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McClaren to go Dutch in surprise return
Matt Dickinson
Timesonline
Monday, May 19 2008
Steve McClaren is on the brink
of a surprise return to football in the Netherlands
with FC Twente. The former England head coach was in
Amsterdam yesterday to see Twente qualify for the Champions
League at the expense of Ajax.
McClaren will decide this week whether to rebuild his
career overseas and is giving serious consideration
to the offer from Twente. He has been out of work since
he was dismissed by the Football Association in November
after England’s failure to qualify for Euro 2008
and is keen to return this summer. The usual post-season
cull of managers is likely to provide openings in the
Coca-Cola Championship, but McClaren has often expressed
a desire to work abroad.
Twente finished fourth in the Dutch league, ten points
behind PSV Eindhoven, the champions, but secured the
second Champions League place through the play-offs
with a 0-0 draw in the Amsterdam ArenA yesterday. They
will join in the third qualifying round and the promise
of European football is one of the lures for the Yorkshireman.
There is also the chance to rebuild his reputation
without some of the baggage that would inevitably follow
him around England because of his failure with the national
side. Sir Bobby Robson also left the FA to work in the
Netherlands, with PSV, and he is known to have encouraged
McClaren to consider working there. The language would
be far less of a problem than in other European countries.
Twente want McClaren to decide in the next few days
whether he will succeed Fred Rutten, who has agreed
to join Schalke 04 in Germany. One report yesterday
linked McClaren with a return to Derby County, but there
has been no approach. While it would be a gamble to
move abroad, success would also mark him out. The number
of English coaches who have worked overseas has been
pitifully few in recent years.
Twente will regard it as a coup if they can attract
the man who was once Sir Alex Ferguson’s assistant
at Manchester United and who, while at Middlesbrough,
won the League Cup in 2004, came runner-up in the Uefa
Cup in 2006 and finished seventh in the Premiership,
the club’s highest finish.
Since losing the England job, McClaren, 47, has been
travelling around Europe, seeking to build up his contacts
and knowledge of players. That experience could prove
useful given that he would need to trade within a limited
budget at Twente, based in Enschede, a city of around
150,000 people near the eastern border with Germany.
Bankrupt five years ago, the club have since been taken
over by ambitious new owners. Managerial rivals would
include Marco van Basten, who will take charge at Ajax
this summer.
If McClaren does decide to move abroad — and his
family is bound to be another consideration — Twente’s
custom of playing You’ll Never Walk Alone before
kick-off should at least help him to feel more at home
after his years in England.
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