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RAY
CLARKE
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GOING DUTCH
"Everything about Ajax was totally new to me," says Clarke,
who became the first - and to date, only - English player
to ply their trade for the Dutch club. "Everything that was
done at Ajax - the way they trained and played, the fitness
levels, technical ability, mental application and of course
the culture of Total Football' - was on a different level to
any other club I had been a part of previously. I was playing
with some unbelievably good players like Ruud Krol, Frank
Arnesen, Soren Lerby.
"The football was totally different. I played as a lone
striker with two wide players - Tscheu La Ling was usually
on one side - a strong, powerful winger who was immensely
talented. Arnesen and Lerby were in the hole behind and then
we had a holding midfielder. I remember when we played a
UEFA Cup match against Athletic Bilbao we marked them
one-for-one when we didn't have the ball. I'd push on to the
sweeper, the midfield players pushed onto their opposite
numbers etc. It got a bit scary but that's how it was!"
Clarke opened his scoring account in the first minute of
his Eredivisie debut - a 7-1 win for Ajax at NAC Breda on
26 August, 1978.
"It took me a few months to settle in, but by the November
I felt I'd really adapted to the style of football at Ajax," he
says. "When you're a striker, you get judged on your goals.
Not only was I lucky to score a good amount that season,
but I also scored some important goals. I scored in the Dutch
Cup Final against FC Twente. In fairness, Twente should
have won that game as our performance wasn't very good
at all. But it went to a replay and I scored again as we won
3-0. A few days later, I scored a late equaliser against AZ
67, which was enough for us to seal the Eredivisie with one
match still to play."
With Clarke having signed an extension to his Ajax contact
at the end of his incredible debut season and the club's
supporters having taken the Englishman to their hearts, it
was a major surprise when they decided to sell the player
to Club Brugge in the summer of 1979.
"A new chairman arrived at Ajax at the end of that season
and I ended up being sold," laments Clarke. "It was a big
period of change for Ajax and lots of big players were sold
not long after I left, like Krol, Arnesen, Simon Tahamata
etc. In hindsight, I should have dug my heels in a bit more
in order to stay."
After a brief spell with Brugge, Clarke returned to England
OFFICIAL MATCHD
to play for Brighton Hove Albion and Newcastle United
before hanging up his boots in 1981. He has worked in
various scouting, coaching and recruitment roles for the
likes of Southampton, Coventry City, Celtic, Middlesbrough,
Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers since then, departing
his most recent role as Technical Director at Cypriot club
OmoniaNicossia in 2016. Having recently sold a hotel business
in Buckinghamshire, the former Ajax striker is keen to work
in the football industry once again and has held tentative
discussions with a German side with regards to a possible
scouting role going forward.
In the meantime, he is looking forward to a match-up
between two of his former teams in the UEFA Champions
League semi-final, but is refusing to select a winner/There's
no way I could choose one over the other," laughs Ray. "What I'm
sure of is that it will be a great contest between two talented
sides and there might only be the odd goal between them."
Ray is carried shoulder high by Ajax fans
following their 1979 league success®
PROGRAMME
