When Stephen Clemence takes to the touchline to lead Gillingham against Sheffield United in the FA Cup third round on Saturday, his mind will doubtless wander to yesteryear and the fond memories he carries of the competition. His late father, Ray, won it twice, first with Liverpool in 1974 then with Tottenham in 1982.
“I can still remember him talking in the house about wanting to get that third winner’s medal before his last FA Cup final against Coventry in 1987, so that one day he could give one to each of us kids: myself and my sisters, Sarah and Julie,” Clemence says.
“I was nine and I got to walk around the pitch with Dad before the game, which was amazing. He kind of knew it would be his last appearance at Wembley. Unfortunately, he got beat that day.”
As a player himself, a midfielder, Clemence reached the semi-finals when Tottenham sparred with Arsenal in 2001. “It was probably the biggest game I ever played in, a north London derby in a Cup semi-final at Old Trafford,” he says. It is also the competition in which he scored his first career goal, for Tottenham against Fulham, in 1998.
“I went off and did a silly celebration where I kissed the corner flag. I don’t know what I was thinking … I scored a lot for the youth team, for the reserves, but I was desperate to score for the first team, in front of my mates and for the club I supported. I grew up a Liverpool supporter but I was a turncoat for Tottenham as soon as Paul Gascoigne signed; I fell in love with him.”
Growing up, Clemence was immersed in the game. Going to his dad’s matches, watching Spurs training during school holidays and having kickabouts after games on the indoor court at White Hart Lane with Ossie Ardiles’s sons, Federico and Pablo, and Glenn Hoddle’s nephew, was the norm.
“Back then I wasn’t so bothered about watching the game, it was more about playing five-a-side or six-a-side afterwards,” he says with a smile. “The players would probably have gone for a pint upstairs so we would have a couple of hours in there. You’d come off that court and the sweat would be pouring off us all.
“When I became a youth-team player for Tottenham, that was where we would practise two afternoons a week. I was well accustomed to it by then because I had spent so much time there.”
Unsurprisingly, Clemence has a rich tapestry of tales: from being a teenage centre-forward and playing in the top flight for Birmingham to coaching alongside Steve Bruce, for more than a decade, at Sunderland, Hull, Aston Villa, Sheffield Wednesday, Newcastle and West Brom, whom he left in October 2022.
After Gascoigne scored a free-kick against Arsenal to propel Tottenham into the 1991 FA Cup final – at which point Ray was on the Spurs staff – Clemence ended up at the post-match party at White Hart Lane watching the other semi-final alongside his hero. “Gazza came in and put his arm around me. I was thinking: ‘I can’t believe I’m sitting next to Gazza.’”
Another Gazza story sticks in the memory. “I’d always be kicking a football around the training ground. I’d find a spare goal and just go and practise. At the end of first-team training one day, they had just finished crossing and finishing and I was standing at the side of the pitch and Gazza shouted out: ‘Little Clem, put some balls in for me.’ I’m putting them in with my left foot, right where he wants them … and then he goes: ‘Come on then, use your right foot now.’ Suddenly it wasn’t going quite so well – I was a very left-footed player – and he started giving me the sort of stick he would give absolutely anyone.”
Clemence cherishes those times but is focused on the present. In November, after three rounds of interviews with Gillingham’s ambitious American owner, Brad Galinson, the 45-year-old accepted his first managerial post at the League Two club and the challenge of reaching the playoffs. His homework started long before then, though. By that point he had watched 10 of their matches in full on Wyscout and even went to Walsall incognito to get a flavour of things. “I sat in the family stand away from everybody and put a baseball cap on,” he says.
Last summer, Clemence and Kolo Touré were invited to prepare a pool of Manchester City youngsters for their next steps. “There was a group of players who were either going to go out on loan, possibly be sold or go elsewhere in the City Football Group,” he says. “It was a wonderful experience for me because I got to see how one of the best footballing operations in the world works from the inside.
“I managed to see the first team train on a couple of occasions and got to see how Pep [Guardiola] works. Myself and Kolo were saying to him: ‘If we got a job, what would you do?’ He said: ‘Sign good players.’ He said: ‘When I was at Barcelona with Xavi, Iniesta and Messi, I could have managed that team blindfolded.’ I think he was being humble because I’ve seen him work and he’s one helluva coach.”
Ray died of prostate cancer in November 2020. The following year the Clemence family walked 26.2 miles around Liverpool in aid of Prostate Cancer UK and Clemence’s 18-year-old son, Jack, is running the same distance, in stages this month, for the charity.
“Prostate Cancer UK do so much great work for families,” Clemence says. “Dad always supported them as an ambassador and as a family we wanted to carry on some of that work. Jack was very close to his grandad and, all off his own back, he’s decided he wants to do this latest challenge.”
It is still early days but Clemence, whose brother-in-law is the Crystal Palace sporting director, Dougie Freedman, is relishing his newfound responsibility. Gillingham are a point off the fourth-tier playoffs after successive victories. What would Dad make of him as a head coach? “It is my one regret that he is not here now to see this,” Clemence says.
“It was something that he said to me before he died: ‘Make sure you go and have a go.’ I said: ‘I will do, Dad, when the time’s right.’ I think he would be proud and you just hope he’s looking down somewhere now.”
