Thank God Celtic Never Went For Steve Clarke. Handbrake Football Was Never For Us.

Imagine Steve Clarke at Celtic. Honestly – Don’t.

Picture Celtic walking out for a Champions League qualifier with Steve Clarke in the dugout.

Go on. Picture it.

The handbrake on. The talent throttled. The whole thing built to not lose.

Doesn’t bear thinking about, does it?

5 shots in the last 5 tournament matches with Scotland.

Read that again.

FIVE.

That’s not a typo.

That’s a philosophy.

Now imagine that approach being asked to navigate a Champions League qualifier.

We’d be offski before the second leg, lets be real.

This Is A Man Who Coaches the Adventure Clean Out Of Players.

Make no bones about it.

Caution.

Containment.

Compromise.

The handbrake is never off.

I get that he’s organised.

But organised and beige is not what this club is about and it never has been.

We come out of the rock n roll Ange Postecoglou era – attack, attack, attack, full backs flying, front foot from the FIRST whistle.

And we nearly handed the keys to a man whose default setting is don’t get beat.

Doesn’t bear thinking about.

The Emperor’s New Clothes – Beaming With Pride At A 1-0 Over Haiti.

Here’s the bit that does my head in.

The achievements get dressed up as something they are NOT.

A dull 1-0 over Haiti and he’s beaming with pride like he’s lifted a trophy.

And if Scotland scrape into the last 32 of the World Cup? Brace yourselves.

He’ll dress it up as an unreal achievement and the tears will flow.

It won’t be.

Lets have it right – qualifying alone for a World Cup used to MEAN you’d made the last 32.

That was the floor, not the ceiling.

What a turn off.

O’Neill Wants MORE. Clarke Would Have Given Us LESS.

O’Neill appointment looks like we have went for Pep in comparison to negative Clarke.

Front foot.

WFM.

Rumour has it the Big Man wants an even more aggressive, more front foot approach next season.

Could Steve Clarke ever have given us that?

Course he couldn’t.

Would he have tried?

Not a chance.

Clarke is busy boring the life out of the Scotland support.

I’m sat here counting my blessings.

Different bodies.

Different mentalities.

Different football.

And Yet – He Was A Person Of Interest To Our Board.

Here’s the part that should worry you though.

Rumour has it Clarke was very much a person of interest to our Board a couple of years back.

Of course he was.

He’s available.

He’s cheap.

He’ll keep it tight.

Season ticket renewals won’t tank.

Job’s a good un.

That’s the mentality.

A man who’d keep the balance sheet pretty and the football grey.

You can see why that lot upstairs were tempted, can’t you?

Profits before players.

Balance Sheets before Team Sheets.

That’s Celtic PLC for you.

Thank goodness we dodged that one.

How many clubs go into Champions League qualifiers with a manager whose idea of ambition is a 1-0 over Haiti?

How many clubs can look back at a near-miss like this and breathe as easily as we can right now?

I doubt many.

So when I watch Scotland send their own support to sleep, I don’t rage anymore.

I feel apathy as it is a movie seen under Clarke so many times.

Because it could so easily have been us.

Champions League football with Steve Clarke at Celtic.

No thanks.

Genuinely.

He probably would of scraped past Kairat Almaty right enough!

I hope he gets a result against Brazil too, a result for him is probably a 1-0 defeat though.

He is hopefully not on any shortlist going forward for us.