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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 facing him. He puffs his lips out and moves the walls. Busby, Stein Greig, On and on the icons proceed. “Some sum of leaders within this area, eh?” He states. “Scary.”
This location is his soccer home today, that the irony not lost on him. When he believes about the life is these days during his unforgettable attraction at Kilmarnock it gives him a nod. “I get a little badge to wear,” he cried. “I can go through each of the doorways. I think of the stairs and I don’t have to have my brief to struggle an SFA charge. I move down the staircase after and I’m not walking out having a two-match ban. It’s excellent.”
Clarke is just two games to his Scotland predominate, an overdue win against Cyprus followed by a 3-0 loss in Belgium and a house double-header against Russia and Belgium with the feeling of foreboding about it. He can not quit on qualifying from this team, however in the actual world the months ahead would be about getting his principles based along with his group settled in time to get the Nations League play-offs next year.
The director was hoping to instil some goodwill in his defence for these matches. He wished to go with all the Charlie Mulgrew-Scott McKenna centre-back venture when McKenna had been invalided from the squad, but that notion took. The second in line was Stuart Findlay, however, he moved down as well. He also withdrew, although after Findlay had been Grant Hanley hurt.
Add from the absent John Souttar and you are talking about a state with a shortage of centre-halves dropping four of the ones that they do have previously enjoying with the side that knocked Spain out of their past World Cup. And a few days later playing the country that removed Brazil from exactly the same tournament, who’ve scored seven goals in their past two meetings with Scotland and, oh , are now ranked number one in the world.
Clarke wanted a challenge – and here it is, with bells on. He’s in his infancy in the job, but he’s adjusting to the scene. “Those who know me know that I am really determined, but I’m not one that goes around crying about it. I keep all to myself. I’m a silent individual, which is precisely the reason why this job is a tiny challenge since you need to come outside, you will need to do more press, you have to speak to more folks.
“It’s not me. I’m a guy who likes on his boots, his neck rounds and some training notes. That is what I’m most comfortable performing. The other hand, the corporate entity, going into the boardroom earlier matches – it is a bit strange to me, however I’m likely to be the most effective I could be.”
As a player, a coach and a manager, resilience has been the watchword of Clarke. He was the sort of personality who saw Dan Petrescu took strength from the challenge and arrive at a fanfare to take his place. Petrescu, he reminds me ended up playing right midfield in front of him. He smiles at the memory of this. A redeemed participant seen off. Again.
“I wished to stay in the team however many big names arrived in. Where in the group, didn’t matter. Anywhere. Not a great deal of people recall this but I played with a central refuge if Chelsea won the FA Cup in 1997. I was not a flashy player, never went looking for headlines. Do my job and I just wanted to go out. Folks like me are quite important to managers.”
His journey to Hampden started back at Newcastle when he saw the then-manager Ruud Gullit writing some notes following a reduction to Sunderland and realised another day that what the Dutchman was scribbling was his resignation letter. That place Clarke on the path. In at the deep end. Why not?
He picked up pieces from everyone on the way. By Bobby Robson, who shot more than Gullit, he learned about man administration. Nobody better than Bobby. “He understood players, he knew that the way they think. Don’t lie . 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 might not want to hear. That 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”
At Chelsea, where his bond with Jose Mourinho was strong as it was powerful, he learned about endurance and organisation, about preparation of instruction and gameplans. Mourinho had charm. Clarke would enter his news conferences and just stand in the back of the area to see a master communicator (and manipulator) at the office.
“I have not talked to Jose for a couple of decades now. It’s normal in soccer, you go down the text and different avenues messages tidy and eventually you drift apart. We’ll always have friends, although He’s his life, I’ve my entire life. I saw a quotation from him recently about how he might have to modify his style of direction somewhat, that perhaps the modern player does not react quite as well to this driven means of his. He’s a sequential prize winner, Jose. He will be back”
Clarke became manager of West Brom. He learned many things there which he does not know where to begin. That first 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 game as manager. In his breakthrough season, a hat-trick was scored by Romelu Lukaku. Lukaku has subsequently said that he owes his livelihood.
West Brom finished eighth, an all-time high from the Premier League. Five months into his second time, he had been sacked. “Brutal,” he states. And in case you missed it, then he says it again. “Absolutely barbarous.”
