Steve Clarke is one of the truest legends of Chelsea FC and any club would be proud to have a Steve Clarke in their books. Having served Chelsea for more than 20 years as a player and coach, he's given his all to us. We can't thank him enough.
Here's a little history of Clarke from Wikipedia for the curious ones:
Clarke started his professional football career with St Mirren F.C. before transferring to Chelsea for £422,000 in February 1987. He stayed at Chelsea until 1998, making 421 appearances (the fifth highest total in the club's history) and winning the club's Player of the Year award in 1994. He was a part of the Chelsea sides which won the FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners Cup in the late 1990s. The Cup Winners' Cup final, against VfB Stuttgart in Stockholm, was Clarke's final appearance for the club. In 2005 he was voted into Chelsea's centenary XI, occupying the right-back berth.
Now that he has left us for West Ham, I'm a bit taken aback but I think he's made the right choice. With another of Chelsea legends, Gianfranco Zola as coach, Stevie is going to get a lot more exposure as an assistant to him than he would have got under Scholari for many reasons. Scholari has his own assistant for one. Clarke's job was that of a bridge between the English and the foriegners so to say. His great nous of the English game was the reason Scholari was so upset when Clarke handed in his resignation. Zola's relative inexperience as a coach means Clarke would be more involved in team affairs, tactical desicions etc than he could ever be at Chelsea. His ambitions to become the first team coach one day has more chance of fruition at West Ham than Chelsea. That is the reason I'm happy for him, though a little disappointed too.
His replacement is already in place in Ray Wilkins. Another great servant for the club who not only served us with his football but also bailed us out of financial crisis in the alte 70's when he was sold to ManU for a club record fee which helped the club immensely. He was made captain of Chelsea at 18, our youngest ever. Ray went on to play for Milan among others and was also assistant coach under Vialli. He was sacked following the arrival of Ranieri. His credentials are similar to Clarke's but we'd have to wait and watch his work.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Steve Clarke once again for all his services over the years and wish him all the best for the future. Hope he's back with us one day as our first team coach.
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Yeah Steve Clarke is a legend for Chelsea and that is why I was actually surprised to see him going to West Ham. I was equally surprised when Zola opted for the hammers playing down his connection with chelsea. Mark Huges now isnt that revered by some amongst the United faithful because he opted to manage Man city and blackburn. Would like to know if there is a section of chelsea fans who think on that line. But I for one think that it is a really good step for both Clarke and Huges though they are managing rival clubs.
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