Newcastle United In 1998, Clarke joined
Newcastle United as assistant manager to
Ruud Gullit, his former manager and teammate at Chelsea. Clarke was part of the coaching team with Gullit, which helped Newcastle reach the
1999 FA Cup Final on 22 May 1999, where Newcastle finished runners up to
Manchester United. Clarke was caretaker manager following Gullit's resignation on 28 August 1999, taking charge of one match, a 5–1 defeat against Manchester United on 30 August 1999. For that match, Clarke reinstated
Alan Shearer and
Rob Lee to the team.
Chelsea in 2007 After a stint in charge of the youth teams at Chelsea, Clarke was promoted to the position of assistant manager when
José Mourinho was appointed manager in the summer of 2004. Clarke was a part of the coaching set-up which saw Chelsea win two
FA Premier League titles, an
FA Cup and two
League Cups over three seasons under Mourinho. During this period, Clarke completed his UEFA Pro Licence in 2006. When Mourinho left Chelsea in September 2007, Clarke's services were retained by
Avram Grant, although
Henk ten Cate was brought in as another assistant coach.
West Ham United On 12 September 2008, Clarke handed in his resignation to Chelsea, hoping to move to
West Ham United to be assistant to former Chelsea teammate
Gianfranco Zola. Chelsea initially rejected his resignation, demanding compensation worth two years of Clarke's salary. West Ham finished ninth in the Premier League in the
2008–09 season, The club struggled during the next season, however, narrowly avoiding relegation. In June 2010, not long after the dismissal of Zola as manager,
Liverpool On 10 January 2011, Clarke was appointed first-team coach at Liverpool by
Kenny Dalglish, after Dalglish had replaced the dismissed
Roy Hodgson two days before. Clarke was credited (alongside Dalglish) for turning Liverpool's season around, having a points average of around two points per match from his arrival, coupled with an improved defensive record. On 12 May 2011, Clarke, as well as manager Dalglish, signed a three-year contract to remain in his role as first team coach. On 14 May 2012, Clarke offered his resignation to Liverpool following the sacking of manager Dalglish and Liverpool's eighth-place finish in the 2011–12 Premier League. The club declined the offer, but on 6 June 2012, following the appointment of new manager
Brendan Rodgers, Clarke left the club. Clarke himself said that Liverpool sacked him.
West Bromwich Albion On 8 June 2012, Clarke was appointed manager of
West Bromwich Albion and signed a two-year contract. The job was Clarke's first permanent management role for any club, though during his time the club referred to him as "head coach".
2012–13 season Albion began the Clarke era with a 3–0 home win against Liverpool on the opening day of the
2012–13 Premier League season. Clarke then followed that result up with a 1–1 away draw against
Tottenham Hotspur, and a 2–0 win at home to
Everton. Clarke suffered his first competitive defeat away at Fulham, but West Brom soon jumped back with 1–0 home victory over
Reading. In November, the club won four consecutive matches in a row for the first time since 1980, defeating
Southampton,
Wigan Athletic, Chelsea and
Sunderland. Clarke was named Premier League manager of the month for November 2012. Although the team would go on to lose their next three matches, Clarke's team would bounce back with a draw at home to West Ham and a 2–1 win over
Norwich City. By Christmas 2012, West Brom were seventh in the table with 30 points, behind teams like
Arsenal and Spurs only on goal difference. During the January transfer window, Clarke encountered some problems with want-away Nigerian Striker
Peter Odemwingie, who desired a move to
Queens Park Rangers, but West Brom refused to sell. Odemwingie was ultimately never sold and was later given time off following the transfer window saga. It was during this January period that the club struggled to emulate their early season form. Following a poor run of results which saw West Brom fail to win in six consecutive games, Clarke oversaw a 2–0 victory against Liverpool at
Anfield, the club's first win since Boxing Day against QPR. West Brom won 3–0 at Southampton on 27 April, which was their 14th win of the season. This set club records for wins (14) and points (48) in a Premier League season. West Brom ended the season in style with a dramatic 5–5 draw with Manchester United, in what was
Sir Alex Ferguson's final match as manager. The draw saw West Brom finish eighth in the table, their best finish since 1981.
