KILLIE BOSS THRILLED BY BOWIE’S CASH PROMISE
Clarke eyes a transfer boost
STEVE CLARKE claims Billy Bowie’s promise of financial backing in the January transfer window caught his eye more than the Kilmarnock chief expressing hope of emulating Leicester City. Major shareholder Bowie told Sportsmail yesterday that he would love to mount an odds-defying tilt at the title — as Leicester achieved south of the border in 2016 — after the Rugby Park club hit the Premiership summit. While keeping his own feet firmly on the ground ahead of today’s visit to champions Celtic, Clarke insists he is delighted to see the tanker tycoon enjoying the moment as
reward for his hefty investment. And the manager hopes the positive mood will extend into next month, with Bowie having also pledged to do his ‘best to support’ Clarke if he wants to bolster the squad. ‘One of the quotes I took from Billy was that he would try to help me in January if he can,’ said Clarke. ‘I’ve logged that one in the back of my mind! ‘Listen, if we can get someone who can help us... that won’t be an easy find because the players here now are doing fantastic. But if there was someone who could give us a little boost, then I would try to do it. ‘I also have to try to keep together the squad we have got, because it is difficult to keep all the players happy for different reasons.’ Bowie said he had been ‘pinching himself’ ever since Kilmarnock took a one-point lead at the top and admitted it would be ‘nice to try’ to match Leicester’s incredible triumph. ‘Sometimes he gets a little bit carried away,’ joked Clarke. ‘No, people like Billy can talk about that. They are allowed to talk about that. ‘Our job here is to focus on professionalism. We know that the level of club that we are, we are capable of going on a run where we don’t pick up as many points as we maybe want to get. ‘We have to remain stable and focused. And that means, when the good times are here, and people will tell you this is quite a good time, to stay calm and focused and just look beyond this moment. Because maybe this moment won’t last forever. ‘Billy is the figurehead of the club. He would have been involved, in and around the club, before the upturn in their fortunes. For someone like Billy, it is great to see that investment, the stability that he has given the club at the top, is starting to pay a little bit of dividends.’ Clarke argues that any comparison with Leicester actually underplays the gulf in resources between Kilmarnock and Scotland’s leading clubs. ‘The reality is that Leicester’s budget when they won the Premier League was a lot closer to Manchester City’s or Chelsea’s than Kilmarnock’s is to Celtic, Rangers or Aberdeen,’ he said. ‘With all due respect to Leicester, it only happened because the five big guns, if you like, didn’t perform.’