Talk:Paul Clarke (Scottish footballer)

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BRD

It is a matter of fact that Kilmarnock were part-time professional (or "semi-professional" if preferred) during Clarke's time with the club. I am not sure how this can be credibly disputed, since Clarke himself has confirmed it in the source used in the article: "Do you feel that full time football would have made Killie a force?" "Who knows? The money just wasn't there." Is there some sort of Wikipedia convention I'm not aware of where we pretend part-time Scottish footballers (historically in the majority) were full-time? Bring back Daz Sampson (talk) 17:45, 9 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think you can accurately claim that the team was not professional for such a long period of time based on potentially ambiguous comments in an interview with one of their players. The source certainly does not support the claim that every player was a part timer for the full duration as you have tried to add... Giant Snowman 18:17, 9 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

He literally says that they were not full-time because the money wasn't there? I don't see how it could be any clearer - what part of that do you think is ambiguous? Do you have any sources to suggest Kilmarnock were full-time during this period? Bring back Daz Sampson (talk) 18:49, 9 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

A brief throwaway/passing comment - not enough to base such grandiose claims on. Giant Snowman 18:54, 9 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

We know that Kilmarnock reverted to part-time status in 1968.^[1] And that in 1989 the club were relegated to the third tier, but investment from a new board of directors allowed the club to sign Tommy Burns from Celtic as the club's only full-time player that December.^[2] Again, do you have any sources to suggest the club had any players training full-time during the period Clarke was there? His interview also includes these exchanges:

"Walter McCrae signed me just as the full-time era at Kilmarnock was coming to an end".
"life couldn't be better…football and a job (the good old days)!"
"although playing for Killie for ten years was an honour it would have been nice to try full time football"
"Given the opportunity, I felt I could have been a better player if I'd been full time."

Bring back Daz Sampson (talk) 19:29, 9 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

You cannot use an interview with one player for a fan website to make such a significant comment about a club. Giant Snowman 13:28, 16 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Vallance, Matt (23 December 2016). "Eric McIntyre Murray – former footballer Born: 12 December, 1941 Died: 07 November, 2016, aged 74". The Herald. Herald & Times Group. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
^ "Exclusive Raymond Montgomerie talking about Tommy Burns". Celtic Quick News. 16 November 2017. Retrieved 6 January 2021. Well, we were only a part-time Club at the time and Tommy was our first ever full-time player! You have to look at it like this. We only trained on a Monday and a Thursday night then and then one Thursday night, a Scottish Internationalist and top, top player was sitting in the changing room ready to go out and train.

[herald-1] Vallance, Matt (23 December 2016). "Eric McIntyre Murray – former footballer Born: 12 December, 1941 Died: 07 November, 2016, aged 74". The Herald. Herald & Times Group. Retrieved 2 January 2017.

[2] "Exclusive Raymond Montgomerie talking about Tommy Burns". Celtic Quick News. 16 November 2017. Retrieved 6 January 2021. Well, we were only a part-time Club at the time and Tommy was our first ever full-time player! You have to look at it like this. We only trained on a Monday and a Thursday night then and then one Thursday night, a Scottish Internationalist and top, top player was sitting in the changing room ready to go out and train.

[1]

[2]