seen off. Again.
“I wanted to stay in the team however many big names arrived . Where in this group, Do not matter. Anywhere. Not a great deal of individuals remember this but when Chelsea won the FA Cup I played a central defender. I was never a player, never. I just wanted to go outside and do my own job. Folks like me are extremely important to managers”
His trip to Hampden began away back at Newcastle when he watched that the then-manager Ruud Gullit composing some notes following a reduction to Sunderland and realised the next day what the Dutchman was scribbling was his resignation letter. That put Clarke to coaching on the path. At the deep end. Why not?
He picked up bits from everyone. By Bobby Robson, who shot over from Gullit, he learned about man administration. Nobody greater than Bobby. “He knew players, he knew the way that they think. Do not lie to them. They see through lies all day long. I tell my players that my door is always open, come and have a chat but be ready to hear things you may rather not hear. That will be accepted by Individuals, as long as you’re honest. Try and pull the wool over their eyes or try to be too smart and you begin to lose them.”
In Chelsea, where his bond with Jose Mourinho was as strong as it had been successful, he learned about organisation and intensity, about preparation of instruction and gameplans. Mourinho had charm. Clarke would enter his news conferences and just stand in the rear of the room to find that a master communicator (also manipulator) at the office.
“I have not spoken to Jose for a few years now. It is normal in football, you move down gradually the text and different paths messages dry up and eventually you float. We’ll always be friends, although he has his life, I’ve my life. I saw a quote from him lately about how he might need to change his manner of management a bit, that perhaps the modern player doesn’t react quite as well to this driven way of his. He is a serial prize winner. He’ll be back.”
Clarke became director of West Brom. He discovered many things there that he does not know where to start. That year was Kilmarnock-like in feel. West Brom beat Liverpool (double ), Everton and Chelsea and drew 5-5 with Manchester United in Ferguson’s farewell match as manager. In his breakthrough period, Romelu Lukaku scored a hat-trick. Lukaku has subsequently said that he owes his livelihood.
West Brom completed eighth. Five months into his second year, he was sacked. “Brutal,” he says. And in case you missed it,” he says it. “Absolutely barbarous.”
Clarke dropped and down the axe had dropped four in a row at the. “This had been a shock at the moment, but I did not moan about it. It’s about learning out of Jose and Bobby, similar to what I said. I learned a lot at West Brom. A lesson is don’t drop four. Or react better if you do.
“Perhaps I was feeling the power of the situation. Perhaps I didn’t conduct myself with the right authority to show that I was in control. Maybe I panicked a bit. I really don’t know. I didn’t observe any change in my demeanour, but the board must have noticed something. They say that you only turn into a supervisor when you have the sack. Well, I became a manager afterward, December 2013.
“It’s a very strange profession, this. A great profession, but really barbarous, especially today where what’s more instantaneous and transient. I moved on afterwards. I have always been good at moving on, from poor and good. Folks ask me but I’m one of these guys that if I sell a home I don’t go back and look to determine whether they’ve changed the drapes or dug the grass. I go. My moment with Kilmarnock was enjoyable, but they have a new manager now with unique ideas and a different way of playing and they have to move on together with me. I would like to continue sticking my oar in there will be wrong. It’s not my job ”
Clarke is a beast in there was approval when he had been appointed as director of the group that he acknowledges and appreciates while realising that there’s a time limit on these things. He knows all about the”apathy” that is out there for the Scotland team at the moment. He understands that everyone was ground down by 20 decades of failure.
He can see it, and listen to it, for himself if Cyprus equalised in his debut match in the role. “Resigned disappointment” is how he describes the atmosphere at Hampden at 1-1. “To the fans, that equaliser was yet another kick in which it really hurts. But then we got the winner and you might truly feel the power again. The fans will come back if we get it right. They’ll definitely come back.”
He won’t lie. He does not know how long it will take for items to start working. “I’m quietly impressed with the number of players. They are positive. They’re determined to make amends although they’ve realised that they’ve made things difficult with all the reduction in Kazakhstan. Whether we progress quickly or slowly is something you can’t predict but that this squad has the potential to improve a lot.
“The fans are a little bit down, but that I can’t say that it’s likely to be a fast fix. I really don’t believe you get fixes. Kilmarnock wasn’t a fix. It was not, although it might have seemed like this. The strength at Kilmarnock was not the participant, it was everyone, the team. It took a lot of work.
“They bought into it and they appreciated ruffling a few feathers. They appreciated picking up points against teams that they weren’t designed to pick points up against. Hopefully that is something we can put together here, a group which believes in itself, considers it could get results, believes it could upset the so-called larger states.”
Also as his trophy-laden Celtic players – he calls Ryan Christie”electrical” and may now smile when remembering how Christie”totally shattered my Kilmarnock team last season” – Clarke has an higher variety of performers from the Premier League to choose from. Andy Robertson at Liverpool, Kieran Tierney (when match ) in Arsenal, Scott McTominay at Manchester United, Kenny McLean at Norwich, Ryan Fraser in Bournemouth, Robert Snodgrass in West Ham, John McGinn at Aston Villa, Stuart Armstrong in Southampton, Oli McBurnie – the Number 20m striker – and John Fleck at Sheffield United.
Appearances can, clearly, be deceptive. These boys have a league that is glamorous but maybe perhaps not all are starters. Armstrong hasn’t started a match for his club this year. McLean has been on the bench in recent matches. McBurnie is being eased into it. Snodgrass is outside and now also in. Clarke says they’ll all get a chance to impress Belgium and Russia as he searches for that cohesion that produced Kilmarnock successful.
If Robertson and Tierney are equally fit, what does Clarke do? “Get them at the team. Do not ask me how, but we will get a way when you have players that are good you need to find a way. It’s a mystery, it’s not a problem. Having two terrific left-backs is not an issue. Getting them in the group is something that I need to discover the solution to when the time comes. I won’t lose any sleep about it just yet. The most significant thing to get Kieran is that he settles in at Arsenal and we’re going to see him when he’s ready.”
Three days 15, Willing or not, Scotland and Russia are currently playing with on Friday and Belgium. If Scotland are that they could be on the night An effect from the Russians is get-able. Belgium, you fancy, will soon probably be an additional evening trying to handle the various brilliance at the visiting positions. Hampden will find the voice of it again, no doubt about it if Clarke gets anything from the game then.
“The Tartan Army have been through a good deal, but they want to love this team. You’re able to observe that. {You can {feel|sen
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