West Bromwich Albion fans will have the most reason to offer sympathy to Neil Clement on the occasion of his retirement through injury, given that he spent the last ten years of his career at the Hawthorns, but his short loan spell with Hull City was successful and significant enough for the Tiger Nation also to wish him well.
Clement was a fringe player with the Baggies in the 2007/8 season when he came to the KC on a month's loan. Both sides were aiming for elevation to the Premier League, although when the two sides had met in the January at the KC it was evident that Albion, following a classy 3-1 win in a high calibre match, were more obviously suited to the task.
The game didn't feature Clement but still played a part in his switch from one campaign for promotion to another. Phil Brown, correctly, accepted a £625,000 offer from QPR for long-serving defender Damien Delaney, who had played at left back in the defeat. The business was good for City but it left the squad a little short of left-sided defensive cover, with Delaney able to play at left back and, more solidly, as a left-sided centre back. Andy Dawson and Wayne Brown had the monopoly on those positions respectively but couldn't deputise for each other.
More pertinently, City now had no centre back cover of any kind at all. It was Dawson who soon got injured, meaning Brown had to pull the attack-minded Henrik Pedersen into defence for a short spell. So, as March approached, he asked to borrow the unused Clement, and Albion agreed.
It made sense to the player more than it did for his parent club. City were real promotion candidates, on an unbeaten run that had carried through from the day the Baggies had turned them over two months before. And yet Tony Mowbray allowed one of his defenders, albeit a fringe one, to go help a direct rival in its aims for a position in the table that could directly rob his parent club of similar glories. With Clement's heritage and known ability, it looked a very smart move by Brown.
Clement, however, had an infamous debut. Signed to cover Dawson or Brown, he made his bow in the City defence in place of Michael Turner. The great man missed the match at Bristol City through suspension after accumulating a yellow card too many and so either Clement or Brown, as left-footed as each other, had to act as the right-sided centre back. Clement, as the better footballer, got the short straw.
With his angles and positional sense all askew early in the game, Clement was beaten to a pumped ball into the box by Dele Adebola, who scored. As inauspicious a beginning as it was possible to have.
City equalised, Clement improved but the hosts scored again and won 2-1. Turner returned for the next game and would not miss any more League games for the Tigers until the day he departed. Clement would not be asked to lead with his right foot again. He dropped to the bench for a bit, coming on as an early sub for Brown in a 1-0 defeat at Cardiff City before making a classy and marvellous full debut alongside Turner in a fine 5-0 win over Southampton as City's final march towards promotion got underway.
He only played twice more, still in the left-sided centre back role, and was tremendous as City emerged victorious in each game, both away from home. Then the penny dropped with Mowbray as the top of the table began to tighten and, just as Sunderland would do with Paul McShane a season later, took his man back more to stop him assisting a near rival than to help his own side's campaign to go up. Brown was ready to return by then, though another injury near the season's end widened the round hole left by Clement's farewell, with the admirable but distinctly square-pegged David Livermore having to fill in from pretty much nowhere. Disastrously so, too.
Clement did play a few of Albion's remaining games (including an FA Cup semi-final) but stayed peripheral at the Hawthorns and, of course, both sides did go up - Albion as champions, City within Wembley's walls via the play-offs.
Clement was injured again that summer and never played again, with a whole 18 months passing prior to today's announcement that he is having to retire. Baggies fans can thank him for plenty, but City fans should too remember the small but impressive contribution he made that led to our finest hour.
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