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By Tom English
BBC Scotland
Situated in the Hall of Fame room in the Hampden museum, Steve Clarke has a six-foot cardboard cut-out of Kenny Dalglish position and another six-foot cardboard loaf of Alex Ferguson in front of him. He moves the walls and puffs his lips. Busby, Stein, McNeill, Greig, On and on the icons go. “Some sum of leaders within this place, eh?” He says. “Scary.”
This location is his football home today, that the irony not lost on him. It gives him a nod when he believes about how life is these days during his memorable attraction in Kilmarnock. “I get a little badge to wear,” he smiles. “I can go through all the doors. I think of the stairs and I don’t need to have my brief to fight an SFA charge. I proceed down the stairs afterwards and I am not walking out using a ban. It’s wonderful.”
Clarke is just two matches into his Scotland predominate, a win against Cyprus followed by a home double-header from Russia and Belgium and now a 3-0 loss in Belgium that has the sense of foreboding on it. He can’t give up on qualifying from this team, but in the actual world the weeks ahead are all about acquiring his principles established and his staff settled in time to the Nations League play-offs year.
The director was expecting to instil some goodwill in his defence for these matches. He wanted to go again with the Charlie Mulgrew-Scott McKenna centre-back partnership but that idea took a dive ancient when McKenna had been invalided from the squad. He went, although the second in line was Stuart Findlay. Following Findlay has been Grant Hanley, however, in addition, he withdrew hurt.
Add in the absent John Souttar and you are referring to a country with a shortage of centre-halves shedding four of the ones that they do have previously playing with the aspect that knocked Spain out of the last World Cup. And a couple of days later playing with the nation that removed Brazil from exactly the identical tournament, who’ve scored seven goals in their last two encounters together with Scotland and, oh , are now ranked number one on earth.
Clarke needed a struggle – and here it is, with all bells on. He’s adjusting to the scene, although he’s in his infancy in the job. “Those who know me know that I’m really decided, but I am not one that goes around shouting about it. I keep everything to myself. I’m a silent person, which is why this job is a tiny challenge since you want to come outside, you will need to do more press, you need to speak to more folks.
“It is not me. I am a guy who likes his boots , his neck rounds and some training notes. That’s what I am most comfortable performing. The media side, the corporate thing, moving to the boardroom before matches – it’s a tiny bit alien to me, however I’m going to be the very most effective I can be.”
As a coach, a player and a manager, resilience has been Clarke’s watchword. He had been the sort of character who saw Dan Petrescu took advantage from the struggle and arrive at a fanfare. Petrescu, he reminds me ended up playing . He almost smiles at the memory of it. A redeemed participant seen off. Again.
“I wished to stay in the group no matter how many big names came . No matter where in this team. Anywhere. Not a great deal of individuals remember this but if Chelsea won the FA Cup I played as a central defender. I was not a flashy player, never. I just wanted to go out and do my job. Folks like me are extremely valuable to managers”
His trip to Hampden began back at Newcastle when he watched the then-manager Ruud Gullit composing a few notes following a reduction to Sunderland and realised the next day that what the Dutchman was his resignation letter. Clarke is put by that to coaching on the path. In at the deep end. Why not?
He picked up bits along the way from everyone. He learned about man management. Nobody greater than Bobby. “He knew players, he understood the way they think. Don’t lie to them. They see through lies all day long. I tell my players that my door is always open, come and have a conversation but be prepared to hear things you may not want to hear. It will be accepted by people, as long as you’re honest. Try to pull the wool over their eyes or try to be overly clever and you start to lose them.”
In Chelsea, where his bond with Jose Mourinho was as strong as it was successful, he learned about organisation and intensity, about planning of training and gameplans. Mourinho had charm. Clarke would enter his news conferences and just stand at the rear of the area to see that a master communicator (and manipulator) at the office.
“I haven’t spoken to Jose for a few years now. It’s normal in football, you go down gradually the text and different avenues messages tidy and eventually you float apart. We’ll always have friends, although He’s his life, I have my entire life. I saw a quotation from him recently about how he may have to change his manner of direction somewhat, that maybe the contemporary player doesn’t respond quite as well to this driven method of his. He is a sequential prize winner, Jose. He will be back”
Back in June 2012, Clarke became director of West Brom. He discovered so many things there that he doesn’t understand where to begin. That first year was Kilmarnock-like in texture. West Brom beat Liverpool (twice), both Everton and Chelsea and drew 5-5 with Manchester United in Ferguson’s farewell game as manager. In his breakthrough season, Romelu Lukaku scored a hat-trick. Lukaku has then said that he owes his career to Clarke.
