Steve McClaren: rebuilding a career
It was the darkest night, as the dust settled, and English fans realised that they wouldn’t have been heading to Austria and Switzerland in Euro 2008. The villain was Steve McClaren. Disliked from the very beginning, McClaren had an – at best – rocky relationship with press and fans alike. But with a reputation torn to shreds, and many English fans claiming “I told you so”, McClaren has fled to Holland to rebuild his managerial career out of the media limelight. Bob Bamber recalls the path that took him there.
After a rather tepid playing career, McClaren quickly turned his hand to coaching. In 1999 he took over from Brian Kidd as the Manchester United assistant manager, and was part of the backroom staff that won the Treble that year. He was quickly building a reputation as an astute coach, pioneering the use of video technology and even persuading Sir Alex Ferguson to hire a sports psychologist. He once said that “the best coaches are the ones which get inside players heads”.
His reputation continued to grow, and caretaker England manager Peter Taylor appointed him to join the national sides coaching staff – a position he retained upon permanent manager Sven-Göran Eriksson. Despite big success alongside Sir Alex, he decided that it was time to become a fully fledged manager. And in 2001, he was appointed by Steve Gibson as the manager of Middlesbrough. For McClaren, after years in the shadows, this was his time to show what he was made of.
For a while, it was a solid if unspectacular start to his managerial career. In his first two seasons he finished twelfth, then eleventh. It was the 2003/4 season where Middlesbrough really started to make waves. A 2-1 victory in the Carling Cup final secured not only Boro’s first ever major honours, but in-turn, secured qualification to the Uefa Cup for the first time in the clubs history. This enabled McClaren to bring in a wealth of talent including Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Mark Viduka. And in the following season the club finished 7th – its highest ever position.
The 2005-6 proved to be the most momentous under McClaren. Despite poor league form the club went on an incredible run in the Uefa Cup. In the quarter final against Basel the side looked down and out. Conceeding early meant that they needed to score four goals, an near impossible feat. But after some fearless tactics from McClaren, Massimo Maccarone scored in the 90th minute, 4-1 on the night, 4-3 to Boro on aggregate. If that wasn’t enough, they repeated the feat in the semi final. This time against Steaua Bucure?ti, they trailed by only one goal, but once again found themselves needing 4 goals. And, as if by clockwork, Maccarone again scored late winner.
It was revealed only a weekend before the 2nd leg that McClaren had lost out in the running for the England manager’s post – a role that reportedly was to be offered to Luiz Felipe Scolari. Scolari subsequently turned down the offer. And despite losing 4-0 to Sevilla in the Uefa Cup final, McClaren was confirmed as the new England manager. The reaction was mixed. Pundit Alan Hansen and Manager Sir Alex Ferguson praised the decision, however fans reaction was less forthcoming, many seeing McClaren as too boring and attributing Middlesbrough’s success to the financial backing of chairman Steve Gibson.
McClaren acted quickly, dropping the now former captain David Beckham claiming that “I was planning for the future and a different direction, and David wasn’t included in that.” He instead appointed John Terry as the new skipper. Two wins at the start were quickly forgotten as England firstly drew at home to Macedonia, and then lost in Zagreb. A poor performance away at Andorra – albeit in a winning cause – saw the players and McClaren booed at half time. It began to fuel media pressure that McClaren should be sacked. In the subsequent press conference, he famously stormed out declaring - “Gentlemen, if you want to write whatever you want to write, you can write it because that is all I am going to say. Thank you.”
Even with this rocky road, England could still qualify for Euro 2008 by simply avoiding defeat at home to Croatia. But on a wet night in London, a untried England backline simply couldn’t cope with their opponents going down 3-2. McClaren, who infamously stood under an umbrella during a majority of the match quickly became know as the “wally with the brolly”. He was sacked the following day, his tenure as England manager became the shortest in history, playing 18 games in just 16 months.
McClaren’s reputation was tarnished – badly. And in a smart move he took the option of taking over Dutch club FC Twente. Out of the media limelight, he has since guided them to second in Eredivisie, runner up in the Dutch cup final, and further than they have ever gone in Europe. The question for McClaren is “how long is long enough” before he can return to an English club?
