Lee Clark (footballer)

Lee Clark

Clark playing for Fulham
Personal information
Full name	Lee Robert Clark
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Position(s)	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)
International career
1992–1993	England U21	11	(0)
Managerial career
2008–2012	Huddersfield Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Lee Robert Clark (born 26 October 1972) was formerly an English footballer and, until 15 February, was 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.

Club career

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.

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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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.

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1991–92||rowspan="6"|Newcastle United||Second Division||29||5||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||29||5 |- |1992–93||First Division||46||9||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||46||9 |- |1993–94||rowspan="4"|Premier League||29||2||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||29||2 |- |1994–95||19||1||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||19||1 |- |1995–96||28||2||2||0||3||0||colspan="2"|-||33||2 |- |1996–97||24||2||3||1||1||0||5||0||33||3 |- |1997–98||rowspan="2"|Sunderland||rowspan="2"|First Division||49||13||2||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||52||13 |- |1998–99||27||3||2||0||4||0||colspan="2"|-||33||3 |- |1999–2000||rowspan="6"|Fulham||rowspan="2"|First Division||42||8||4||0||6||1||colspan="2"|-||52||9 |- |2000–01||45||7||1||0||4||0||colspan="2"|-||50||7 |- |2001–02||rowspan="4"|Premier League||9||0||colspan="2"|-||3||0||colspan="2"|-||12||0 |- |2002–03||11||2||colspan="2"|-||2||1||2||0||15||3 |- |2003–04||25||2||2||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||27||2 |- |2004–05||17||1||5||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||22||1 |- |2005–06||rowspan="1"|Newcastle United||rowspan="1"|Premier League||22||1||2||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||25||1

Template:Football player statistics 3422||58||23||1||25||2||7||0||477||61 Template:Football player statistics 5422||58||23||1||25||2||7||0||477||61 Template:Football player statistics end

Coaching career

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.

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. Clark remained assistant manager at Norwich until December 2008, when he left to become manager of League One club Huddersfield Town.

Managerial career

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. 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. 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.

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 second longest domestic league unbeaten run in English football history.

Clark was sacked as manager of Huddersfield on 15 February 2012 following a 1–0 home defeat to Sheffield United; despite his team sitting fourth in the table having lost just three of their last 55 league matches.

Managerial statistics

As of 15 February 2012

Team	Nation	From	To	Matches	Won	Drawn	Lost	Win %
Huddersfield Town	England	15 December 2008	15 February 2012	178	87	51	40	48.88

|align=left|Wolves |England |align=left|21 Febuary 2012 |

Honours

Player

Newcastle United

• First Division Champions
• FA Premier League Runners-up: 1995–96, 1996–97

Sunderland

• First Division Champions

Fulham

• First Division Champions

External links

• Lee Clark at Soccerbase
• Lee Clark management career statistics at Soccerbase
• Lee Clark Stats centre, guardian.co.uk
• The Lee Clark Interview BBC Tyne, 15 September 2006