In-demand Steve McClaren emerges from his umbrella
As he stood there on the touchline with the rain falling at the Rat Verlegh Stadion in Breda, Steve McClaren’s mind must have cast back to Wembley two-and-a-half years ago. Croatia, Scott Carson, umbrellas and all that. Then, for possibly the first time since that night, he could have smiled about it.
An undoubted failure as England manager, McClaren attempted a renaissance at the most unlikely of places. Now a Dutch title winner with FC Twente, the first part of that character rebuilding process is complete.
Eyebrows were raised when he chose to move to the eastern Holland city of Enschede, the home of Twente, an improving club but not one of the Eredivisie’s “big three” of Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord.
Even more eyebrows moved skyward after his development of a comedy, “Dutshh” accent in the immediate weeks following his appointment in the summer of 2008, but McClaren guided Twente to second place in his first season. Now he’s improved upon that by delivering the club a first ever title, he’s a prime target across Europe.
Wolfsburg, Hamburg, Sporting Lisbon and even West Ham are all reportedly chasing his services, and while he might be reluctant to return to England at the moment, a move elsewhere on the continent looks likely.
McClaren is the first Englishman to win a foreign championship since Sir Bobby Robson won the Portuguese league with Porto in 1996, or indeed the first Englishman to win a major league anywhere since Howard Wilkinson’s Leeds United captured the last old First Division title in 1992.
His stock is high at the moment, as high as it was when he guided Middlesbrough to the Uefa Cup final in 2006 and ended up with the England job.
He won’t get a position as lofty as that one this time around, but his decision to attempt to rebuild a shattered reputation on the continent has certainly proved to be as correct as it was brave.
Derided nationwide following England’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008, he had little or no chance of landing a good job in his own country. Who was going to appoint a man who had been portrayed as a clown in the national newspapers? He was a “wally with a brolly” who had failed to guide a group of outrageously talented players through what had looked to be a relatively simple qualification group.
Forgotten was his role as a promising assistant manager to Sir Alex Ferguson when Manchester United won their 1999 Treble. Ferguson had headhunted McClaren from Derby County, and the Yorkshireman went on to fulfil the same role with England under Sven-Göran Eriksson before winning the Carling Cup at Middlesbrough and miraculously qualifying for the Uefa Cup final.
But all that went out of the window on a wet Wednesday night at Wembley.
Croatia had shattered him, but his move to rebuild a previously promising career has now yielded its’ first tangible results.
Where he moves next is up to him, and with plentiful options available, what he does will be interesting to see.
Just don’t expect him to pack an umbrella.
Tags: