\n With Steve Clarke manager of the Scottish national team at this summer’s World Cup, we look back at an interview with the Blues legend when he discussed his transition from player to coach at Stamford Bridge.
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There was almost universal acclaim for the appointment of a man who won some of the game\u2019s biggest honours during both playing and coaching spells here in west London, following a successful first full season at Kilmarnock in what was only the third managerial role of a backroom career which began 25 years ago.<\/p>\n
During his playing career he represented only two clubs, St Mirren and Chelsea, joining us in 1987 and, after featuring in the last Blues side to be relegated a year later, he went on to enjoy some incredible moments with the club.<\/p>\n
Chosen as Player of the Year in 1994 as we reached the FA Cup final for the first time in 24 years, Clarke was even more influential three years later as we finally lifted the trophy again, with then player-manager Ruud Gullit declaring him to be as important as any of the overseas superstars he had recruited.<\/p>\n
By the time he hung up his boots in 1998, he had appeared in 421 matches for Chelsea, a tally which had only been bettered by three players at the time. It took until his last 42 games to win a major trophy, but he ended up with three \u2013 including the 1998 Cup Winners’ Cup, in his final outing as a player.<\/p>\n
That is when Clarke\u2019s coaching journey began. We pick up the story from later that summer, as told in an interview for the book Blue Day, which looked back at the careers of the men who led us to FA Cup glory in 1997.<\/p>\n
These quotes didn\u2019t make the final cut of the book, but were published for the first time ahead of taking charge of his first game as Scotland manager, when they hosted Cyprus in June 2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018That summer I went to Bermuda, just a little break and Luca [Vialli] invited me to join the staff,\u2019 he said. \u2018So I was to become player-coach the following season. That was telling me I was getting bumped out of the team. They brought in Chapi Ferrer, Marcel Desailly. I was looking as though I was just going to be a bit-part.<\/p>\n
\u2018I actually struggled all pre-season with an injury. I had plantar fasciitis, which is quite a serious injury. I couldn’t flex my foot so I couldn’t really run properly. I was playing through a lot of pain. I couldn’t fix it, couldn’t get rid of it. Getting niggles with my back…<\/p>\n
\u2018Then I got a phone call \u2013 did I want to go to Newcastle? I wasn’t doing any coaching. It was: “Clarkey take the warm-up.\u201d All the lads were looking at me, but Wisey was the one to say it: \u201cWhat the eff are you doing?!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018”I don’t know, but it doesn’t look as though I’m going to play much.\u201d Then we were in Monaco for the Super Cup \u2013 I wasn’t going to play. And Ruud phoned me up and asked if I wanted to go to Newcastle as assistant manager.<\/p>\n
\u2018That was one of those decisions I make like that [Clicks fingers]. Once I’d set my mind on it, I went to see Colin Hutchinson. They didn\u2019t want me to go, but they knew I wanted to leave and on the way out they were great. No problems, off you go \u2013 but on the condition I couldn’t join Newcastle as a player. I registered as an amateur, just in case.<\/p>\n
\u2018Ruud didn’t want me playing, but if I rested my injury for six months and it was all right, maybe I could play some reserve games just for fitness or whatever. I never played again. That was me finished.<\/p>\n
\u2018My last competitive game was the Cup Winners’ Cup final. Now, looking back on it, it’s quite a good way to finish. But it wasn’t a plan, it’s just the way it happened. I never set out to say it was the last game.<\/p>\n
\u2018Working with Ruud was good and I enjoyed it. He’d been there a week or 10 days before me…It was always going to be a tough job. But for me it’s something I look at as another part of my education.<\/p>\n
\u2018I was out of my comfort zone, something I like to do every now and then, something completely different…I’d just stopped playing myself so they’re not looking at me as a player, they’re looking at me as a coach: \u201cWhat have you got?\u201d It was demanding, but enjoyable.<\/p>\n
\u2018Ruud didn’t last very long \u2013 at the start of the following season he just gave his letter and left. That’s me, I’m off. I said, \u201cWhat about me, I’ve moved my family up to the North-East.\u201d And he replied, \u201cYou’ll need to stay then!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Bobby Robson came in and I had another great year with Sir Bobby. I learned a lot, but I went at the end of the season. It took me three months to come back to Chelsea as a scout and I started the second chapter of my time there.\u2019<\/p>\n
After a scouting role and then taking on the youth team, Clarke was appointed to Jose Mourinho\u2019s backroom staff and played a huge role in winning numerous major honours, including back-to-back Premier League titles.<\/p>\n
It established him as one of English football\u2019s brightest young coaches and he later went on to show that at West Ham United, alongside Gianfranco Zola, and then as part of Kenny Dalglish\u2019s team at Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Spells as manager of West Bromwich Albion and Reading were followed by a brief stint as Roberto Di Matteo\u2019s assistant at Aston Villa, and then came his outstanding job at Kilmarnock to earn him a shot at turning around the fortunes of the Scottish national team. Something he has done by qualifying for the country’s first World Cup since 1998.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With Steve Clarke manager of the Scottish national team at this summer’s World Cup, we look back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-508981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}