Lee Clark (footballer)

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Lee Clark
Lee Clark.png
Clark playing for Fulham
Personal information
Full name Lee Robert Clark[1]
Date of birth 26 October 1972 (1972-10-26) (age 39)
Place of birth Wallsend, England
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Playing position Midfielder
Youth career
1987–1990 Newcastle United
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1990–1997 Newcastle United 195 (23)
1997–1999 Sunderland 74 (16)
1999–2005 Fulham 149 (20)
2005–2006 Newcastle United 22 (1)
Total 440 (60)
National team
1992–1993 England U21 11 (0)
Teams managed
2008– Huddersfield Town
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Lee Robert Clark (born 26 October 1972) is an English former footballer, and is currently the manager of Huddersfield Town. As a player, Clark had two spells at Newcastle United, and was their reserve team manager and coach after he retired. He also played for Sunderland, Fulham, and the England U21 side making 11 appearances.

Contents

[edit] Club career

[edit] Newcastle United

Born in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, Clark started his career at the club he supported as a boy, Newcastle United coming up through the Youth System at the club.

In 1993 he was part of the Newcastle side promoted to the Premier League as champions and then helped them finish runners-up two seasons in a row. He made nearly 200 appearances scoring 23 goals for Newcastle in his first spell at the club.

[edit] Sunderland

Clark moved to Newcastle's local rivals First Division side Sunderland in 1997, and was part of the side promoted to the Premier League in 1999 as First Division champions with a (then) professional league record of 105 points. A year earlier, he had been a key player in the side that reached the First Division play-off final, only to suffer a penalty shoot-out defeat to Charlton Athletic after a 4–4 draw at Wembley.

However, at the 1999 FA Cup Final he was spotted with the Newcastle fans wearing a t-shirt with the slogan "Sad Mackem Bastards". He was immediately dropped from the team, and never played for Sunderland again.[2]

[edit] Fulham

Clark moved to Fulham in 1999. He collected another Division One title medal with in 2001, enabling him to experience Premier League football for the first time since the 1996–97 season. In 2004, he helped Fulham secure what was, at the time, their highest final position - ninth in the top . During that season he opened the scoring as Fulham memorably beat Manchester United 3-1 at Old Trafford in October 2003.[3] Clark left Fulham in 2005 to return to former club Newcastle United, after making 149 league appearances and scoring 20 goals for the West London Club.

[edit] Return to Newcastle

Clark was allowed to leave Fulham after his contract expired in the summer of 2005 despite being club captain during the 2004–05 season. At the time of his departure, he was Fulham's longest-serving player. He subsequently returned to Newcastle, coaching and playing on a month-by-month contract.

Clark scored one goal for Newcastle in the 2005–06 season, an equaliser in a 2–2 draw with Middlesbrough.[4] He played his final professional game on 7 May 2006, coming on as a substitute at home to Chelsea. In total he played 265 times for Newcastle, scoring 28 goals.

[edit] International career

Clark scored a hat-trick for England schoolboys at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

He represented England at international level playing for the England under-21s making 11 appearances between 1992 to 1993 during his time playing for Newcastle.

[edit] Career statistics

[5]

Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
1991–92 Newcastle United Second Division 29 5 - - - 29 5
1992–93 First Division 46 9 - - - 46 9
1993–94 Premier League 29 2 - - - 29 2
1994–95 19 1 - - - 19 1
1995–96 28 2 2 0 3 0 - 33 2
1996–97 24 2 3 1 1 0 5 0 33 3
1997–98 Sunderland First Division 49 13 2 0 1 0 - 52 13
1998–99 27 3 2 0 4 0 - 33 3
1999–2000 Fulham First Division 42 8 4 0 6 1 - 52 9
2000–01 45 7 1 0 4 0 - 50 7
2001–02 Premier League 9 0 - 3 0 - 12 0
2002–03 11 2 - 2 1 2 0 15 3
2003–04 25 2 2 0 - - 27 2
2004–05 17 1 5 0 - - 22 1
2005–06 Newcastle United Premier League 22 1 2 0 1 0 - 25 1
Total England 422 58 23 1 25 2 7 0 477 61
Career total 422 58 23 1 25 2 7 0 477 61

[edit] Coaching career

[edit] Newcastle United

On 1 June 2006, the newly appointed Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder installed Clark as a first team coach and reserve team manager following Tommy Craig's departure while Clark was still playing for Newcastle. He remained as first team coach and as reserve team manager after retiring in 2007 until Glenn Roeder parted company with the club and Clark followed shortly afterwards in November.