2013–14 season Clarke and West Brom returned for the new season with a 1–0 home loss to Southampton at
The Hawthorns following a 90th-minute
Rickie Lambert penalty. The team initially struggled to score goals, eventually recording their first league goal the fourth game of the new season when
Gareth McAuley scored an injury time header in a 1–1 result against Fulham. Under his managership, however, they won only one further game, a 2–0 home defeat of
Crystal Palace on 2 November 2013. A further draw and four straight defeats followed and on 14 December 2013 Clarke was placed on
gardening leave until May 2014, after a 1–0 loss at
Cardiff City. This defeat had left the club two points above the relegation zone in 16th place. They had won nine of the previous 41 Premier League matches.
Reading On 16 December 2014, Clarke was appointed manager of Reading on a two-and-a-half-year deal, succeeding
Nigel Adkins. On 16 March 2015, Clarke managed Reading to a 3–0 win against
Bradford City in the
FA Cup to reach their first semi-final for 88 years. In November 2015, Clarke was approached by Fulham to become their manager. Reading gave Clarke permission to speak to Fulham, but following the discussion he decided against taking the position.
Aston Villa Clarke was hired by
Aston Villa on 2 June 2016 to be their assistant manager, working alongside former Chelsea teammate
Roberto Di Matteo. He was not retained following the appointment of
Steve Bruce in October 2016.
Kilmarnock After a year out of football, Clarke was appointed manager of
Scottish Premiership club
Kilmarnock, the club he had supported as a child, on 14 October 2017. When he took over, the club sat bottom of the league table. His first game as Kilmarnock manager, which was his first involvement at a Scottish club match for 30 years, ended in a 1–1 draw at
Rangers. Three days later, Clarke's side travelled to reigning champions
Celtic and once again gained a 1–1 draw. Following the league's winter break, Kilmarnock recorded a home victory over leaders Celtic, with
Youssouf Mulumbu scoring the only goal to inflict what was only the second domestic defeat on the
Glasgow club's manager
Brendan Rodgers. Kilmarnock finished the season in fifth place, setting a new club record points tally of 59 in the process. Clarke was named the
SFWA Manager of the Year for 2017–18. culminating in a third-place finish and European qualification for Kilmarnock. He also won both manager of the year awards, from
PFA Scotland On his debut on 8 June, the Scots won 2–1 at home to
Cyprus in
UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying. The team then suffered four consecutive defeats against
Belgium and
Russia, two of them by 4–0 margins, which ended any hope of qualifying automatically for
Euro 2020. On 12 November 2020, Scotland defeated
Serbia 4–5 on penalties after a 1–1 draw to take their place in the delayed finals via the
UEFA Nations League route, their first major tournament since 1998. In the tournament Scotland drew with
England at Wembley, but defeats at Hampden to
Czech Republic and
Croatia meant that Scotland finished bottom of
Group D. Six consecutive wins later that year meant that Scotland finished second in
Group F of
2022 FIFA World Cup qualification. Later that year, Scotland won promotion to
League A by winning their League B group in the
2022–23 competition. Ahead of
UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying, Clarke signed a new contract with the
SFA that is due to run until 2026. Scotland won their first five matches in Euro 2024 qualifying, against
Cyprus (twice),
Spain,
Norway and
Georgia. They achieved qualification for the
tournament on 15 October 2023, with two matches to spare. Defeats by
Germany and
Hungary, either side of a draw with
Switzerland, meant that the team failed to progress through the
group stage of Euro 2024. Scotland were relegated back to
League B in the
2024–25 competition, after losing a
playoff 3–1 on aggregate against
Greece. During
2026 FIFA World Cup qualification, he became Scotland's longest-serving manager in terms of the number of games managed. Clarke led Scotland to the
World Cup for the first time since 1998 with a historic 4–2 victory against
Denmark on 18 November 2025. ==Career statistics==