Billy Clarke sounds settled, and that is not a glib assessment with which to begin. When Clarke's career is reviewed, what stands out is the movement, flux, change.
In ten years as a pro in England, Clarke has been at ten clubs – four in one remarkable season. But at 27, into his eighth month at Bradford City, the Cork man's ease in Yorkshire is signified by four goals in his last five starts, and tomorrow it's Sunderland in the FA Cup.
“On paper, it’s not as hard as the last round,” says Clarke.
That is true. In the last round Bradford drew Premier League leaders Chelsea away and were 2-0 down after 38 minutes.
Bradford then scored four without reply to record one of the greatest FA Cup shocks of all time, if not the greatest.
Clarke, coming back from injury, did not start. But he was introduced as a late sub, managed a few touches, smacked into Eden Hazard and got Cesc Fabregas's shirt.
"Surreal," he says of a day that included Jose Mourinho entering the Bradford dressing room to congratulate each player.
Surreal might not be the correct description of Clarke’s career but it has not been plain or linear either.
Sought after as a boy with Leeds and Maymount in Cork, Clarke had trials at Manchester City, Everton and Aston Villa. He chose Ipswich Town because: “I loved the people there, I loved every part of it.
"Every school holiday I went over and I signed an agreement at 14 to join them. I signed on my 16th birthday. There were a few of us in digs – Cathal Lordan, Shane Supple, Michael Synnott. I met my fiancé there."
Clarke, who had lived in Tanzania and Bahrain as well as Cork due to his father Charlie’s job in medical software, was putting down roots in East Anglia.
The bench
At 17, in November 2005,
Joe Royle
told Clarke he would be on the bench at Cardiff City. After 65 minutes, Clarke replaced his future manager,
Jim Magilton
, to make his debut. But with Ipswich down to ten men, after 87 minutes Clarke was taken off.
“I thought ‘Jesus, my professional career hasn’t started too well here, has it?’ A week later I made my home debut from the start and I was taken off at half-time.
“But there were good lads around me in the dressing room and they kept reassuring me. I look back at it now with a laugh.”
Clarke then dislocated a shoulder in training and when he returned to the teamsheet it was Colchester United's. He'd been sent out on loan. He was 18 and about to meet Phil Parkinson for the first time. Parkinson was 38 and impressing in his first managerial post. Today he is manager of Bradford City.
Colchester won promotion to the Championship while Clarke was there and the experience served him well. He went back to Ipswich and established himself under Magilton. Clarke turned 19 and was progressing. He bought a house in the area.
He began the next season – 2008-09 – well and played 22 times until he was suddenly informed he was going on loan to Falkirk.
“I didn’t really want to go,” Clarke recalls. “To be so far away from everyone I knew, I didn’t like it. Jim Magilton had a contact at Falkirk. The move was a disaster really.”
Back at Portman Road for pre-season, Clarke was sent out again. This time it was not as far as Falkirk but, as he says, “I didn’t really know where Darlington was”.
In four months at Darlington in League Two, Clarke scored nine goals, including four one day at Macclesfield – “I’ve got the ball”. Then he joined Northampton Town, again on loan, and scored a hat-trick on his debut. He was a Cobbler for just five games, then returned to Ipswich and hoped to break back into the team. Instead he was loaned to Brentford.
Between December 2008 and March 2009, Clarke played for Darlington, Northampton and Brentford while on contract with Ipswich.
“I was training at Ipswich on Mondays and Tuesdays and going to Brentford after. I was playing, I enjoyed it. We won the division – at Darlington – and I scored two. I got 18 goals across the season and then I was effectively released by Ipswich. There’s no way now a 20 year-old with 18 goals would be released.”
Final decision
It was Ipswich’s new manager,
Roy Keane
, who made the final decision. Clarke did not feel the Cork connection would make a difference and it didn’t.
“He came in for the last two games of the season and I trained with them,” Clarke says of Keane. “I was in awe. You hear so many stories but he was as good as gold with me. He just said it might be better for me elsewhere.”
Not long after, at a service station whose whereabouts Clarke cannot remember, he was sitting at a table with Blackpool's new manager, Ian Holloway.
“His enthusiasm and energy were on another level – I became his first signing at Blackpool. We were favourites to go down.”
What happened was that Blackpool finished sixth, won the play-off at Wembley and, at 22, Clarke was a Premier League footballer. Clarke was on the bench at Wembley, his family were over from Cork. Then, in Blackpool’s first pre-season friendly, at Tiverton Town, Clarke ruptured a cruciate ligament – “completely ruptured”.
Blackpool’s season is one of the best stories of the Premier League era but Clarke missed it. All of it. He was at Old Trafford the day relegation was confirmed.
So his pleasure at appearing as a second-half sub on the opening night of the next season – at Hull – was enhanced.
“Gary Taylor-Fletcher scored. We won 1-0. I got an assist. I was delighted.”
But in mid-October Holloway suggested Clarke should go to Sheffield United for a month and in January, after another conversation with Holloway, Clarke left permanently. He joined Crawley Town.
He went from Lancashire to Sussex, from the Championship to League Two.
He stayed two-and-a-half years, won promotion, scored goals and ended his contract. That’s when, last June, Phil Parkinson re-emerged into Clarke’s life and career.
The potential
He signed a two-year contract at Valley Parade, rents in Guiseley and has his son Charlie in school.
Clarke loves his present life – he scored Bradford’s opener against MK Dons on Monday – and sees the potential in the club. But he understands one thing more than any other after a decade in the professional game: “It’s hard to fully commit to settling.”
Clarke has not given up hope of doing so, just as he has not given up hope of a full Irish cap.
"I've played at every level from U-15 to U-21 regularly, with lads like Darron Gibson, Anthony Stokes, Stephen Quinn. I don't know if I'd ever get the chance now.
“I won’t stop trying.”
