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By Tom English
BBC Scotland
Situated at the Hall of Fame room at the Hampden museum, Steve Clarke has a six-foot cardboard cut-out of Kenny Dalglish position and a different six-foot cardboard cut-out of Alex Ferguson facing him. He puffs out his cheeks and scans the walls. Busby, Stein Greig, on the icons and On move. “Some sum of leaders in this area, eh?” He states. “Scary.”
This place is his soccer home now, the irony not lost on him. When he believes about the different life is these days after all the verbal battles with the authorities during his unforgettable bout in Kilmarnock it gives him a nod. “I get a small badge to use,” he smiles. “I will go through each of the doorways. I think of the stairs and I do not need to have my short to combat an SFA charge. I go down the staircase after and I’m not walking out using a two-match ban. It’s terrific.”
Clarke is just two matches to his Scotland reign, a late win against Cyprus accompanied by a 3-0 loss in Belgium and a house double-header from Belgium and Russia with the feeling of foreboding on it. He can’t quit on qualifying out of the team, but in the real world the weeks ahead would be about acquiring his principles established and his group settled in time for its Nations League play-offs next year.
The boss hoped to instil some goodwill in his defence because of all these games. He wanted to go with all the Charlie Mulgrew-Scott McKenna venture when McKenna had been invalided out of the group, but that idea took. The next in line was Stuart Findlay, but he moved. In addition, he disappeared, although after Findlay was Grant Hanley hurt.
Insert from the absent John Souttar and you’re talking about a state with a lack of centre-halves shedding four of those they do have previously enjoying with the side that knocked Spain out of their past World Cup. And then a few days later playing the nation that removed Brazil from precisely the exact same championship, who have scored seven goals in their last two encounters together with Scotland and, oh , are currently ranked number one on earth.
Clarke wanted a challenge – and that it is, with all bells on. He is in his infancy at work, but he’s adjusting to the scene. “People who know me know that I’m really determined, but I am not one that goes around shouting about it. I keep all to myself. I’m a quiet individual, which explains the reason this task is a small challenge as you want to come outside, you have to do more media, you will want to talk to more folks.
“It’s not me. I am a guy who likes his boots , his neck rounds and likely some coaching notes. That is what I am most comfortable doing. The media side, the corporate entity, going to the boardroom earlier matches – it is a tiny bit alien to me, however I’m going to be the very most effective I could be.”
As a coach a participant and a director, resilience has been the watchword of Clarke. As a right-back in Chelsea he was the sort of personality who saw Dan Petrescu arrive at a fanfare to choose his place and took strength. Petrescu, we are reminded by him ended up playing right midfield in front of him. He almost smiles at the memory of it. A glamour player seen off. Again.
“I wished to stay in the group however many big names came . Where in this group, No matter. Anywhere. Not a lot of people recall this but when Chelsea won the FA Cup I played with as a central refuge. I was never a player, never went looking for headlines. I wanted to go outside and do my job. Folks like me are very important to managers.”
His trip to Hampden began away back at Newcastle when he watched that the then-manager Ruud Gullit composing a few notes after a reduction to Sunderland and realised another day that what the Dutchman was scribbling was his resignation letter. Clarke is place by that to coaching on the path. In at the deep end. Why not?
He picked up bits from everyone along the way. He learned about man administration. Nobody better than Bobby. “He knew players, he understood that 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 prepared to hear things you might rather not hear. It will be accepted by people, provided that you are honest. Attempt and pull the wool over their eyes or try to be overly clever and you begin to lose them”
In Chelsea, where his bond with Jose Mourinho was strong as it had been successful, he learned about organisation and intensity, about planning of training and gameplans. Mourinho had charisma. Clarke would enter his news conferences and just stand at the back of the room to find that a master communicator (and manipulator) at work.
“I haven’t spoken to Jose for a few years now. It’s normal in soccer, you go down slowly the text and different paths messages tidy and you drift. He’s his life, I have my entire life, but we’ll always have friends. I saw a quote from him recently about the way he might have to change his manner of direction somewhat, that maybe the contemporary player does not respond quite as well to this driven means of hisor her He’s a sequential trophy winner, Jose. He’ll be back”
In June 2012, Clarke became manager of West Brom. He discovered many things there that he does not understand where to start. 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 match as director. In his breakthrough year, Romelu Lukaku scored a hat-trick. Lukaku has said that he owes his livelihood.
