As Scotland took a huge step towards back-to-back European Championship qualification by beating Cyprus 3-0 on Friday, Steve Clarke’s former assistant Alex Dyer was watching from his sofa in Norbury, south London.
Dyer helped put the building blocks in place alongside Clarke in 2019, but he could only remain part of the coaching setup for eight games due to his role as Kilmarnock assistant being upgraded to manager.
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His tenure lasted a year before he left. He has since had spells at Colchester, Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia and Greek club Aris Thessaloniki — the latter two of which saw him assisting Alan Pardew — but he has been out of the game since February.
When the Auld Enemies Scotland and England meet at Hampden tomorrow evening, rather than revving up John McGinn and Andy Robertson in the changing room, he will again be watching from afar.
“I would love to be there but I never have those types of regrets,” says Dyer. “I couldn’t do both. But for the gaffer to ask me to help in the first place, especially when I’m not Scottish, was an honour. I achieved my dream of becoming a manager at Kilmarnock. I just want the chance again.”
Dyer with Steve Clarke in 2019 (Paul Devlin/SNS Group via Getty Images)The only other time Dyer, 57, had a lengthy gap between clubs came in November 2015 when he left his role as assistant at Huddersfield Town. Back then, he decided to use the fitness qualifications he studied for at the end of his playing career to earn himself a job as a teacher at a school helping kids with behavioural issues.
However, the feeling of being on the outside looking in is hitting home as he tries to stay sharp by helping coach a non-League side twice a week. “I’ve put my name forward for some jobs but I don’t get any feedback. Someone at a big club said to me the other day that they can’t believe someone with my CV isn’t even getting an interview.
“I would love to go back to Scotland as I felt at home, but even though my name is known I’ve had nothing. There are always jobs coming up but, for example, I haven’t even looked at the Hibs job as I know I ain’t going to get that.
“Six months is too long for me, but I don’t feel demoralised. I know I can do a good job in the Premiership, but it’s life. You just need to keep knocking down the doors.”
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Dyer stepped into the hot seat at Rugby Park in January 2020 after spending over two years as assistant to Clarke and Italian manager Angelo Alessio, who replaced Clarke. He was then sacked a year later amid a decline in results having experienced racism from some fans.
Dyer during his difficult time in charge of Kilmarnock in 2021 (Alan Harvey/SNS Group via Getty Images)“I had a letter sent to the club a couple of weeks before I was sacked,” says Dyer. “It was addressed to me so I opened it after the game and read it. It said I was to get out of their club and was filled with racist words. I showed it to the coaching staff and we were just stunned.
“I was told I was being let go after the 3-2 defeat to St Johnstone, but what I didn’t know was that on the morning of the game, there was racist stuff written on the walls of the stadium they had to get rid of. They didn’t tell me about it, but Gary the stadium manager had told my wife. It was hard for her as going down to the supermarket she was wary, thinking there was someone out there.
“It was one or two who wanted to slag me off and that was the best way they could. Even on the day I got sacked I could see Cathy, the fan liaison officer, looking at stuff on social media.”
The club condemned the racism and police investigated the threatening letter sent to him and one man later admitted in court to posting ‘thank f***, back to the jungle’ on a Facebook page after Dyer was sacked.
Kilmarnock had only taken 24 points from their last 25 Premiership matches under Dyer and that final loss left them ninth in the Scottish Premiership, five points above bottom club Hamilton. Under Dyer’s successor, Tommy Wright, Kilmarnock won just three league games and were relegated via the play-offs.
Dyer with Kilmarnock’s Alan Power in 2020 (Ian MacNicol via Getty Images)“If I had taken it over when the gaffer (Clarke) had left it would have been a lot easier, but Alessio came in and, without being disrespectful to him, the team didn’t adapt to his different kind of training. Behind the scenes it wasn’t right and players weren’t buying into it.
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“It broke the continuity and then I had to try to take it back to what they knew. The players were still behind me. We had lost certain games by the odd goal, there was enough there to stay up for sure. If they wanted to get rid of me in the summer, then fair enough, but those boys would have run through brick walls to stay up — and for me.”
On the racism from some football fans, he says: “I didn’t read the social media stuff as it would only have upset me or made me act differently, but my kids read it and that isn’t nice. I’m proud to be black and I’m happy. If they don’t like that, then that’s up to them.”
Dyer experienced more racism during his six weeks working alongside Pardew at Bulgarian club CSKA Sofia. The pair met when Dyer was 21 at Charlton and they played with each other at Barnet and Crystal Palace. After arriving in April, they quickly decided not to tolerate the racism.
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“I stepped off the plane and I could smell it in the air. They still live in different times. It’s like going into the 1980s there,” says Dyer. “In our first game, we lost to Ludogorets (who have won the previous 12 league titles in a row). At full-time, all the black players went inside while the others walked around and clapped the fans. I chased after them to say, ‘Show some appreciation and stick together’, but they said ‘Al, we ain’t clapping them, we’ll just get abused’.
