NEVIN SAYS CLARKE IS THE PERFECT FIT AT RUGBY PARK
HEARTS v KILLIE PREVIEW
IT wasn’t so long ago that Pat Nevin was touting Steve Clarke for the position of Celtic manager. Briefly the bookies’ favourite after Roy Keane turned down the Parkhead post in 2014, Clarke would have been a perfect fit, maintains Nevin. Instead, the job was given to Ronny Deila.
Nevin believes his old pal could still manage the Scottish champions, or the national team for that matter, but instead the Saltcoats-born coach has returned to his Ayrshire roots and taken on the task of reviving Kilmarnock.
Clarke, 54, benefits from the personal endorsement of such stellar names as Jose Mourinho and Kenny Dalglish and, were he more inclined towards the selfpromotion that fuels career advancement in the age of new media, Nevin believes he would currently be managing in the English Premier League.
For those reasons and more, he believes Kilmarnock can consider themselves more than fortunate to have landed a manager of such pedigree.
‘It is a coup for Kilmarnock,’ says Nevin. ‘Three years ago you would have spoken seriously about Stevie for Celtic and for Scotland. That’s how high his stock was and he is incredibly highly regarded within the game down south.
‘His CV is fantastic but you don’t really get too many opportunities to be a Premier League manager now. He has been perfectly comfortable at that level and if anyone was going to get him I would have expected it to be a bigger club than Kilmarnock.’
Originally team-mates at youth level for Scotland, the pair teamed up at Chelsea in 1987 when Clarke left St Mirren to pursue an extended career at the top level in England.
He went on to assist Ruud Gullit at Newcastle, Mourinho at Chelsea and Dalglish at Liverpool before branching out on his own to manage West Brom and then Reading.
‘You look at who he has worked with, the jobs he has had and I wouldn’t say he has made a big mess of anything,’ continues Nevin. ‘Was he really underperforming in any of those jobs? The truth is the only people who become really successful are those who get the big jobs. You could argue Sam Allardyce is different but that is so rare. It is a revolving door and that’s not because these guys are rubbish — it’s because the environment is so hard.
‘Is he going to get the Celtic job? He would do a great job there but in Brendan Rodgers they have a tremendously successful manager in place.’
The arrival of Rodgers not only raised the standard at Celtic but has coincided with an infusion of higher-profile coaches to the SPFL Premiership, with Owen Coyle, Neil Lennon and Craig Levein all returning to the frontline this season.
Clarke is the latest to join their rank and Nevin argues that each would be capable of doing it at the top level down south, were regional accents
‘Personally, I think it’s a style thing,’ he continues. ‘Clarkie would be good enough. Lenny had a hard time at Bolton but I think he would, too and so, clearly, would Brendan.
‘We have very good coaches up there. Trying to persuade English people of that is not easy.’
Nevin remains close to Clarke and chuckles when his pal’s understated public persona is mentioned.
‘Clarkie comes across as dour and I don’t think he would mind me saying that,’ he adds. ‘It’s part of his shtick. He is pretty selfeffacing. He is down to earth and pretty darn Scottish. The modern way is to promote and sell yourself with social media and all the rest of it but part of our culture is to let what you do speak for itself.
‘He is so professional about his work, has a great understanding of the game and is respected by the best in the business.
‘I was at his 50th birthday in Ayrshire a few years back at a wee place that Donald Trump now owns. That’s so incongruous with who Clarkie is but people like Dalglish travelled to Turnberry to be there for him. I remember thinking these people rate, admire and massively respect you. So there is obviously something very good there.
‘I’ve been down at Chelsea this week and he is pretty much revered there. If he was announced as a coach alongside Antonio Conte, not only would no one bat an eyelid, they’d be absolutely delighted.
‘But I think he wants to be a manager.
‘I remember speaking to him towards the end of that run of tremendous assistant jobs and he told me he wanted to give it a go.’
Just as Clarke’s path into management was a slow burn — his appointment at West Brom in 2012 came a full 14 years after he first assumed assistant duties at Newcastle — Nevin recalls few indications that Clarke would eventually attain officer material as a player.
He added: ‘In the early days he was quiet and reserved. He didn’t dive in head first and that has served him really well. I only had five years at Chelsea, he did a lot more and really grew into it.
‘Later in his career he played right-back, centre-back, centre midfield, left-back. He was a class top-level player. Someone like that immediately commands respect.
‘I don’t know if it’s in the public domain how he got the job under Jose. He was working at Chelsea, went in to see Jose and was half expecting to get hoofed out.
‘He sat down, introduced himself and told Jose to let him know if he needed anything. Jose contacted him later that day and said: “Do you want to be assistant manager?” Clarkie just about crashed his car!
‘Jose is not stupid. He has asked around and people have told him: “Don’t lose this guy”. He grasped the role immediately and was comfortable with players like Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard.’
Clarke’s new lot is to work with the likes of Kirk Broadfoot and Kris Boyd in an effort to haul Killie away from the bottom of the league table. An encouraging start saw his team come from behind to claim draws at both Rangers and Celtic before Lennon’s Hibs brought things back to earth with a bump in Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat at Rugby Park.
Killie are back on the road to face Hearts at Murrayfield today but Nevin believes it’s the state of the club’s home turf that provides one of the main impediments to long-term success.
He concluded: ‘Overall, I don’t know how well Stevie will do at Kilmarnock, there are no guarantees. The first problem is finance. The second problem is the pitch, which to me is a huge disadvantage as he’ll have to adjust his team’s playing style for every home game. I wouldn’t know what to do about that other than rip it up.
‘I had a wonderful year at Kilmarnock as a player and I’m glad to see them recruit such a top guy — but he knows the job is not going to be simple.’