By 
MATTIE Clarke said he has many great memories of conversations with Rangers legend Walter Smith who passed away on Tuesday, aged 73.
Smith won 21 trophies during two different spells at Ibrox. It was during that second period which yielded another three league titles for the ‘Gers that Clarke, as a promising teenager, got to know the former Everton and Scotland boss.
Clarke admitted that initially he was apprehensive about meeting Smith who, as Rangers supremo, won 10 SPL titles, five Scottish Cups and six League Cups.
“You’ve got to remember I was a Rangers fanatic all my young life and I was given the opportunity to play for my boyhood heroes. With someone like Walter Smith about you were nearly scared to say ‘morning gaffer’ but no he always had time for you and asked how you were getting on,” recalled the north Tyrone man, who joined Rangers in 2010.
“When you’re a kid going across the water and the first team gaffer takes time to have a chat it’s always nice. It’s encouraging and showed that he wasn’t always thinking about first team players. That’s something that always stuck with me.
“He defined Rangers, what it meant to him and what it was all about. He was a one-off.”
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