McClaren steadily rebuilds his battered reputation

Paul Fraser
The Northern Echo
Thursday 12 March 2009

Sitting proudly in the second qualifying spot for the Champions League in Holland’s Eredivisie is FC Twente, the little known club from the town of Enschede that has Steve McClaren as manager.

While Twente are 11 points adrift of runaway leaders AZ Alkmaar, managed by the hugely acclaimed Louis van Gaal, McClaren is quietly going about reviving his own managerial career.

Three points ahead of Ajax, nine ahead of PSV Eindhoven and a monumental 24 clear of Feyenoord, times are changing in Dutch football and McClaren is playing a key role.

But while his name was never mentioned in the running when Tony Adams departed Portsmouth, Paul Ince left Blackburn or Roy Keane departed Sunderland, there can be no disguising the impressive job he is doing.

In England he will forever be remembered as the wally with the brolly after the infamous rain-sodden night at Wembley, when defeat to Croatia brought an end to his reign.

The jokes will always flow on these shores for the way his attempts to adopt a Dutch accent in one of his early interviews as Twente boss ended up being viewed by millions on YouTube.

But McClaren is now proving that he is, ultimately, a fine club coach.

Backed by more than 24,000 fans at every home match in the De Grolsch Veste Enschede, Twente took another step towards a remarkable season by claiming a point against PSV last weekend.

It was a draw that cemented their place beneath AZ Alkmaar at the top of a league in which Twente have not lost in more than five months – an indication that his work is no fluke.

In truth, though, noone in Britain really cares.

He could be winning the Eredivisie and any chairman considering bringing the former Middlesbrough manager back to the Premier League would be laughed at.

McClaren will, though, have learned from his mistakes. He was clever and determined enough to head for Twente off his own back, without any English assistants and initially without any of his Yarmbased family.

And he is reaping the rewards. It says something when he has been commended by Dutch legend Johan Cruyff for the way he has adapted the Dutch tradition of playing with two wingers and one striker.

But whatever Cruyff has been saying in Holland, McClaren will always struggle for support in this country and it is unlikely he will be handed an opportunity to manage in the Premier League again.

Here, though, is a thought. During his days with Boro he always worked towards his next move.

Every decision was designed to make himself look better, in the hope that one day he would be handed the chance to lead his country.

But having already achieved that, when he failed miserably, perhaps the next club he manages will reap the rewards, just as Twente are.

McClaren was the most successful manager in Middlesbrough’s history. He is the only man to have led them to a major piece of domestic silverware.

He may never have been the most popular, because of his ambition and his personality. But even his harshest critic would have to concede defeat when it comes to the facts.

Two years in the UEFA Cup and a Carling Cup winners’ title during his time in charge – all during a five-year stint when you could probably count on two hands the amount of times his name was chanted by the club’s fans.

And he is proving, again, that he is a good coach. He was just out of his depth with England.

But while he is sitting pretty with Twente in the Dutch league and preparing for a semi-final of the domestic cup, he is unlikely to be on the radar of any Premier League chairmen considering a new approach this summer.

Instead, provided the good work he is doing continues, his next step is likely to be somewhere else in Europe, taking a similar approach to that once taken by Sir Bobby Robson.

McClaren will harbour hopes of one day returning to the English league, but you sense the only way he will be competing against the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool in the Premier League will be if he takes a Championship club up.

Southampton or QPR perhaps? They could do a lot worse.