Ray Clemence RIP

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How spooky is this - I was just watching the Finale again, and got MOTD on, in the background, and just as they were paying tribute to Clem at Anfield, Clem walked out on the pitch at WHL.
 
Nice article about Stephen Clemence and his Dad in The Times.

HENRY WINTER | STEPHEN CLEMENCE INTERVIEW

Stephen Clemence: I’m at a crossroads. If only I could speak to Dad​


Former midfielder used to tire of questions about being the son of an icon but as he looks to move into management it’s a different story​

Stephen Clemence admits that his father Ray, who died in November 2020, was his go-to person “on most things”

Stephen Clemence admits that his father Ray, who died in November 2020, was his go-to person “on most things”

Stephen Clemence admits that he is at a “crossroads” in his life. He is at present talking to clubs, explaining the attacking style he wants to instil into their teams, looking to take into management all the experience he gathered over 26 years as player and coach.

Clemence enjoyed a successful career as a neat midfield player, racking up 208 games in the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur, Birmingham City and Leicester City. He is also well respected in the game for his coaching, helping to develop talents such as Jack Grealish at Aston Villa and Allan Saint-Maximin at Newcastle United.

Now 45, Clemence is ready to take full responsibility. He just wishes his father, Ray, the great Liverpool, Tottenham and England goalkeeper, who died from prostate cancer in 2020 aged 72, was still around to give him advice.

“It used to really annoy me when I got established in the Premier League, played over 100 games, and there would still be the question from reporters or a magazine, ‘What’s it like to be Ray Clemence’s son?’ ” he reflects, at his home in Cheshire.

“Obviously I’d answer the question and say it was great. If I was asked it again now, I’d say I was the luckiest boy in the world, but I didn’t really realise it at the time.

“I’m at a crossroads in my life now, and I’d love to speak to him. He was my go-to on most things. He gave me so much great advice growing up, just on how to behave, how to live your life, how to prepare for games.

“When I became a footballer I’d phone him before every game. He’d always gives me something, about mentality, concentration, just little reminders. His was the opinion that I valued the most. When I was in the Premier League, walking off the pitch, I’d look up at the stands. If he was looking at me and gave me a nod I knew I’d done OK. If he was looking away I knew I’d had a poor game.

“He always said he was pleased that I played in midfield, as going in goal would have been too much of a comparison, although Kasper [Schmeichel, son of Peter] hasn’t done too bad.

“To me he was my dad, not ‘Ray Clemence’, this footballing icon. I think he’d be proud of what I’ve achieved to this moment but he’d want me to keep striving forward, keep being ambitious. He’d want me to have a go at managing.”

In preparing for management, Clemence draws on playing under a range of managers, beginning with Gerry Francis when he broke through at Spurs aged 19 in 1997. “Gerry had a big demand on you being fit,” he says. “The ‘Tuesday terror’ session. Box-to-box runs, harder than a bleep test, 15 seconds flat out, and again. Gerry was more than running; he had his team very well organised.

“George Graham was class. I absolutely loved him. How he spoke to me gave me a career in the Premier League. I was fairly decent on the ball, stroked it around OK, but was probably a bit soft at that time, didn’t get tight enough to people, didn’t get involved in the physical side of the game enough.” So Graham left Clemence out, and sent him to train with Chris Hughton and the reserves.

“I’m thinking my time at Spurs is up,” Clemence continues, then relates the following exchange:

“Tell me why you think you’re not being involved,” Graham said.

“I don’t think I’m your cup of tea,” Clemence replied.

“No, I think you’re a really good football player. Who are your heroes?”

“John Barnes and Paul Gascoigne, absolutely loved them.”

“World-class players. But are you watching [Woolwich’s Patrick] Vieira and [Emmanuel] Petit? Watch them closely, and see how they get up to people, tackle people and upset people and do the nasty bit of the game that you have to do in midfield to get control of a game. If you do that, you’ll play for me.”

Clemence says: “That chat changed me. It gave me that toughness for the rest of my career.”
He also took to Graham’s successor, Glenn Hoddle, who arrived in 2001. “He’s the best I’ve ever seen with tactics, great training sessions, really enjoyable,” Clemence says. “I know he’s had criticism for that [man-management]. Never a problem for me. He always was fair with me.

“To play for Tottenham you probably need to be better than me. There’s some world-class midfield players that played for Spurs. I know I wasn’t that. But I supported Spurs as a boy and I’m really proud to have played for them.”

Hoddle moved him on in January 2003. “Leeds were on the radar. But Steve [Bruce, the manager at the time] sold Birmingham to me, told me I was going to be a regular, and it was the happiest time in my career,” he says. “The group of players were fantastic, the best spirit I’ve ever experienced: Geoff Horsfield, Matthew Upson, Kenny Cunningham, Stan Lazaridis, Damien Johnson and Robbie Savage. Christophe Dugarry signed in the same window: what a bloke he was. A normal bloke but [with] just unbelievable ability.

“We went down to the local pub just outside Solihull, about eight of us, and Christophe decided to come. Lovely evening, lads talking about whatever and then the bill comes: a couple of hundred quid. So we go to split the bill. Christophe says, ‘No. World Cup winner! I get the bill!’ He did it with a cheeky smile. The lads loved him. He was absolutely brilliant. His big mate was Zinédine Zidane, and Robbie Savage is a big collector of shirts and Christophe got Zidane’s shirt for him.

