Clark vows gambling on rookies will reap returns

KILMARNOCK boss Lee Clark admits his decision this summer to rip apart the squad he inherited from Gary Locke was a gamble.

It would have been traumatic enough had he exchanged one set of experienced players with another, but, instead, he has shown the door to a host of seasoned professionals and replaced them with youngsters.

Astonishingly, Clark has made 15 new signings in the last two months, ranging in age from 17 to 23 and many of them have arrived in Ayrshire without any previous first-team experience.

The Englishman, who replaced Locke back in February, knows his approach constitutes a long shot, but he fully expects his youngsters to come good — and claims the attitude of the majority of his former players left him with no choice but to clean the place out.

‘It’s a risk on my part, of course,’ he admitted. ‘But I wanted to change the outlook of the squad and that’s what this summer was all about.

‘When I was at Huddersfield, I did something similar — bringing in some unknown youngsters to give the squad a freshness, a vibrancy and some dynamism.

‘That’s what we feel we’ll get with our new players. One or two are still adapting, of course. They haven’t yet got anywhere near the level we expect, but it will come.

‘We felt that we still had enough experience in the dressing room to help them, but who’s to say that, in the next window, we won’t be adding more experience?’

Apart from full-back Dapo Kayode, who came from Dinamo Bucharest via Clark’s former club Fulham, the others were signed from English clubs and were known to the manager from his spells in charge of Huddersfield, Birmingham City and Blackpool. Most of them will be stripped for action when Rangers visit tomorrow night.

‘You also need to understand where we are in the financial scheme of things,’ he said. ‘Mark Warburton’s gone down south for most of his recruitment, but he’s fishing in a different lake from me.

‘Changing the mindset was a huge thing for me because there was a lot of negativity around here. Even when we’d have a positive result, some who’d been around the place for a while had this doom-and-gloom mentality, so I had to do away with that.

‘That’s why I wanted to refresh things with players who hadn’t been around here before. I’ve brought 15 players in and 17 have left the club.

‘Obviously, alterations on that scale aren’t ideal in any window, but we’re hoping that some of these players will be here long-term.

‘Seven of them are on loan and will probably go back to their clubs, but some of those deals have a window of opportunity for all parties to have a look at the situation in January, so we’ll see.’

Clark is relieved that he managed to keep Killie up by beating Falkirk in the Premiership play-off final just three months ago, claiming that nights like tomorrow will entice more and better players to Rugby Park.

‘I said before the final that we had to make sure that we stayed up because, with Rangers promoted, the Premiership was starting to get its wow factor back — and that’s been the case,’ he said.

‘Celtic then appointed Brendan Rodgers, who is a fantastic choice for them, and the players he’s signed have also made this league more attractive to other players from England and all over Europe.

‘That’s why it was imperative for us to avoid relegation last season. And no disrespect to the other Championship clubs, but, when Hibs return, this division will be ready to kick on again and be where it was in the late 1990s and early noughties when Celtic and Rangers were competing in Europe and bringing in top players.’

One experienced pro who won’t be signing for Kilmarnock is former Rangers and Scotland winger Chris Burke.

The 32-year-old, a free agent after his release from Nottingham Forest, has been training with the first-team squad at Rugby Park.

‘We’d love to sign him, but I don’t believe we could match the offers he’s been receiving,’ said Clark.

‘I had Chris at Birmingham and he asked if he could use our facilities to keep his fitness up.’