GERARD DEULOFEU, KEVIN DE BRUYNE, PETER CROUCH & ELTON JOHN
The super manager performing miracles who could be the next Scotland boss
‘Working with Mourinho, Bobby Robson, Gullit and Dalglish, I was like a sponge’
He has a budget of £ 1.7million and a squad made up of loan players. Yet he has taken Kilmarnock to third place in the league and won Manager of the Year in scotland.
No wonder steve Clarke is a wanted man: wanted by the scottish Fa to become the next national team manager and wanted by clubs south of the border impressed by his season.
so when Kilmarnock play Rangers in their last league game of the season tomorrow, the players know it could also be Clarke’s last. several clubs will have noted that Clarke is on a one-year rolling contract so any compensation will not be huge.
so will the sFa, who are looking for a successor to alex McLeish, although they will not have endeared themselves to Clarke by handing him a touchline ban for comments he made about the referee after defeat by aberdeen.
Clarke, 55, is a man in demand because when he arrived at the club 23 miles south of Glasgow, Kilmarnock were at rock-bottom but, without the riches of Celtic, Rangers, aberdeen, hearts or hibernian, Clarke has given the club a new lease of life.
In October 2017, he took over a team apparently without hope. Under his guidance and with the tightest of budgets, Kilmarnock finished fifth. This season he has proved that was not a one-off.
‘Yes, I am proud of what we have achieved,’ he tells Sportsmail. ‘ People underestimate my managerial career.’
Maybe he’s right because he led West Bromwich albion to an eighth-place Premier League finish in 2013 before he was sacked and then guided Reading to an Fa Cup semi-final.
‘I think I have done well. I came here with nothing to prove to myself but maybe it has made one or two people sit up and take notice.’
he has certainly learned from the best, coaching under the late sir Bobby Robson, Jose Mourinho, Ruud Gullit and as the No 2 at Liverpool after he was headhunted by manager Kenny Dalglish.
‘I was like a sponge,’ says Clarke sitting in the room that reflects past glories — the Champions’ Lounge at Rugby Park. ‘But this season what have I done? Well it is the players really who have done it. all I have done is give guidance and organisation. a way to play. They
have done the rest.’ But Clarke assembled them — and on a shoestring. ‘I knew what it was going to be like when I took the job so I have no complaints.
‘My budget is about £1.7m for the whole squad. My top earner when I came was around £1,500 a week. Celtic? Their budget must be £20m. Rangers? about 14. hearts and hibernian four to five. so there is a significant financial imbalance. But on the pitch, no imbalance. It is about getting players on the pitch and motivated.’
so how does Clarke bridge that financial gap? ‘Contacts,’ he says. ‘Loan players are essential to us, as are free transfers. I often get guidance from people I know in the game about certain players. I have also made sure that our own players are all signed up. There is a tendency for clubs of our size to have a huge turnover in the close season — like 10 out and 10 in. It is not the way to do it.
‘Now at least if we do have to sell, we get money for them because they are under contract.’
some may point to Kilmarnock’s controversial artificial surface as a contributor to their fine season. Not Clarke. ‘There were never any complaints when teams were coming here and going away with three points,’ he says. ‘That doesn’t happen so often now. Funny that.’
But chat about plastic pitches has been the least of the controversies in scottish football this season, not least the barrage of sectarian abuse directed at Clarke during a match against Rangers that prompted his ‘back to the dark ages’ comment about bigotry.
‘I felt strongly about it and felt it had it be said,’ says Clarke. ‘and you know what? When I went back there was nothing personal directed at me. Not a word. so maybe it worked. and the manager steven Gerrard and the chairman Dave King spoke out about it. That clearly has an effect.
‘But bigotry was there 30 years ago and it is there now. It will never go until people talk about it. More and more people are doing that and that is a good thing. hopefully people will realise it is not the right thing to do. some people still feel they can go to a football ground and say what they want. It is crazy.
‘sectarianism could be ended easily. how? By the club speaking to their own supporters and making it clear it is not acceptable. and I think the majority would go along with that.
‘It is similar to racism in football — people say things they would not say in the general public and the comments come from people who have black players in the team they support.
‘Yes, we have had a few problems in scotland but I don’t think it is any worse here than anywhere else. I mean, did not a fan run on the pitch at Birmingham and punch Jack Grealish?
‘There has been racism here on occasions, but that has happened in england as well. What we have done is highlight it and taken action. We are an honest bunch, us Jocks.
‘For instance, all credit to hearts owner ann Budge. There was a section at Tynecastle where troublemakers gathered. safety in numbers. except she closed the section. Fantastic. Now those people have to find somewhere else to sit and not be part of a group of 500 or so.
‘as for the bigotry, well, that should just not be part of the picture. In time, I sense it will change. The clubs like Celtic and Rangers are doing all they can.’
BY BECOMING manager, Clarke, who had a distinguished playing career with st Mirren and Chelsea, has extended a strong family connection with the club. his brother Paul joined the club’s hall of Fame last October after 436 matches for the club as a central defender.
Now Clarke has given a lift to the town once dubbed ‘the roughest in scotland’ and was the subject of a controversial documentary about a sink estate. ‘ This town has been knocked from pillar to post in terms of wealth — and that documentary was a disgrace. and I mean a disgrace,’ says Clarke. ‘This is a good town with good people.’
But will he be staying in it? his family home is still in the home Counties after all.
‘When Pochettino was being linked with Man United he said: “In football, you just never know what is going to happen.” and it is true.’
What the fiercly patriotic Clarke will admit though is that he is impressed with the ability available to the national side.
‘We have talent up here,’ he says. ‘andy Robertson, James Forrest, Callum McGregor, Ryan Jack, Ryan Fraser, scott McTominay. and scotland are guaranteed a play-off place for the the european Championship after winning their mini-group.’
he could be just the man. he’ll have to forgive the sFa for that touchline ban first though.