“I soon realised what they meant. We got to a cup final — CSKA against Levski, city rivals. It was a great atmosphere, but as soon as we lost, they were trying to get into the changing room. We were ushered to the car and into the hotel. I shut the door and never moved. The abuse was frightening, but we still had two games left.
“We got to our home ground early as we had been told there was going to be a scene and as we were walking in…” says Dyer, before pausing as he recalls what happened next.
“Ah, man… As we were going in you could hear the chants. The stadium was in a park so they came running through these fields in big groups and were throwing bricks and bananas, making monkey chants.
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“We weren’t going to play the game but if we didn’t it would have got worse — we might not have got back out the stadium. We even had to have armed guards.”
Dyer is still searching for his next role, as is his former team-mate Chris Powell, who he was assistant to at Charlton and Huddersfield between 2011 and 2015. While Dyer linked up with Clarke at Scotland, Powell joined Gareth Southgate’s coaching staff in 2019 as part of an FA diversity scheme to offer opportunities to BAME coaches.
Dyer and Powell at Huddersfield in 2014 (Gareth Copley via Getty Images)Powell’s contract initially ran until the end of Euro 2020, but it was extended until after the World Cup in Qatar. When his placement ended in March, he released a statement and, that same month, the FA appointed former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink as a specialist forwards coach.
Southgate acknowledged that diversity was a key part in his thinking: “Chris Powell has been with us on a placement since the Euros and we decided to keep that going for continuity. But we felt it was important to let someone else have that opportunity now and Jimmy is joining us.
“We feel it’s important to have that diversity on our coaching team and Jimmy comes with a different set of skills to Chris, different experiences and a slightly different personality.”
The England manager also said there is not “a huge number of black coaches who have the UEFA Pro Licence and have the experience” to join the setup.
“I know Jimmy well,” Dyer tells The Athletic. “When I was in Portugal, we used to meet up in a town called Maia, who I played for. He was at Boavista before Leeds.
“I was surprised as Chris went to three tournaments with that group. He went on the scheme first and became a part of the setup, but then all of a sudden his time is up. They kept him on through Covid a bit longer but it’s like they decided to change one black coach in, one black coach out. It doesn’t make sense.”
Hasselbaink with Southgate in March (Richard Heathcote via Getty Images)Dyer appreciated attempts to create greater representation, but positive discrimination schemes such as the Rooney Rule — a policy the English Football League adopted from the NFL which means clubs have to interview at least one BAME candidate for all first-team vacancies — is not something that sits right with him.
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“No one wants to be in a job just because they want to get a black person in. You might get an interview but then they say he’s not for us anyway. You want to be there on merit and say, ‘My CV is as good as that person’s, let’s have a chat’.
“We all need help, but I’d like to think that’s how I have got my jobs and why Alan Pardew, the gaffer (Clarke), Chris Powell, Hayden Mullins called me for work.”
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Dyer is not fussy as to whether his next gig is as a manager or an assistant, but there will only ever be one ‘gaffer’ to him, and that is Clarke. They met in 2008 when Dyer was West Ham reserve team coach and Clarke was assisting Gianfranco Zola, then at Kilmarnock in 2017 Clarke fulfilled his promise to hire Dyer if he became a head coach.
Together they challenged the Old Firm for more than half the season in 2018-19, leading Kilmarnock to third place — the club’s highest league finish since 1966 — and European football. Scotland then came calling.
Steve Clarke made good on his promise to Dyer (Ryan Pierse via Getty Images)“The Scotland staff had heard he wasn’t someone you’d mess with. Some of the staff would come to me and Steven Reid saying ‘What is he like, what is he like?’.
“We were like, ‘He’s fine, just do your work and if you do that, you’ll have no problems’. It was funny all these experienced staff worried about him, but he gives everyone a chance.
“From the first day he walked in he set his stall out. He didn’t let people get away with things and said, ‘We’re going to run this FA properly, we’re going to train properly’. This isn’t a jolly up and no club or player is going to rule the FA on whether they train.
“He would ask the players if they wanted to come and if they didn’t, then that was it, he didn’t care. There will always be someone else.”
After enduring a difficult opening year to his tenure, Clarke turned it around to take Scotland to their first major tournament in 23 years. “We lost in Russia 4-0 and it was tough, but he never got so downhearted that he couldn’t see the picture,” says Dyer. “It was about building momentum.
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“Every time we had a camp, we had to make sure it was better than the last one. He did things the exact same way as at Killie. He knew exactly what he wanted to get out of it. He knew not to overload them with info as you might only have three sessions with them. He gave them the basics and they became set in stone. Everything is constructive.”
He adds: “He took my coaching to another level. I want another shot at putting that into practice.”
(Top photo: Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
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