STEVE Clarke’s early experiences of the Dutch game could easily have put him off the world-famous football nation for life.
Clarke was a member of the St Mirren side which faced a Feyenoord team that comprised a young Ruud Gullit and an ageing Johan Cruyff in the first round of the UEFA Cup in 1983.
He was unable to prevent the Paisley club from slumping to a 3-0 aggregate defeat to the Rotterdam giants.
The full-back also won the last of his six Scotland caps against the Netherlands in Utrecht in 1994 and was on the receiving end of a 3-1 loss that could easily have been a lot worse.
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“We got humped!” said the Scotland manager with a smile as he looked ahead to the friendly match against the former European Championship winners and World Cup finalists here in Amsterdam this evening.
“It was 3-1, but we got humped. They were going to the World Cup and we were sort of cannon fodder for their send off. It was my last game for Scotland and Ruud’s last one for the Dutch as he had a little disagreement with the manager Dick Advocaat.
“I played against Ruud with St Mirren in both games against Feyenoord. He played right wing in the first game and was outstanding. Then we went to Feyenoord and he played sweeper and he was even better.
“I was also lucky enough to be on the same pitch as Cruyff at Love Street. That was a big thing at the time. He was one of the iconic figures of Dutch and world football. So it was nice to say you have shared the same pitch as Johan Cruyff. Big names, big history and they’ve still got good players now.
Clarke’s admiration for the land of Total Football is, despite those painful reverses he was involved in, undiminished.
Perhaps the fact that Dutch master Gullit, the AC Milan great who he played alongside when he was at Chelsea, helped to launch his coaching career has something to do with that.
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“First of all, Ruud was a team mate and then he became player manager after Glenn Hoddle took the England job,” he said. “So he was a team mate as well as the gaffer. So that was interesting. We won the FA Cup with Ruud as manager, which was nice.
“But he took me to Newcastle with him I must have made some kind of impression on him. When he got the job at Newcastle he phoned me up and asked me to come. He must have got a decent feel for me.
“That was the start of my coaching. I was player-coach at Chelsea and one of the stipulations of the move was I could go to Newcastle as a coach, but not a player. It was fine.
“I’d just turned 35 and had some injury issues and was thinking it was probably time for a different career. Ruud gave me the first step and I am grateful for it.
“He had a good way of playing. I thought his coaching methods were good, he had a good manner about hm in training and his sessions were good.
“It was quite a Dutch style you could say, he wanted to dominate the ball. It was only a short spell we had together as he didn’t last long in the top job at Newcastle. But for me it was the start of a journey.
“We were pretty similar. I was going to say similar careers, but that’s not quite right! We played pretty similar games and were teammates before. I could see how good he was and then I could see how he adapted when going from player to a coach. It was interesting to see.
“They always seem to have good teams and have produced good players. You look at the side that lost to Argentina in ’78 as a really good team – even though Scotland did beat them 3-2 in the group stages.”
Clarke has lost touch with Gullit in recent years – but he is keeping his fingers crossed that his old team mate and coaching colleague makes an appearance in the Johan Cruyff Arena this evening when his Scotland side take on the Netherlands.
“I haven’t spoken to Ruud for a little while now,” he said. “It’s just circumstances. Hopefully he comes to the game and I bump into him. It would be nice to see him."
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