Clarke fell and the axe had dropped four in a row at the. “This was a shock at the time, but I didn’t moan about it. It is like what I said about studying out of Jose and Bobby. I learned a lot. There is A lesson do not lose four. Or respond.
“Maybe I had been feeling the level of the circumstance. Perhaps I did not conduct myself with the ideal ability to demonstrate that I was responsible for Perhaps I panicked a little bit. I don’t know. The board must have noticed something, although I didn’t notice any shift in my demeanour. It is said once you have the sack, that you turn into a manager. I became a supervisor afterward, December 2013.
“it is a really strange career, this. A profession, but really, very barbarous, especially today where everything is transient and instant. I simply moved on. I have always been good at moving , from good and poor. People ask me but I’m one of those guys that if I sell a home I don’t go back and look to determine if they’ve changed the drapes or dug on the bud. I just go. My time with Kilmarnock was very enjoyable, but they’ve got a manager with different ideas and a different method of playing and they must move on with me. For me to keep sticking my oar in there would be incorrect. It’s not my job anymore.”
While realising that there’s a time limit on those things, clarke is a monster in there was near-unanimous approval when he was appointed as manager of the national group that he acknowledges and enjoys. He knows all about the”apathy” which exists out there for the Scotland team right now. He knows that everyone has been ground down by twenty decades of failure.
When Cyprus equalised late in his debut match he could see this, and hear it. “Resigned disappointment” is the way he describes the air at Hampden at 1-1. “To the fans, that equaliser was yet another kick where it really hurts. But we got the winner and you may truly feel the power again. If we get it the fans will come back. They will definitely return.”
He will not lie. He does not understand how much time it will take for items to start working. “I am quietly impressed with the number of gamers. They’re positive. They’re determined to make amends although they’ve realised that they’ve made things hard with all the loss in Kazakhstan. Whether we progress gradually or quickly is something you can’t predict but that this squad has the capacity to improve a good deal.
“The fans are a little down, but that I can’t say that it is going to be a quick fix. I really don’t think you get fixes. Kilmarnock wasn’t a fix. It may have seemed like this, but it wasn’t. The strength at Kilmarnock was not the man player, it was everyone, the team. It took lots of work.
“They bought in to it and they appreciated ruffling a few feathers. They appreciated picking up points against teams they weren’t supposed to pick up points against. Hopefully that is something we could put here, a team which believes itself, believes it can get results, believes it could upset the so-called larger states.”
As well as his trophy-laden Celtic players – he predicts Ryan Christie”electrical” and may now smile when remembering how Christie”totally shattered my Kilmarnock team last season” – Clarke has an greater variety of actors from the Premier League to choose from. Andy Robertson at Liverpool, Kieran Tierney (when fit) in Arsenal, Scott McTominay in Manchester United, Kenny McLean at Norwich, Ryan Fraser at Bournemouth, Robert Snodgrass at West Ham, John McGinn in Aston Villa, Stuart Armstrong in Southampton, Oli McBurnie – the #20m striker – along with John Fleck at Sheffield United.
Appearances may, clearly, be misleading. These boys have a glamorous league but perhaps not all are ordinary starters. Armstrong has not started a match for his club this season. McLean has been in recent matches around on the bench. McBurnie is being eased into it. Snodgrass is out and also in. As he hunts for that cohesion that made Kilmarnock so successful, Clarke says they get a chance to impress Russia and Belgium.
When Robertson and Tierney are both match, what exactly does Clarke do? “Get them at the group. Don’t ask me how, but we’ll find a way when you have great players you need to find a way. It’s a mystery, it is not a problem. Having two excellent left-backs is not an issue. Getting them is something that I want to discover the remedy. I won’t lose any sleep about it just yet. The absolute most significant thing for Kieran is he settles in at Arsenal and we are going to see him when he’s ready.”
Three days 15, ready or not, Scotland and Russia are playing with on Friday and Belgium. A result against the Russians is get-able if Scotland are all that they could be at the evening. Belgium, you fancy, will be another evening seeking to handle the brilliance in the visiting positions. Hampden will find the voice of it , no doubt about that if Clarke gets anything from the game.
“The Tartan Army are through a lot, but they need to enjoy this group. It’s possible to see that. {It is possible to {feel|sen

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