LETTING Steve Clarke speak with Fulham was the right thing to do, Nigel Howe has said.
The Reading boss was given permission by club chiefs to discuss a potential switch to Craven Cottage, but following talks with Royals’ Championship rivals, the Scot declined the opportunity to take up the chance to replace the axed Kit Symons.
Chief Executive Howe is no stranger to such positions, with Alan Pardew leaving the club for West Ham United back in 2003/04, while in more recent times, then Premier League outfit Wolverhampton Wanderers made an approach for Brian McDermott.
Despite admitting some of those who handed Clarke the job at Madejski Stadium back in December 2014 were disappointed the manager wished to discuss the vacancy, Howe is of the opinion it can often be beneficial to allow them to do so, as it proved on this occasion.
He said: “You have got to assume you are better off letting them having the conversation than you are not.
“I always remember with Alan Pardew all the toys came out of the pram. Sir John (Madejski) wouldn’t let Alan speak to West Ham and it all got a bit messy because he wanted to, and it got to the point where Alan was going to go and if it hadn’t been West Ham, it would be somewhere else, because he was so disenfranchised in the way that he had been dealt with.
“My initial reaction (to Clarke wanting to talk to Fulham) is ‘so, ok, well I need to know very quickly what you are going to be doing’. And to be fair, with Steve, it was a matter of a few hours and a conversation where he came back and said: ‘look, I’m not going to go, I don’t want go, I want to stay here, I think my opportunities are much better here, and that’s it. I’m very clear in my own mind.’
“It has been done in the open in a good professional way and the right decision has been made to stay.”
Speaking at the club’s media session ahead of the clash with Bolton Wanderers at Madejski Stadium on Saturday, Howe explained how the board had begun drawing up plans should Clarke have made the move to west London.
“Within the few hours we had between Steve saying he was going to have his conversation that between myself and other people we were starting to think about a list of candidates to put forward,” the chief executive said.
“You know who is about anyway, but you are getting agents ringing you saying ‘would you consider my manager?’
“Most of them, interestingly, from these conversations are already in jobs, so you then get into the same scenario that we were in.”
Howe also went on to say how the club’s Thai owners were keep informed of developments throughout, and were just as happy to hear he had snubbed Fulham’s advances.
He said: “They take a view, again, that it’s better to let the person have a conversation and get it out of his system, then affectively have it stored up and then say ‘you didn’t let me do it’.
“They are extremely happy to have him come back, they think he has got to get on with the job, but they want success.
“Steve can only show his worth to the club now by being successful on the pitch. If he is not successful you are back in a really difficult scenario again. That is what football is all about.
“I’m only going to be judging Steve against tomorrow’s match and how we do on the pitch.
“He has been given all the tools. I think this is one of the best squads of players we have had at the club for as long as I can rememeber and they are capable of doing good things.
“It’s Steve’s job to get it right.”
