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Chelsea See Sense Over Clarke

Well, well it would seem common sense has prevailed at Stamford Bridge and after reports of some serious stamping of feet, Chelsea have now reached an agreement with West Ham over Steve Clarke.

Clarke attempted to resign on Thursday, with the intention of linking up with Gianfranco Zola following his appointment as West Ham manager. Clearly Chelsea weren’t keen to lose the former Chelsea defender, whose contribution under Jose Mourinho and more significantly during Avram Grant’s turbulent year in charge, had such a steadying influence in the dressing room. The club therefore refused to accept Clarke’s notice and gave the scot some Kenyon style leave to tend to his hydrangeas.

Clarke had two years left to run on his contract, thought to be worth £600,000 a year, and although West Ham had apparently offered compensation in the region of £1.2million which would pay out that contract, speculation in the press seemed to pluck the figure of £4.8million from somewhere, suggesting Chelsea had gone into the business of extortion.

Anyway, I think the vast majority have agreed that despite Steve Clarke’s departure being a huge blow to Chelsea after 20 years, particularly in view of his reduced input under Scolari, the club had to do the right thing and allow him to move on.

One of those to publicly speak out is Chelsea midfielder, Frank Lampard, suggesting “If he goes to West Ham it will be a loss, but I don’t think you can ever take away a man’s right to do what he wants to do.” And let’s face it Frank should know all about that after the summer he had. But anyway, he goes on “Clarkey has been an unbelievable servant for Chelsea for many years as a player and as a coach.  He has been an important member of the back-room staff for what we’ve done over the last few years. But if he feels he wants to go and do something different – I know he has intentions to be a manager in his own right – you can only wish him all the best.”

Now whether it was Frank’s outpouring of support that did it or not, I’m sure the media will let us know in due course, but it would seem that something has brought Chelsea to their senses because a compensation package of £1million has reportedly been accepted, with the suggestion that he will start work alongside Zola at West Ham today.

 

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