Scotland v Russia: Steve Clarke on managers, Mourinho & making amends

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From Tom English
BBC Scotland
Sitting in the Hall of Fame room in the Hampden museum, Steve Clarke includes a six-foot cardboard cut-out of Kenny Dalglish position and the other six-foot cardboard cut-out of Alex Ferguson in front of him. He moves the walls and puffs out his cheeks. Busby, Stein Greig, on the icons and On move. “Some sum of leaders in this place, eh?” He says. “Scary.”
This location is his football home the irony not lost on him. It gives him a chuckle when he believes about how different life is these days during his attraction at Kilmarnock. “I even get a small badge to wear,” he cried. “I can go through each of the doorways. I think of the staircase and that I do not need to have my short to struggle an SFA charge. I proceed down the stairs and I am not walking out having a two-match ban. It is terrific.”
Clarke is two games to his Scotland predominate, an overdue win against Cyprus accompanied with a house double-header against Russia and Belgium and now a 3-0 loss in Belgium that’s the feeling of foreboding about it. He can’t quit on qualifying from the group, however in the real world the months ahead are all about acquiring his principles based and his staff settled in time to its Nations League play-offs next year.
The boss was expecting to instil some goodwill in his defence because of all these forthcoming matches. He wished to go again with all the Charlie Mulgrew-Scott McKenna centre-back venture but that idea took a dive ancient when McKenna had been invalided out of the squad. He went, although the next in line was Stuart Findlay. After Findlay was Grant Hanley, but he disappeared hurt.
Add from the absent John Souttar and you’re referring to a state with a lack of centre-halves losing four of those that they do have before playing the side that knocked Spain from their past World Cup. And then a few days later playing with the country that removed Brazil from exactly the exact same championship, who’ve scored seven goals in their last two meetings together with Scotland and, oh yes, are now ranked number one on earth.
Clarke wanted a struggle – and here it is, with all bells on. He is adjusting to the landscape, although he’s in his infancy in the job. “Those who know me know that I’m really determined, but I’m not one which goes around shouting about it. I keep all. I’m a silent person, which explains the reason this task is a small challenge as you will need to come out, you have to do more press, you need to speak to more people.
“It’s not me. I’m a guy who enjoys his boots on, his neck rounds and some training notes. That is what I’m most comfortable performing. The media side, the business thing, going to the boardroom earlier games – it is a tiny bit alien to me, however I’m going to be the best that I can be.”
As a coach, a participant and a director, resilience has been the watchword of Clarke. He had been the kind of personality who saw Dan Petrescu arrive in a fanfare and took advantage from the struggle. Petrescu, he reminds usended up playing right midfield in front of him. He smiles at the memory of this. A glamour player seen off. Again.
“I wished to remain in the team no matter how many big names arrived in. Didn’t matter where in the team. Anywhere. Not a great deal of individuals recall this but I played with a central refuge, if Chelsea won the FA Cup. I was not a player, never went searching for headlines. I wanted to go out and do my own job. People like me are extremely valuable to managers.”
His journey to Hampden began away back in Newcastle when he watched that the then-manager Ruud Gullit writing a few notes after a loss to Sunderland and realised another day what the Dutchman was scribbling was his resignation letter. Clarke is put by that on the road to coaching. At the deep end. Why not?
He picked up bits from everyone along the way. He learned about man management. Nobody greater than Bobby. “He understood players, he knew that the way they think. Do not lie . They see through lies all day . I tell my players that my door is always open, come and have a conversation but be ready to hear things you might rather not hear. It will be accepted by people, as long as you’re honest. Try to pull the wool over their eyes try to be too smart and you begin to lose them”
At Chelsea, in which his bond together with Jose Mourinho was equally as strong as it had been successful, he learned about intensity and organisation, about preparation of instruction and gameplans. Mourinho had charisma. Clarke would go into his news conferences and stand in the rear of the area to see a master communicator (also manipulator) at work.
“I haven’t spoken to Jose for a couple of years now. It’s normal in football, you move down different paths and slowly the text messages tidy and eventually you float apart. He has his lifetime, I have my life, but we’ll always have friends. I saw a quotation from him lately about how he may have to change his manner of management a bit, that perhaps the modern player does not react quite as well to that driven way of hisor her He is a serial prize winner. He will be back.”
