Darrell Clarke [mod- correct spelling]
Nov 13, 2021 1:03:22 GMT
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Jomo, 2nd May 1990, and 2 more like this
Post by Gas Go Marching In on Nov 13, 2021 1:03:22 GMT
Can anyone share the Times article?
Clarke is today named manager of the month for the second month in succession, Vale lie second in League Two, are into the second round of the FA Cup, and beat Liverpool Under-21 in the EFL Trophy this week to record their best home run — seven wins on the spin — since the revered John Rudge was manager at Vale Park in 1993.
A hard-working midfield player for Mansfield Town and Hartlepool United, Clarke guided Salisbury City to promotion twice and achieved the same with Bristol Rovers. Clarke, who joined Vale from Walsall in February, is charismatic, full of opinions and ambition, and very driven. “I’ve got an edge about me,” he explains, sitting in a hospitality suite at the ground this week. “I just love shutting people up and proving people wrong. I’ve managed nearly over 500 games now and I’m only 43.
“I’m driven. That comes from my upbringing. It’s a rough old town, Mansfield, but you don’t forget your roots. I grew up on a council estate. Mum died in a car crash when I was two and my brother was three. Her partner was driving. She died on my gran’s birthday. So it was never a birthday for her after that. My gran won custody of us in court which is unheard of. Normally the dad would get you. Dad was an alcoholic.
“I had no connection with him. When I started playing, nothing. I saw him once a year and he was P?!sed. I was always scared when there was a knock on the door and it was Dad. I know he hadn’t been nice to my mum.
“I was about 15 when he was dying in hospital and a nurse rang me saying, ‘Your dad would like to see you and Wayne.’ I said, ‘He can * himself.’ I’m like that. Cut people off. I never regretted that. Never. He will never be a ‘dad’ to me. Never. A real dad is somebody who supports you for your life, is always there for you. He was never there for me. He was a disgrace of a man.
“It’s made me a better dad. I think my two daughters would agree with that. I give them what I didn’t have. Gran didn’t have a pot to P?!s in. Dad came round the house, P?!sed. He got a bit of money for Mum dying and he was flashing all the money around in the air, giving it the big ’un. My gran said, ‘Darrell, it’s the only time I’ve ever stole anything.’ She took some of that money and put it under a pot so she could buy me and Wayne some stuff.”
Clarke found family with his grandparents and Wayne, and soon in football. “My grandad was a Mansfield steward, used to work the turnstiles,” he continues. “I used to go with him and sit on the old wooden seats at Field Mill, watching Stags. Football’s a family, and that’s important to me after what I’d been through.”
He sought a family ethos in his playing career, and now in management. He did well at Salisbury, then moved to Bristol Rovers in 2013 but immediately suffered relegation against Mansfield, of all people, ending Rovers’ 87 seasons-long stay in the Football League. “It was carnage,” Clarke recalls. “I’m Mansfield born and bred. Mansfield forgot their kit, so took our away kit and relegated us in our shirts! You couldn’t write the script.
Early into the next season in the Conference, as Rovers struggled, “Clarke out” posters began appearing at the training ground. “They’re all over the gates, all over the crossbar, all over the posts,” Clarke says. “It was a lone fan in a dark place.”
He immediately turned it round. After the 2015 play-off semi-final win over Forest Green set up the final with Grimsby Town, Clarke was in a cab heading for a meal with his wife when they passed the Queen Vic, a legendary Rovers pub. “I knew the Vic would be bouncing, so I just walked through the doors, put me arms up and shouted ‘Wembley, Wembley’. The place erupted.
“The worst thing, right, is they made me do a speech, and silly enough, after a couple of pints, I stood on this stool singing, ‘We are going up, say, we are going up.’ We’ve still got the *ing final to play! The next day the Grimsby Telegraph put it online: ‘Look at the Rovers manager already singing we are going up, disgrace.’
“I was gutted, thinking, ‘Oh my God. I don’t need that pressure.’ Then we won. We had a private party in Bristol and the lads got me to do another speech. This time I’m on another stool and said, ‘I done this a couple of weeks ago, a little bit premature,’ but then I went, ‘but we are going up, we are going up.’ Then I went, ‘So Grimsby Telegraph, print that bastard.’ And they did print it!
“Rovers fans absolutely loved it. We did that tour all around the city and they had ‘print that bastard’ flags and ‘print that bastard’ T-shirts. I’ve played Grimsby since, they were singing ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’ to me when they were 4-1 up at Walsall! I still have banter with Grimsby fans. It’s so stereotyped, football managers, you talk to the press, you don’t mingle with fans. I like to be a bit different. The game’s about the fans and you have to enjoy the good moments as a manager.
