Clarke’s Scotland turmoil
● Killie boss undecided as SFA closes in ● Mcinnes set to remain with Aberdeen
Steve Clarke has admitted he is in turmoil over his future amid mounting speculation he will be offered the Scotland manager’s job.
One leading book maker has cut Clarke’ s odds for the vacancy to 1-10 on after it emerged Aberdeen boss Derek Mcinnes, believed to be the leading rival candidate on the Scottish FA’S shortlist, has informed the Pittodrie club he would not take the post.
Clarke has been named Manager of the Year by the Scottish Football Writers’ Association for a second successive year after another hugely impressive season in charge of Kilmarnock.
The Rugby Park club are in contention to finish third in the Premier ship and claim a Europa League spot. It is understood the Scottish FA will wait until Kilmarnock complete their campaign at home to R angers on Sunday before it makes any formal approach to Clarke.
The 55-year-old has another year remaining on his contract at Kilmarnock but has made it clear he could move on in the summer as his family still live in England. His domestic situation would not be an issue for the Scottish FA whose last two managers, Alex Mcleish and Gordon Strachan, both lived in England during their tenures.
Clarke now faces a period of soul-searching before making a decision on his future over the next fortnight.
“At the moment, the inside of my head is like a tumble dr yer,” said Clarke. “No, I’m not any clearer about my future. The next couple of weeks are going to be very difficult for me and that’s all I really want to say about it just now.”
Clarke appears to be in pole position for the Scotland job after Aberdeen vice-chairman Dave Cormack revealed Mcinnes has informed him he is not ready for international management at this stage of his career and would reject any approach from the Scottish FA.
“Derek is very attracted to being Scotland manager at some stage, but not just now,” said Cormack.
“That’s a big plus for us as a club. Whilst Derek himself aspires to be Scotland manager at some stage, Derek’s made the decision that that time is not now–that he wants to focus on club football.”
Scotland under -21 coach Scot Gemmill and Sunderland manager Jack Ross are also believed to have been identified as leading candidates for the national team job by Scottish FA chief executive Ian Maxwell who has been leading the recruitment process.
Maxwell hopes to be in a position to announce the new manager by the end of next week as Scotland prepare for the Euro 2020 qualifiers against Cyprus at Hampden on 8 June and Belgium in Brussels three days later.
It remains to be seen if Steve Clarke becomes as familiar with the technical area at Hampden as he has with the meeting rooms where the Scottish FA hold their disciplinary tribunals.
An obvious and outstanding candidate for the Scotland managerial vacancy, Clarke certainly meets the criteria of maximising the potential of the players at your disposal. His exceptional work at Kilmarnock, which has now seen him win the SFWA William Hill manager of the year award for the second year in a row, is testament to that.
But it’s not just his transformational effect on the Rugby Park club’ s for tunes which have pushed Clarke into the limelight. His out spoken intervention son a number of contentious issues in Scottish football, from refereeing standards to the ongoing blight of sectarianism, have helped set the agenda in a compelling season.
Clarke’ s observations on match officials have regularly ruffled feather sat his potential employers, the Scottish FA. Having earlier in these ason received a suspended two-match ban for calling the organisation’s appeals process into question, he will be back at Hampden to day to face a charge of implying “bias and incompetence” on the part of referee Steven Mclean last month.
Regardless of the outcome, Clarke will remain unapologetic at addressing what he regards as problems Scottish football can collectively fix.
“The game could be better up here,” he reflected. “We could improve up on a few things. The thing is, if nobody points out what’s wrong, then nothing will ever be done about it. At times, you have to maybe speak out of turn or say a little bit too much which upsets a few people.
“Normally, when you upset a few people, there is a reaction. If the reaction is positive for Scottish football, then that would be a good thing.”
Clarke is among those Premiership managers who have backed a call for the introduction of video assistant referee (VAR) technology in the Premiership. But he believes further steps, including the gr adual employment of full-time referees, need to be taken if the standard of officiating is to improve sufficiently.
“Everyone talks about VAR, which is great ,” added Clarke. “It will help the referees no end.
But if you’ve got VAR in place and VAR becomes the ref, I’m not sure that’s good for the game.
“If the refs make five or six serious mistakes in a game and we’re always referring to VAR, suddenly you will lose what football is all about, which is a spontaneous game where things happen off the cuff.
“So as well as VAR, I believe that Scottish referees have to improve. The best way to improve is togo full-time. I understand the fin anci al implications involved, the professional jobs our
referees have outside of football. But, if you put in place a recruitment process in which, several years down the line the younger referees coming through are fulltime and accountable because it’s their job, then that would help.
“Because we should all be accountable for what happens in a football match. If you took VAR and full-timerefs and put them together, you’d have a better product.”
Clarke also believes the Scottish FA need to reboot their disciplinary procedures which have prompted much controversy this season. “I find it confusing and I’m definitely not alone on that one,” he added. “I see Rangers this week asking why Jon Flanagan was cited for his incident in the Old Firm game and Jozo Simunovic wasn’t.
“There are these discrepancies which all clubs suffer from and all clubs benefit from at different times. At the end of the day, you want a straightforward, simple system which everyone understands.
If you can get clarity and simplicity in any process, it’s better for everybody. Because there are so many grey areas it’s easy to become confused by the whole thing. Get rid of the grey areas. Make it black and white and, hopefully, it will make for a better system.”
After spending most of his playing and coaching career in England, Clarke’s return to Scottish football has been fulfilling on most levels. But his encounter with sectarian abuse from Rangers fans at Ibr ox in Feb ruar y, along with similar chants directed at colleagues Steven Gerrard, pictured, Derek Mcinnes and Neil Lennon over the course of the season, left him dismayed and saw him bravely call it out in public.
“It surprised me when it came at me because I’ve never expressed an allegiance towards Celtic or R angers in my life,” he said.
“I’d previously had some conversations with Rangers about going to work for them and was assured it was something they were clamping down on and working to eradicate from their club. Hopefully, every club is trying to do that.
“It’s too easy for someone to walk into a football ground and sing any song that they like. This issue is probably beyond the control of the clubs but it could star t there, with them publicly stating they will not tolerate sectarian songs within their stadium.
“Then, if that doesn’t put an end to it, the authorities have to become involved. There’ s no way in the world that you’d be allowed to sing racist songs inside a football ground so why should sectarian singing be accepted? Why not try to take that out of society?
“Up until fairly recently, people would have three or four pints and then jump in their car and drive but now everyone realises that’s wrong. So, if you educate, you can eradicate.
“It’s incredible that it still goes on. Aberdeen fans singing it about Steven at Ibrox – why? This is widespread and, if we don’t try and educate people, it will always be there.”
Clarke will collect his manager of the year trophy at the SFWA annual awards dinner on Sunday night, by which time he hop es to have led Kilmarnock to a third-place finish in the Premiership.
“I’ ve had a lot of satisfaction from this job,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of good press since I came back and it’s nice to return to your own country and do well. I think some people had maybe forgotten about me a little bit because I’ d been down south for so long. It’ s been nice to come back and have my name in the headlines, mostly for the right reasons. To be sitting in third position at this stage of the season is a heck of an achievement for a club of our stature. We are maybe over-achieving but we are not finished yet.”
“We should all be accountable for what happens in a football match. If you took VAR and full-time refs and put them together, you’d have a better product”
STEVE CLARKE