Trust is the glue that underpins any relationship. And once corroded it is difficult to build bridges of considerable strength.
Steve Clarke will have had better weeks. The Scotland manager might wish to spend this weekend far away from the fallout of a dispiriting double header against Russia and Belgium but the public rebuke from Rangers manager Steven Gerrard will have added another layer to a troublesome few days.
Relations between the two have been on a downward spiral for months. This week’s criticisms from a seething Gerrard that Clarke was “careless” with Ryan Jack has continued the downward trajectory in relations between the once Liverpool captain and once Anfield first-team coach.
If this week laid bare the magnitude of the job that Clarke has as he tries to break the cycle of abject failure within the national team, it also shone a light on the need for trust between clubs and those managing international squads.
Yet, just who is to blame for Jack’s injury seems fuzzy. It is understood that players turn up for international football with their own programmes from clubs with the SFA coaching staff made fully aware of any issues and instructions that come from those who pay players’ wages.
In previous campaigns, one player was believed to have insisted on taking part in training rather than stay back to twiddle his thumbs at the team hotel despite the wishes of his club that due to an ongoing and managed problem that he did not partake in anything for 48 hours after a game. If a player himself bucks that, then who should carry the can?
Gerrard couldn’t hide his irritation that Jack, an instrumental player in the Ibrox midfield, is out of action this weekend. The Rangers manager has not yet spoken to Jack because he felt he was too irritated by the manner in which events unfolded but in fairness to the 27-year-old, that seems a little harsh.
Jack has been capped just twice for Scotland. It is not a familiar set-up. The fear would be that asking a manager, desperate to implement change and get the best out of players he works with only sporadically, to be excused from a double training session would be a significant blot on the copybook.
Gerrard maintained that the SFA were well aware of Jack’s knee injury which is carefully managed by the club. He also insisted that the timing of the session in the immediate aftermath of the Old Firm game was off, regardless of existing problems.
But the assumption would be that other players came through it, who had also partaken in the same game, without any issues.
In any case, if the chilliness between Clarke and Gerrard has descended into a frosty silence – Gerrard did not speak to the Scotland manager about Jack’s issue – then it doesn’t bode well for the guys in the middle.
For Clarke to get the best out of the small pool at his disposal and for the players to get the best out of their international careers, there needs to be a transparency as well as a clear line of communication between clubs and international coaches.
Otherwise there is a chance subtle pressures come into play where individuals question the wisdom of turning up for international duty with a knock for fear of aggravating issues or, more pertinently, falling foul of club managers.
Clarke needs all the help he can get. The national team carry the weight of three generations of failure, with the psychological pressure of that as pressing as the fact they cannot keep a clean sheet.
Clarke and Gerrard’s fallout has been simmering since the turn of the year. Back in February Gerrard was fuming that Clarke chipped in his tuppence worth after Jermaine Defoe won one of four Rangers penalties in a game against St Mirren after going down easily under a Paul McGinn challenge.
Clarke had been irked that Jordan Jones had served a two-match ban for simulation earlier in the campaign, prompting a spiky response from Gerrard.
As Clarke spoke out on the sectarian abuse he received at Ibrox last season, Gerrard responded by asking why he had been oblivious to Kris Boyd copping a mouthful off the Celtic fans when they had paid a visit to Rugby Park the previous weekend.
Clearing the air and both making their wishes known for the management of players seems like the sensible compromise. The last thing Clarke needs is to lose the trust of those who send him their assets.
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