“I don’t want to manage a team that stands still and this was my biggest frustration at Bristol Rovers is we were standing still as a club. I sold nearly £2 million worth of goals out of the team. Then you become a sitting duck. At Walsall the club sold £800,000 worth of player replaced with £40,000. I’m begging for free loans.
“I’ve had so much adversity in football, picking myself up, taking Rovers up, that’s a helluva thing. Oxford took four years to get out [back into EFL]. Luton took five years. Wrexham are there 13 years, Stockport are there [since 2011-12]. We did it year one and on a £900,000 budget. It’s crazy the money now in the Conference. Stockport had a player on £3,000 a week. Solihull Moors put a player on £3,000 a week.”
In League Two, at Vale, Clarke has cut the wage bill. “The top wage here is £1,850,” he says. “Me and ‘Flickers’ [David Flitcroft], the director of football, we’re trying to build an even wage cap, £1,000 to £1,850.”
He likes building teams. It was the main reason he turned down Leeds United in 2016. Leeds and Rovers agreed compensation. “So I met Massimo Cellino in London!” he laughs. “Have you met him? Bonkers. He must have smoked 50 fags. He told me he liked to have his hands on recruitment. He’s doing all the recruitment. With my upbringing, I’m not going to be anybody’s lapdog. I don’t care whether that’s managing Leeds I still couldn’t do that. Everybody goes, ‘You’re crazy, you should have gone to manage Leeds United.’ But why work for someone like that? I’d have been another Dave Hockaday.
“It’s always chucked in my face that I didn’t take Leeds. But Massimo! Right decision! I don’t regret it. And I get pigeonholed how we play. But I like being criticised. Everyone can go into an interview and say, ‘I play out from the back, press high, play fast *ing, free-flowing football and I’ll do a PowerPoint presentation that is going to woo some people in the boardroom who go wow this is brilliant.’ Numpties.
“I’m about the end result. If that means me playing a mid-block to win a game and hit them on the counterattack because those are the players I’ve got . . . that’s what I’m going to do.”
Others pursue a more possession-based philosophy. “That’s why Russell Martin gets the MK Dons job [and now Swansea City], great football to watch, brilliant, finished 13th in League One. Hallelujah! Happy *ing days! That’s the difference. I think I’m underestimated. We scored 17 goals last month and not one of them came from a goal kick. I’ve played every formation under the sun this season.
“A lot of clubs want to hear that word ‘philosophy’. Drives me nuts. I went into one interview with directors and chairman and said, ‘Philosophy’s the most overrated word in football. My philosophy is to win.
“People look at me now as a man-manager but I’ve got a green pitch lying on the floor downstairs.” Clarke shows me the dressing room and the painted pitch to make points to players. “I’m quite cute.”
He did his pro-licence at St George’s Park with the FA. “I did it with Nemanja Vidic and Nicky Butt, good lads,” Clarke recalls. Much of it was about philosophy. “But it’s still about getting a team to run through brick walls for you. I find that easy. It’s about personality, how I am, daily dialogue. I like to look people in the eyes and see if they’re genuine. I want good characters.
“I’ve spoken to Gareth Southgate a couple of times. He’s the ideal modern manager for England, a fantastic man-manager and great technician. You can see the players respect him, and the ones not in the team. Gareth said in the summer the drivers are the ones not in the team sometimes, reserves can drive the standards – like Conor Coady. I don’t like using ‘reserves’, they’re game changers. I use game changers. It’s a sense of belonging isn’t it?”
Belonging matters to Clarke. It’s why he feels at home at Vale Park. “They are proper fans here,” he continues. “We average nearly 6,000 this season [highest is 6,986 against Tranmere]. I like the club. I like the people. The owners are fantastic. Carol and Kevin [Shanahan] are great people.
Carol’s invites players’ family into the boardroom. She’s warm. She cares about people. She’s just a family person.”
And that matters hugely to Clarke. Shanahan gives Clarke a big hug when they cross paths in the foyer earlier. Being at the second club in the city also suits Clarke’s challenger mindset. “Good point. Same at the Gas. I didn’t win for the first seven games here. People questioned what the hell have they done?! I’m manager of the month again!
“My whole life’s about winning. Even now I lose a game and it feels like a death in my family. I’m a nightmare at home after a defeat. Leave me alone. My wife knows she’s got to let me reboot.
“I keep telling fans I’m not a miserable bastard. I can switch off, have a round of golf, go out for a drink, but very rarely is my mind not on football. I dream about football all the time. Selections. Game plans. What if they go 1-0 up after ten minutes, what am I changing?
“I’m really hungry to do success for Port Vale. I’m like any human being, I like a nice holiday, living in a nice house, and drive a nice car but you can’t ever replicate the feelings I’ve had with my promotions. I just want to keep driving my career forward. I want to manage at the highest level possible and I won’t stop until I get there.
I didn't realise all that about his parents. Hard not to want the guy to do well.