Celtic pundit Paul John Dykes has recently made a claim about Scotland manager Steve Clarke.
Dykes was hosting the latest episode of the ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Bhoys. The panel also talked about Celtic’s international call-ups and Dykes revealed that Clarke was once interviewed for the Celtic manager’s role. He also had praise for the Scotland manager.
Clarke, 57, has been the Scotland manager since May 2019 and he is expected to be in charge of the team till June 2022. He has previously been an assistant manager at West Ham United and Chelsea, before taking the reins at Reading and West Brom before becoming Kilmarnock boss in 2017 (as per Transfermarkt).
Do you want Clarke to manage Celtic in the future?
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Dykes believes that Clarke has played a role in shoring up Scotland’s backline. He said: “I am looking at the job that Steve Clarke’s done. I know that Steve Clarke has previously been courted and been interviewed for the Celtic manager’s job previously.
“I think the job he’s doing is reminiscent to Craig Brown’s. He’s basically shoring up the backline. That’s his absolutely key attribute as a manager, I think – that’s why he’d done so well at Kilmarnock. Yet there’s a sprinkling of real quality in that Scotland squad.”
TIF Thoughts on Dykes’ comments regarding Steve Clarke…
Before he was appointed the Scotland manager, Clarke was managing Kilmarnock. At Rugby Park, he managed 79 games and had a points-per-match tally of 1.77 (as per Transfermarkt).
Back in 2019, Tam McManus had tipped Celtic to appoint Clarke as their manager. Clarke has previously said that if Celtic ever gave him ‘a call’ to make him their manager, it would be ‘nice’ for him and also described Celtic as a ‘great club’.
So the idea of Clarke managing Celtic isn’t a totally new one. The Scotsman is a well-experienced manager and keeping that in mind, he might be a good choice for Celtic in the future.