West Brom finished eighth, an all-time high in the Premier League. Five months into his second season, he had been sacked. “Brutal,” he says. And in case you missed it, he says it . “Absolutely barbarous.”
Clarke fell and down the axe had lost four in a row at the build-up to Christmas. “It was a shock at the time, but I did not moan about it. It’s about studying out of Jose and Bobby like what I said. I heard a lot. There is A lesson don’t lose four. Or react.
“Perhaps I had been feeling the strength of the circumstance. I didn’t run myself with the ability to demonstrate that I was in control. Perhaps I just panicked a bit. I really don’t understand. I didn’t observe any shift in my demeanour, but the board must have noticed something. They say when you get the sack that you come to be a manager. Well, I became a manager then, December 2013.
“It’s a really peculiar profession, this. A terrific profession, but really barbarous, especially now where what’s passing and more instantaneous. I just moved on. I’ve always been good at moving on, from good and poor. People ask me but I’m one of these guys that when I sell a home I do not go back and look to see whether they dug the grass or’ve changed the drapes. I only go. They’ve got a new manager now with unique ideas and a method of playing and they must move on together with me, although my moment with Kilmarnock was enjoyable. For me to keep sticking my oar in there would be wrong. It is not my job ”
While realising that there’s a time limit on those things, clarke is a rare monster in that there was acceptance when he had been appointed as director of the team, a level of service that he acknowledges and appreciates. He understands all about the”apathy” that is out there for the Scotland team right now. He knows that everybody was ground down by 20 years of failure.
If Cyprus equalised late in his debut match he could see it, and hear it. “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 we got the winner and you could truly feel the power. The fans will come back if we get it all right. They’ll definitely return.”
He won’t lie. He does not know how long it will take to get items to begin working. “I am lightly impressed with the number of gamers. They’re positive. They are determined to make amends although they’ve realised that they’ve made things hard with all the loss in Kazakhstan. Whether we progress slowly or quickly is something you can’t predict but that this squad has the potential to improve a good deal.
“The fans are a little bit down, but that I can’t say that it’s going to be a quick fix. I really don’t believe you get fixes. Kilmarnock wasn’t a fast fix. It wasn’t, although it may have looked like that. The strength at Kilmarnock wasn’t the player that is individual, it had been everybody, the group. It required lots of difficult work.
“They bought into it and they enjoyed ruffling a few feathers. They enjoyed picking up things against groups that they were not designed to pick up things against. Hopefully that’s something we could put here, a group which believes in itself, believes it can get results, considers it can upset the so-called bigger countries.”
Also as his trophy-laden Celtic players – he predicts Ryan Christie”electrical” and may now smile when recalling how Christie”completely shattered my Kilmarnock team last season” – Clarke has an higher number of actors from the Premier League to select from. Andy Robertson at Liverpool, Kieran Tierney (when fit) in Arsenal,” Scott McTominay in Manchester United, Kenny McLean at Norwich, Ryan Fraser in Bournemouth, Robert Snodgrass in West Ham, John McGinn at Aston Villa, Stuart Armstrong at Southampton, Oli McBurnie – the #20m striker – along with John Fleck in Sheffield United.
Appearances can, obviously, be deceptive. These boys are in a glamorous league but maybe not all are starters. Armstrong hasn’t started a match for his club this season. McLean was in recent matches on the bench. McBurnie is being slipped into it. Snodgrass is out and also in. Clarke says they get a chance to impress Belgium and Russia, as he hunts for that cohesion that made Kilmarnock so powerful.
If Tierney and Robertson are both fit, what exactly does Clarke do? “Get them at the team. Do not ask me how, but we’ll find a way, shout, whenever you have players that are great you have to find a way. It’s a mystery, it’s not a issue. Having two is not an issue. Getting them is something that to when the time comes, I want to find the remedy. I won’t miss any sleep about it. The most crucial thing to get Kieran is that he settles in at Arsenal and we are going to see him if he is ready.”
Three days ready or not, Scotland and Russia are currently playing with on Friday and Belgium. When Scotland are all that they can be at the evening A result against the Russians is get-able. Belgium, you fancy, will soon be an additional forlorn evening attempting to deal with the brilliance at the visiting positions. If Clarke gets anything in the match subsequently Hampden will find the voice of it again, no doubt about it.
“The Tartan Army are through a good deal, however they need to love this team. That can be seen by you. {It is possible to {feel|sen

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