5 days ago
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In an interview published over the weekend, Steve Clarke didn’t paint himself nor the SFA in an especially good light.
Speaking about his decision to resign as Scotland manager after the World Cup, and about the SFA’s decision to hand him a new four-year deal on the eve of the tournament, Clarke was unusually candid.
With no obvious sign of an offer being made prior to heading to America, he admitted that he had to give the governing body ‘a little shove’ in order to get things moving.
Clarke claimed the SFA were ‘hedging their bets’ and that the process of securing himself a new contract was like ‘pulling teeth’.
It was quite an admission. Very honest. Maybe a little too honest.
It’s not difficult to imagine Ian Maxwell, the SFA chief executive, being a little peeved at Clarke revealing he basically forced the SFA into it.
Steve Clarke walked away after the World Cup exit despite having agreed a new four-year deal
Perhaps some things are better left unsaid. In any case, it was clear the SFA’s handling of it all was poor and ill-judged. We knew that right from the outset.
But even Clarke doesn’t come out of this well. His tone was one of entitlement. He spoke as if the SFA should have been falling over themselves to award him a new contract.
He clearly felt that qualifying for tournaments was enough in and of itself to warrant an extension, regardless of results thereafter.
He even admitted that he used the media in March to apply pressure, then threatened to announce his decision to step down if the deal was not done before the finals.
When the team duly failed to get out the group, failing as they had done in two previous attempts, he quit anyway.
This is the language of a man who, in the end, believed the job was his by right. Yes, Clarke ended a long wait to reach a World Cup and delivered two appearances at the Euros. That record deserves respect. But it did not entitle him to strong-arm the SFA into a deal he always planned to tear up if results went against him.
Clarke insisted he had always intended to leave his post if Scotland flopped in North America
‘Controlling his narrative’ is one thing, something he claimed was behind his decision to push for the new deal. Treating the national team job like a personal power play is another.
The SFA look weak for caving in to his demands. Clarke now looks arrogant and entitled for what he has said in the aftermath of it all.
Nobody comes out of this with any credit. It is a shabby postscript to what was, like it or lump it, the most successful reign of any Scotland manager in history.
