FORTRESS Rugby Park
Steve Clarke helped Chelsea rack up an incredible 86-game unbeaten run at Stamford Bridge and wants to base his Kilmarnock revolution around...
IT sits nestled among some of the wealthiest and most desirable postcodes in Britain, but there was a time when a trip to the dentist would have held greater appeal for opposition teams than a visit to Stamford Bridge.
Certainly, Kilmarnock would give their eye teeth for the kind of fortress which Steve Clarke helped create during his time working as Jose Mourinho’s right-hand man in West London.
As Chelsea racked up a couple of Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006, the backbone of the club’s success was a staggering 86-game unbeaten run at home which lasted until October 2008.
Kilmarnock’s record in front of their own fans is rather less impressive, so you can be sure what issue was top of Clarke’s in-tray yesterday morning after he signed a two-and-a-half year deal as manager.
In block capitals would have been a request to rectify the utterly ruinous home record which has plagued the Ayrshire outfit in recent times.
Two victories at home this calendar year tells its own story and, as a man who was plucked from the unrefined surroundings of the Juniors with Beith back in the early ’80s, Clarke will be aware of the fact that Auchinleck Talbot have enjoyed more success at Rugby Park in recent times than Kilmarnock.
Despite being the club’s seventh full-time manager in seven years, Clarke has stated his desire to bring some stability to a side, who registered their first victory of the season last Saturday away at Partick Thistle.
Key to that will be restoring some home comforts and an atmosphere which Clarke used to relish as he made the journey from Saltcoats to Kilmarnock as a youngster to watch his brother Paul play for the club.
‘It’s not bad if you go 80-odd unbeaten, eh? That gets you a few titles,’ said Clarke, who insisted he feels fortunate to be handed the reins at Kilmarnock despite his arrival being an undoubted coup for the club.
‘That’s what you want, that momentum. You want the players and the supporters coming here full of confidence and backing the team from the first minute to the last, knowing that we are going to win the game.
‘I want them to enjoy coming along on a Saturday and watching their team. That’s what football fans want regardless of what league you’re operating in.
‘We’ll look at the home record. We have to improve it because it would be a long season relying on away points. It’s something we have to look at and we’ll find a way to play here.
‘This pitch and this stadium, with the fans Kilmarnock could have here, should be a difficult venue. We have to make sure teams look at the fixture list and don’t look forward to playing Kilmarnock away.
‘It got that way with Chelsea where you just turned up every week and thought you were going to win. It was a great feeling to have.
‘I remember the crowds being really good at Kilmarnock. Paul played here for around ten years in the ’70s and ’80s, and there were sometimes as many as 12,000 people here.
‘I’ve been here with about 18,000 people, I’m sure, for Old Firm games, although that might be me dreaming as a wee boy. But there were big crowds.
‘At that time, though, this was a much more prosperous area. You still had the mines and it’s changed a lot since then.
‘The home matches of late have been below 4,000, so you’re saying: “Can we get 5,000?” The only way you’ll get them is by winning matches and entertaining them.’
If Clarke doesn’t quite succeed in doing so, then he can expect to have his ear bent when he arrives home every Saturday night given that his wife, Karen, was born and bred in Kilmarnock.
‘You are responsible for getting a winning team on that pitch, so you feel a weight of expectation from the supporters mainly,’ he added. ‘The family are no different to the normal fanbase. In a sense, they are glad that I’m home now.’
Clarke had been down south for the best part of 30 years, after Chelsea took a punt on a young full-back from St Mirren.
International recognition would come in the form of six Scotland caps, but it was in England where Clarke really made his name as an astute young coach.
It began under Ruud Gullit at Chelsea and would soon be followed by stints working under Sir Bobby Robson at Newcastle, back at Chelsea with Mourinho, and Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool. It has given him a redoubtable CV, but, much like Brendan Rodgers, whom he worked alongside at Chelsea under Mourinho, the plan was always to become his own man eventually.
His apprenticeship was served when he took his first managerial gig at West Brom in 2012 — and he swiftly led a perennially middling club to eighth in the Premier League, their highest top-flight finish in 32 years.
It was under Clarke’s guidance that a 19-year-old Belgian superstar began to terrorise Premier League defences. Killie’s Lee Erwin would be the first to admit that he’s no Romelu Lukaku, but the new manager insists he will have no hesitation in giving youngsters their chance.
Despite being unfairly sacked at the Hawthorns just the following season, Clarke said: ‘I’m not a bitter person. Shake hands, move on, next chapter. But there was disappointment at West Bromwich.
‘I had been fortunate to always be involved in the Premier League and it’s difficult for a British coach to get a Premier League job.
‘It was disappointing to lose that, but you just move on and try and further your career somewhere else. Maybe the expectations had changed after how well we had done the previous season.
‘I don’t look at my career and think: “If only.” I take my playing career and it ticks almost every box. It was a great playing career and my coaching career can tick almost every box.
‘If I look at my managerial career, I managed in the English Premier League, so it was a helluva level to reach for a wee boy from Saltcoats! I’m happy with what I’ve achieved so far, but I’ve got more to achieve. I worked with Premier League players and also Championship, which is a different level again.
‘Lukaku was an important signing for me at West Brom. I helped him come through and the same principle still applies — if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.
‘Kilmarnock have had some terrific young players come through over the past 15, 20 years. I will always give youth a chance and there is a clear pathway there.
‘You always have to find a way to encourage young players to play. Otherwise, the game would die because everybody would get too old and there would be nobody to pick. But it’s your job as a coach to work with the players you have and get the best out of them.
‘I did a little bit of training this morning and it was a good standard, impressive.’