West Brom finished eighth. Five months into his second season, he was sacked. “Brutal,” he says. And in case you missed it, then he says it again. “Absolutely brutal.”
Clarke fell and the axe had dropped four in a row at the. “It had been a shock at the time, but I didn’t moan about it. It’s like what I said about learning from Bobby and Jose. I learned a lot. A fantastic lesson is do not drop four in a row. Or respond.
“Perhaps I had been feeling the power of the situation. Maybe I did not conduct myself with the perfect authority to show that I was responsible for Maybe I simply panicked a bit. I don’t know. I didn’t observe any change in my demeanour, however, the board needs to have discovered something. They say as soon as you have the sack, that you just turn into a manager. I became a supervisor then, December 2013.
“It’s a really strange career, this. A profession, but really, very brutal, especially now where everything is more instant and passing. I simply moved on. I’ve always been great at moving on, from good and bad. People ask me about Kilmarnock, but I am one of those guys that if I sell a house I do not go back and look to determine if they have changed the curtains or dug the grass. I go. My time with Kilmarnock was enjoyable, but they’ve a manager now with ideas and a means of playing and they must move on without me. For me to continue sticking my oar in there might be wrong. It is not my job ”
Clarke is a beast in that there was near-unanimous acceptance when he was appointed as manager of the national group that he appreciates and acknowledges while realising that there’s a time limit on these things. He understands all about the”apathy” that exists out there to the Scotland team at this time. He knows that everybody was ground down by twenty decades of failure.
If Cyprus equalised in the position in his debut match, he can see this, and hear it, for themself. “Resigned disappointment” is the way 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 may feel the power . When we get it the fans will come back. They’ll definitely come back.”
He will not lie. He doesn’t know how much time it will take to start working. “I am softly impressed with the number of players. They are positive. They’ve realised that they have made things difficult with all the loss in Kazakhstan but they are determined to make amends. Whether we advance quickly or slowly is something that you can’t predict but this group has the capability.
“The fans are a little bit down, but I can not say that it’s going to be a quick fix. I don’t believe you get fixes. Kilmarnock wasn’t a fix. It wasn’t, although it might have looked like that. The power at Kilmarnock wasn’t the participant, it had been everybody working together using a means of playing that they enjoyed, the team. It took a lot of hard work.
“They bought into it and they appreciated ruffling a few feathers. They enjoyed picking up things against groups that they weren’t designed to pick points up against. Hopefully that is something we could put together here, a group which believes in itself, considers it can get results, considers it could upset the so-called larger countries.”
As well as his trophy-laden Celtic players – that calls Ryan Christie”electric” and will now smile when recalling how Christie”absolutely destroyed my Kilmarnock team last season” – Clarke has an greater variety of performers from the Premier League to pick from. Andy Robertson at Liverpool, Kieran Tierney (when fit) in Arsenal,” Scott McTominay in Manchester United, Kenny McLean in Norwich, Ryan Fraser in Bournemouth, Robert Snodgrass at West Ham, John McGinn in Aston Villa, Stuart Armstrong in Southampton, Oli McBurnie – the Number 20m striker – along with John Fleck at Sheffield United.
Appearances can, obviously, be deceptive. These boys are in a league that is glamorous although perhaps not all are starters. Armstrong hasn’t begun a match for his club this season. McLean was on the bench in recent matches. McBurnie is being eased into it. Snodgrass is outside and now in. Clarke says they get a chance to impress Belgium and Russia as he hunts for that cohesion that created Kilmarnock powerful.
When Tierney and Robertson are equally match, what does Clarke do? “Get them at the team. Don’t ask me how, but we’ll find a way, Listen, when you have players that are good you need to find a way. It is a puzzle, it’s not a issue. Having two terrific left-backs is not an issue. Getting them into the group is something which to when the time comes, I want to discover the remedy. I won’t miss any sleep about it. The absolute most crucial thing for Kieran is he excels in at Arsenal and we are going to see him if he is ready.”
Three times 15, Prepared or not, Scotland and Russia are currently playing with on Friday and Belgium. There is against the Russians A result get-able when Scotland are that they could be at the evening. Belgium, you fancy, will be another forlorn evening hoping to deal with the brilliance in the positions that are visiting. Hampden will find it’s voice , no doubt about that, In case Clarke gets anything from the game.
“The Tartan Army are through a lot, however they want to appreciate this team. You can observe that. {You can {feel|sen
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