Clarke became director of West Brom. He learned many things there that he doesn’t understand where to start. That season was Kilmarnock-like in texture. West Brom beat Liverpool (double ), both Everton and Chelsea and drew 5-5 with Manchester United in Ferguson’s farewell match as manager. In his breakthrough year, Romelu Lukaku scored a hat-trick. Lukaku has said that he owes his career to Clarke.
West Brom completed an all-time high from the Premier League, eighth. Five months into his second season, he had been sacked. “Brutal,” he states. And in case you missed it,” he says it. “Absolutely barbarous.”
Clarke had dropped four in a row in the and the axe fell. “This was a shock at the moment, but I didn’t moan about it. It is like what I said about studying out of Bobby and Jose. I heard a lot at West Brom. A lesson is don’t lose four. Or respond if you do.
“Perhaps I was feeling the level of the situation. I didn’t conduct myself with the ability to demonstrate I was still in control. Perhaps I just panicked a bit. I don’t know. I didn’t notice any change in my demeanour, however, the board should have noticed something. It is said that you simply turn into a supervisor when you receive the sack. Well, I became a supervisor December 2013.
“it is a very peculiar profession, this. A profession, but very barbarous, especially now where what’s instant and passing. I moved on afterwards. I’ve always been great at moving on, from poor and good. Folks ask me about Kilmarnock, but I am one of those guys that if I sell a house I don’t go back and look to see if they dug the grass or’ve changed the drapes. I go. My moment with Kilmarnock was quite enjoyable, but they’ve a manager today with a different means of playing and ideas and they have to move on together without me. I would like to keep sticking my oar in there would be wrong. It’s not my job anymore.”
Clarke is a beast in that there was near-unanimous acceptance when he was appointed as manager of the national team he appreciates and acknowledges while realising that there’s a time limit on those things. He understands all about the”apathy” that exists out there to the Scotland team at this time. He understands that everybody has been ground down by twenty decades of failure.
When Cyprus equalised late in the part in his debut match, he can see this, and hear it, for himself. “Resigned disappointment” is how he describes the atmosphere at Hampden at 1-1. “To the fans, this equaliser was yet another kick where it actually hurts. But then we got the winner and you may truly feel the power . The fans will return if we get it right. They will definitely come back.”
He won’t lie. He doesn’t understand how much time it will take to start working. “I’m lightly impressed with the number of players. They’re positive. They’ve realised that they have made things hard with the reduction in Kazakhstan but they are determined to make amends. Whether we progress slowly or quickly is something that you can not predict but this group has the potential.
“The fans are a little down, but that I can not say that it’s likely to be a quick fix. I really don’t think you get fixes. Kilmarnock wasn’t a fix. It wasn’t, although it may have looked like that. The power at Kilmarnock wasn’t the player, it was everybody working together using a means of playing that they appreciated, the group. It took lots of difficult work.
“They bought in to it and they enjoyed ruffling a few feathers. They enjoyed picking up things against teams that they weren’t designed to pick things up against. Hopefully that’s something we can put here, a team which believes itself, considers it could get results, believes it could upset the so-called larger nations.”
As well as his trophy-laden Celtic players – he predicts Ryan Christie”electric” and will grin when remembering how Christie”completely shattered my Kilmarnock team last season” – Clarke has an increased variety of performers from the Premier League to pick from. Andy Robertson at Liverpool, Kieran Tierney (when match ) at Arsenal, Scott McTominay in Manchester United, Kenny McLean at Norwich, Ryan Fraser at 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, naturally, be deceptive. These boys have a league but perhaps not all are ordinary starters. Armstrong hasn’t begun a game for his club this season. McLean was around on the bench in recent matches. McBurnie is being slipped into it. Snodgrass is outside and in. Clarke says they get a chance to impress Belgium and Russia as he searches for that cohesion that produced Kilmarnock so powerful.
If Robertson and Tierney are both match, 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 good you need to discover a way. It’s a puzzle, it is not a problem. Having two excellent left-backs is never an issue. Getting them is something which I want to discover the solution to when the moment comes. I will not miss any sleep about it just yet. The absolute most essential thing to get Kieran is that he settles in at Arsenal and we are going to see him when he’s ready.”
Three times 15, Willing or not, Scotland and Russia are enjoying on Belgium and Friday. If Scotland are that they could be on the evening An effect from the Russians is get-able. Belgium, you fancy, will be an additional forlorn evening hoping to handle the various brilliance at the visiting ranks. Hampden will find it has voice , no doubt about that, When Clarke gets anything from the game subsequently.
“The Tartan Army have been through a lot, however they would like to appreciate this team. It is possible to see that. {You can {feel|sen