A Scottish full-back struggling for minutes at a big London club and pondering a move elsewhere.
Steve Clarke has been in that movie before. So if Kieran Tierney needs advice or guidance over the next few months, regarding his situation at Arsenal, he won’t have to look far. The Scotland manager has been there, done it and learned the lesson – albeit at Chelsea and not the Gunners.
Former Celtic star Tierney faces a major dilemma this summer. He’s on the verge of becoming a Premier League winner with Mikel Arteta’s side clear at the top – but can’t get a game. The arrival of Ukrainian star Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City has limited his game time. That has alerted Newcastle and others who are keen to snare the 25-year-old for around £20million. Even in his heyday, Clarke wasn’t worth that kind of money. But he experienced a similar scenario as a player at Stamford Bridge in the late 1980s. He was out of the team, just as Chelsea were about to turn a corner under new owner Ken Bates, with new players arriving from abroad.
Clarke admits that, for a spell, his attitude wasn’t right. But he soon realised the opportunity he had at the club. A change in mentality – and later his position – meant he got to play with the likes of Ruud Gullit, Gianluca Vialli and Gianfranco Zola.
He also picked up a League Cup, FA Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup with the Blues before retiring to become a coach. Clarke knows what Tierney will be going through sitting on Arsenal’s bench.
But ahead of next week’s Euro 2024 qualifiers, he’s warning the Scotland defender not to make rash decisions on his future. Clarke said: “It’s one of the things you have to deal with when you are playing at a top-level club. I had it myself when I was a player. In the early days at Chelsea it was a little bit easier.
“But once you have the foreign influence starting to come in, and quality players start to turn up, you find yourself at a level where you are maybe not going to be selected to play every game. You have to deal with that.
“I’ve spoken to Kieran recently and he is handling the situation well. He understands why he is not getting so many minutes. He just has to knuckle down and get on with it. You have to be a good professional and work as hard as you can.
“His club are flying at the top of the league so, while it’s not great that he is not playing, he can take some comfort from the fact the team are playing well.
“Am I glad I stuck it out at Chelsea? I don’t think anybody else wanted me! You have got a choice as a player – run away and try somewhere else or stick it out. I didn’t have too many suitors at the time. I was settled in the area and at the club. I tweaked my position a little and moved inside to centre-back. That seemed to help me get more games.”
Clarke went on to play over 400 games for the Blues and eventually became Jose Mourinho’s first-team coach at the Bridge. But he admits he wasn’t always the consummate professional before the penny finally dropped.
He said: “I got the benefit of staying because towards the end of my career I picked up a few trophies.That was a nice way to finish my career, with two or three winner’s medals in my pocket.
“Kieran is probably in a slightly different position. He is certainly good enough to play at the highest level in the EPL. So I think he should knuckle down, see this season out like the good professional he is and see what the summer brings.
“I actually had six months when I let myself down. I didn’t train or work as hard as I could to be in the team. Thankfully I saw the error of my ways, knuckled down and got back in the team.
“Everyone deals with these situations differently. If I could go back to my situation, when team selection was wobbling a little bit, I would do it differently.
“So I can pass that on to people like Kieran now and give them the benefit of my experience. I just changed within myself. I realised I wasn’t going anywhere. I had to knuckle down and get back in the team – and that’s what I did. I ended up with a pretty decent career as a result.
“I now have all those experiences to take with me. You try to impart that knowledge to players who are experiencing something similar, if not the same situation. You say: ‘Look I made an a**e of myself there, just be careful what you are doing, do the right thing.’"
Tierney is part of a familiar national team squad now, with keeper Angus Gunn the only new recruit included to face Cyprus and Spain at Hampden.
Clarke believes that continuity is key to success – but admits the likes of Lawrence Shankland, Kevin Nisbet, Anthony Ralston and others can count themselves unfortunate to miss out.
He said: “You always want to make it competitive. You don’t want to be handing out caps willy-nilly and always searching for a solution.
“I have a way of playing now and a number of players who understand what’s required when we get together. Six months since our last competitive game, the players will immediately know what we expect. Rather than trying to bed in three or four different names, it’s straightforward. Or it should be.
“They know each other well, what is expected of each other, what to expect from me, what I am going to ask for. Hopefully they can deliver.
“Lawrence can consider himself a little bit unfortunate. Kevin came back from his first injury and was on fire. Unfortunately he has picked up another one and that seems to have held him back a little bit. Tony played for Celtic last week so there are loads of people on the periphery who didn’t get selected.
“Dominic Hyam at Blackburn has done well, as has Murray Wallace at Millwall, Liam Lindsay at Preston. The good thing for me is I know they all want to be selected and are fighting to be in that squad.”
READ NEXT