“We had a great crowd around us at Birmingham, which was intimidating for the opposition, all we had to do was work our nuts off and we’d get a response from them. That came from the manager as well. Steve’s an out-and-out winner — we all knew our jobs, organised, difficult to beat, defensively sound, played a bit on the counterattack, get in people’s faces. He demanded that.”

Bruce eventually sold Clemence to Leicester City because they needed the money to strengthen the squad. Calf, thigh, heel and achilles problems inhibited him. “It’s a struggle. When you sit in the treatment room and there are glass doors and you can look out at the training they’re doing — a bit of crossing and finishing, having a laugh, having an eight-a-side [game], laughing and joking — and you’re stuck with the physio. It’s horrible,” he says.

“I hear Gary Neville or Jamie Carragher saying, ‘No, I’d had enough, I was ready to retire.’ But when it gets taken away from you it’s very, very hard to deal with. I’m proud of the career I had but it could have been more.”

He announced his retirement on Easter Monday of 2010, and went into coaching under Bruce at Sunderland. “I’m very grateful because it’s kept me involved. I look at myself now, 45 years old, I’ve been doing it for 13 years and I’ve coached over 400 games in the Premier League and the Championship,” he says. “One thing that gave me a career as a player was my work ethic and I’ve tried to carry that on into my coaching.”

After Sunderland, Clemence coached under Bruce at Hull City, Villa, Sheffield Wednesday, Newcastle and West Bromwich Albion. “I’ve worked with great professionals who’ve been great football players, like John Terry at Villa, James Chester [at Hull and Villa], Robert Snodgrass [Hull and Villa], but Jack [Grealish] and Allan [Saint-Maximin] are the best two things I’ve ever seen on a training pitch.

“To work with someone like Jack is phenomenal. I’ve never seen a talent like his. You just can’t get the ball off him. He carries the ball so well; he’s a great lad, he’ll listen, he doesn’t think he knows it all. We still speak now and again.

“Allan can do things at speed with a football which you just don’t think are even possible. He cuts inside, he has got end product, there’s no doubt about that. The problem he’s found is that people know what he’s going to do more now and people are doubling up, tripling up on him, but he can go past people so, so easily. He’s a nice lad as well, quite laid-back. Sometimes he used to annoy some of the lads as he turned up a little bit late. But he wasn’t out drinking at night. He’d be late because he’d be taking his kids to school. I can’t say I taught him too much because he’s just a natural talent. We tried to help him defensively.”

Newcastle were pretty defensive under Bruce, weren’t they? “We counterattacked quite well,” Clemence says. “We defended quite deep. It was quite hard to watch for us at times but we felt that it was the best way to get a result.”

He was frustrated by the way Bruce and his staff were perceived and treated. “We knew when we went in [in July 2019] we weren’t popular appointments,” he says. Bruce’s Sunderland connections didn’t help. “The mood in the local Newcastle paper the first day was: ‘Surely not?’ The remit from the owner [Mike Ashley] was to stay in the Premier League, and the budget reflected that. I’m really proud that we finished 13th and 12th.

“The lads were brilliant, really. There were some talented individuals in there but a lot of them came from the Championship. They knew they weren’t going to pass through teams or play with loads of flair. Whenever we tried to open up we ended up normally getting beat. Steve is much better tactically than people give him credit for. He can set up a team.”

They needed more investment from Ashley. “He said to Steve, ‘Whatever the club makes, you can have.’ He’d already invested quite a lot and I don’t think he felt he was going to put any more in. In our third season [2021-22] the only signing we made was Joe Willock [for £25 million from Woolwich] and we’d already had him on loan the year before. That’s why it might have been tough. I’m not making excuses. I’m really proud of what we did. It was a great experience for me. I was sad to go.”

Bruce departed in October 2021 and Clemence left a month later. He has no complaints with the new owners, including Amanda Staveley, who fronted the Saudi Arabia-led takeover. “Amanda was very good with me,” he says. “She was very easy to deal with. She honoured what was in my contract and I moved on.”

Eddie Howe came in as head coach, and soon redeployed Joelinton deeper, a hugely successful move. “For Eddie to see that is amazing,” Clemence says. “I’m a big fan of Eddie. I’ve got a lot of respect for the way he handles himself. Eddie showed a real touch of class. He phoned me a few days [after leaving], he didn’t need to do that because I understand how football works.

“Eddie said, ‘Look, Stephen, I just wanted to let you know I’ve heard nothing bad about you as a person, nothing bad about you as a coach, I just hope you understand I wanted my own people around me.’ I said, ‘I totally understand. As an English coach I really want you to go and do well in the Premier League because that’s good for all of us.’ Sometimes we need to see the English guys doing well so they can pave the way for other people coming through.”

Clemence adds: “I’ve been on a great coaching journey with Steve which has taught me so much. I’ve played under some of the best managers in the game, Glenn Hoddle, George Graham, and I’d like to feel I’ve taken bits from everybody. But I am my own man. I’ve got my own ideas on how the game should be played. I want to see attacking football. I love watching Liverpool. I love the intensity they play with, it’s absolutely fantastic. Can you produce that with teams down in the Championship, League One, League Two? I believe you can. You can play with that same energy.

“I’ve had opportunities to go into management before. I’ve been loyal to Steve because he was so good to me when I came out of football. I need the drug of football. I’m missing it. I’m ready for management. If I don’t do it I’ll have regrets later in life.”
 
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