The fall out from Steve Clarke’s resignation has already turned bitter.
Clarke set the ball rolling with a few digs at the media after Scotland lost to Brazil. Mentioning of the word prickly seemed to trigger a few folk.
Ian Maxwell surfaced on Sunday to slam the hysterical reactions back home over another SFA failure.
The Scottish media in Florida were caught out by Clarke’s resignation.
The news broke after midnight Scottish time, those out on expenses at the World Cup could let themselves go with work over for the day. And their trip almost over.
Sunday morning requests were made for content. These days that generally involves podcasts. No rest for the workers.
A few stragglers will stay on at the World Cup, 90% of the Scottish reporters will be home by Tuesday.
Clarke’s final words in public were to remind a media conference that the Scotland players were responsible for the Scottish media getting a trip.
That Clarke had already prepared and penned his own resignation statement in advance of the inevitable sorry ending is as clear an indication as any that his mind was already made up.
And yet, as much as this clean break is absolutely necessary and most probably pre-agreed by all parties, there’s something about Clarke’s decision to suddenly throw in the towel which feels almost like a bad-tempered, knee jerk reaction.
Let’s be blunt here. He has not handled himself impressively over the course of these last four weeks.
Having made a point of saying he was determined to enjoy himself here in the States, Clarke has been an emotional mess almost from the very outset.
Responsible for the fallout is Darryl Broadfoot, the former Herald reporter who has the contract for SFA Communications.
Broadfoot was directly employed by the SFA from November 2009 until March 2017.
THE STEVE CLARKE FALL-OUT
He then left to join Frame PR who won the SFA Communications contract. Broadfoot then founded his own RC Creative Communications, guess what they also won the Communications contract.
It seems that Broadfoot has that SFA deal for as long as he wants/needs it.
Turning to damage limitation Maxwell was sent out to speak to BBC Scotland and Sky Sports at the Scotland hotel.
Among the Birthday Card content he couldn’t resist a dig of his own. Discussing Clarke he said:
I think we’ve not performed as well as we’ve wanted to. There’s been some fairly hysterical commentary back home which hasn’t helped. He’s been incredible, I don’t think there’s any doubt.
Maxwell is about to come under the spotlight. Not something that he is comfortable with despite Broadfoot’s efforts.
Before replacing Stewart Regan Maxwell led Partick Thistle from the top six in the Premiership to relegation to the Championship in one season.
The President of the SFA is Mike Mulraney from Alloa! The chubby guy next to Gianni Infantino at Scotland matches.
All of Broadfoot’s charm will be required over the coming weeks and months to shield the SFA from long overdue criticism and scrutiny.
For me one of Steve Clarke’s positive things as Scotland head coach was to tell the SMSM and Inaction Jackson of the daily Record in particular to f*#k off and stop being an unprincipled mange with his serious dearth of scooping skills ! Jackson of course took umbrage and attacked Steve more intently and all behind his back ! Then Billy Leckie of the Scottish Sun threw a lot of the smelly stuff at Clarke knowing it would stick and stink the place out by it’s savagery alone . Now , they realise there has been a public backlash and are attempting to be nice to the guy after he resigned greatly due to their snide criticisms of the guy in my opinion . Jackson and Leckie ! How could anyone ever buy the rags that employs them ever again after their vitriolic words and comments ? Their newspaper product is not fit enough to buff up a manky window after it has been cleaned thoroughly !