Scotland have a team to believe in again, thanks to the understated leadership of Steve Clarke. Jose Mourinho’s former sidekick is right up John Nicholson’s street.
Here’s ‘What’s so Great About…’ the Scotland boss…
Who’s this then?
Stephen Clarke is a 59-year-old, 5’10” Saltcoats-born former defender for St Mirren and Chelsea who currently manages Scotland rather well and beat Spain 2-0 this week.
He started playing football for Beith Juniors in North Ayrshire, one of Scotland’s many hundreds of amateur clubs with a history going back to before the war. A robust right-back – you had to be – he was scouted by St Mirren in 1982, aged 19 and initially signed on a part-time contract. This allowed him to complete an apprenticeship as an instrument engineer, which may yet come in useful. Maybe he could engineer a top-notch striker for Scotland.
Eventually he signed on as a professional and completed 200 games for the Buddies between 1982 and 1987. At which point a struggling Chelsea signed him for £442,000. They finished 18th in his first season and had to play Division Two side Middlesbrough in a two-legged play-off to decide if Boro went up or Chelsea went down. Boro won the home first leg 2-0 and lost the away tie – a game marred by hooliganism – 1-0. Boro went up because they didn’t lose by enough, which is a very Boro thing to do.
So Stevie found himself in the second division for a season. But they stormed it, losing just five times and amassing 99 points to get promoted. In total he played 422 times for the Blues, initially as an attacking right-back, but latterly in less progressive roles, sometimes filling in at centre-half. He was named Player Of The Year in 1993-94, won the FA Cup in 1996, the League Cup in 1998 and in the same season, in the last game of his career, in true legendary style, won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup under Gianluca Vialli, beating Stuttgart 1-0 in Stockholm. He remains something of Chelsea legend because he was such a solid, dependable performer for 11 years. However, he only played six times for Scotland.
Immediately on retiring he joined Newcastle United as assistant to former boss Ruud Gullit, getting them to the cup final, losing to Manchester United. Of course, Ruud was soon dismissed and Stevie took charge for one game, a 5- defeat to Manchester United.
From there he went to work with the youth academy at Chelsea and was so well-regarded that he moved up to be Jose Mourinho’s…
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