It’s been a bit of a mutual admiration society leading up to the game this afternoon against West Brom, with both managers Steve Clarke and Alan Pardew praising each other.
Steve Clarke – West Brom manager
Steve Clarke seems to have made an excellent start to his management career at West Brom, and has the Baggies playing some good football and they’ve picked up a good 14 points from their first 8 league games, and they will be a big test for Newcastle this afternoon at St. James’ Park.
And of course Steve has served under some great managers including Bobby Robson at Newcastle and Bobby’s prodigy – Jose Mourinho – at Chelsea, so he’s learned from two of the best managers in the business.
This is what Alan Pardew said today about the West Brom manager:
“You don’t get a starring role in a production unless you’ve been in the chorus line a while.” “That’s how I got into the game. I was reserve team manager at Reading for two or three years. Steve had a longer period when he was first-team assistant.’’
“He did a brilliant job at all those places. I admire Steve because he’s gone about his business in the correct manner.” “He hasn’t put himself up for managerial jobs, he’s just done a cracking job wherever he’s been.”
“His reward is a manager’s role and with the experience he has gained under Jose Mourinho and others.” Clarke was No.2 to Ruud Gullit at Newcastle and had one game as caretaker-boss after the Dutch superstar’s exit in 1999.”
“It was no mystery to anyone that Steve was going to be a success.’’
The 49 year-old Scot has always carried himself well and is a true gentleman, and as Alan says, he took over Newcastle in a caretaker role when Ruud Gullit was sacked in 1999, before Bobby Robson came in on his white horse to save Newcastle that season.
That’s after we were second bottom of the league after about seven games before Bobby arrived.
If Alan Shearer really wants to become a manager – and we have our doubts now – he needs to learn the business by managing lesser clubs in the lower divisions, because it’s hard these days for a former great player to get a plum job as the manager of a big club, without having learned your trade in management at lower league clubs, or as an assistant at the top clubs.
That’s exactly what Steve Clarke has done, and that experience is now showing through for him at West Brom.
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15 comments so far
toonarmydownsouth
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:10 AM
Comment #1All aboard for the Ed rollercoaster!
Conaldo (The Wizard)
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:13 AM
Comment #2Keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times.
Jesper – weather in Newcastle = cold, dark, wet extremely unpredictable.
jesperfuglsang
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:13 AM
Comment #3Steve Clarke is a good lad; would have liked him back at Newcastle when he opted for the bin dippers (God knows why :))
jesperfuglsang
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:13 AM
Comment #4…or was it Chelsea? can’t seem to remember 😀 lol
jesperfuglsang
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:15 AM
Comment #5Wizard…sounds a bit like Denmark (though it is not that wet here)
Conaldo (The Wizard)
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:16 AM
Comment #6It doesn’t get quite as cold though. In winter it rarely drops below -2 Celsius.
Conaldo (The Wizard)
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:17 AM
Comment #7I’ve heard it can get really cold in Denmark
jawballsaswallwell
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:25 AM
Comment #8Let’s not over egg the pudding please. Good football man no doubt but he’s 8 games into his first managerial position after all, and about to be on the end of consecutive defeats.
jesperfuglsang
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:25 AM
Comment #9Wizard…it can; mainly because we have the ocean on all sides. (and probably because it is so far north)
…the fact that Newcastle and Denmark are on also the same latitude does that have a bareing on the resemblance? Anyone?
north_country_boy
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:26 AM
Comment #10Team for today – KRUL – SIMMO, WILLO, COLO, SANTON – PERCH, ANITA – CABAYE – BEN ARFA, BA, FERGIE – think they will pack the midfield so we need 3 in there to stop us being overrun…could even put Anita at right back and bring Bigi into midfield, Fergie deserves to start before Jonas as he offers more both in defence (when needed) and attack – I’m going for a hard fought 2-1 Ben Arfa and Ba
rknufc
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:27 AM
Comment #11Im going over to the match today just in the airport now. Can anyone tell me what the weather is like in newcastle now?
steveno7
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:27 AM
Comment #12Cold cold cold cold
Conaldo (The Wizard)
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:30 AM
Comment #13Rk- about 7 Celsius, just stopped raining, cloudy.
toonarmydownsouth
Oct 28, 2012 at 8:32 AM
Comment #14Rk
Probably the same as most of england!!
Waa a proper heavy frost at work this morning and yesterday morning at work it randomly starting snowing at about half 5
wolfshead@toon
Oct 28, 2012 at 11:30 AM
Comment #15yes its cold wear 2 t shirts )