[edit] Norwich City

In November 2007 Clark left his post at Newcastle to rejoin Roeder who he worked under at Newcastle with new club Championship side Norwich City. Roeder, who had left Newcastle earlier that year and appointed Norwich manager, made Clark his assistant at the Norfolk club.[6] Clark remained assistant manager at Norwich until December 2008, when he left to become manager of League One club Huddersfield Town.

[edit] Managerial career

[edit] Huddersfield Town

After Huddersfield Town had sacked manger Stan Ternent on 4 November 2008, The Terriers were reported to be interested in then Norwich assistant manager Clark. On 12 December 2008, Clark was officially unveiled as the new manager of League One side Huddersfield Town signing a three-and-a-half year contract. Clark replaced Gerry Murphy, who had been caretaker manager for the League One side following the departure of Ternent. The first move made by Clark was to appoint Terry McDermott as his assistant as well as bringing in Derek Fazackerley in as first team coach and Steve Black as Performance Coach all of whom had previously worked with Newcastle United.[7] Clark officially took over on 15 December his first game in charge of the club was a 2–0 win over Hereford United on 20 December.

In his first season at the club he helped them to a ninth-placed finish in League One. They also only lost two home league games under Clark in the 2008–09 season. In his second season in charge Clark helped Huddersfield to secure a play-off spot and became the first manager to win three Manager of the Month award in a single season since Roberto Martinez in 2007–08.[8] Huddersfield were defeated by Millwall in the 2009-10 play-off semi-final.

In the 2010–11 season, Clark guided Huddersfield to a third-placed finish in the league, earning them a place in the Play-Offs after a club-record 25-game unbeaten run in the league. They reached the final after beating Bournemouth 4–2 on penalties, but lost 3–0 to Peterborough in the Old Trafford final. In July 2011, he agreed a new rolling contract with the club.[9]

Clark continued breaking records at the beginning of the 2011/12 season, after 18 games of the current season their unbeaten run currently stands at 43 games, the 2nd longest domestic league unbeaten run in English football history. [10]

[edit] Managerial statistics

As of 28 January 2012
Team Nation From To Matches Won Drawn Lost Win %
Huddersfield Town  England 15 December 2008 present 176 87 50 39 49.43

[edit] Honours

[edit] Player

Newcastle United

Sunderland

Fulham

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hugman, Barry J. (2005). The PFA Premier & Football League Players' Records 1946-2005. Queen Anne Press. p. 121. ISBN 1852916656. 
  2. ^ Black and white and red When Saturday Comes, February 2002
  3. ^ "Fulham stun". BBC Sport. 25 October 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/3206852.stm. Retrieved 14 August 2009. 
  4. ^ "Newcastle 2-2 Middlesbrough". BBC Sport. 2 January 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/4562602.stm. Retrieved 22 August 2009. 
  5. ^ Lee Clark Newcastle United FC[dead link]
  6. ^ Clark leaves Magpies for Norwich BBC Sport, 2 November 2007
  7. ^ "Clark named new Huddersfield boss". BBC Sport. 11 December 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/huddersfield_town/7775201.stm. Retrieved 11 December 2008. 
  8. ^ "Manager of the Month for January 2008". League Managers Association. June 2010. http://www.leaguemanagers.com/managers/mom-8-1-2008.html. Retrieved 30 July 2011. 
  9. ^ "LEE CLARK SIGNS NEW TOWN CONTRACT". htafc.com. 29 July 2011. http://www.htafc.com/page/NewsDetail/0,,10312~2404886,00.html. Retrieved 29 July 2011. 
  10. ^ "Longest unbeaten run in domestic league". wikipedia.org. 16 October 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_association_football_club_records#Longest_unbeaten_run_in_domestic_league. Retrieved 16 October 2011. 

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lee Clark (footballer)
Huddersfield Town F.C. – current squad
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