Previous Manager Profile
Other History Pages -> Previous Managers | Previous Seasons | SPOY | The Players Database |
Frank Clark Born0000-00-00 |
|
|||||||||||||||
Bio Written by Monksie
Frank Clark was appointed City manager a day before New Year’s Eve in 1996 and took over a club in crisis. Having been relegated from the Premiership the previous May, City were seen as favourites to make a swift return to the top flight but sacked manager Alan Ball after only three games, then had to wait another two months before appointing Steve Coppell as his successor. Coppell resigned after just 33 days in charge and his assistant Phil Neal took over. Clark’s appointment was a response to Neal’s plea for the board to sort out the club’s troubles and decide whether they wanted to retain him just days before Neal was dismissed. The former Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United full-back – holder of a European Cup winner’s medal and League and League Cup winning medals from the late 1970’s with Forest – had recently been relieved of his managerial duties at the City Ground and was therefore a free agent, with cash-strapped City therefore not needing to pay compensation to anyone for Clark’s services.
Clark got off to a lucky start in that his first game - away to Birmingham City on January 1 1997 - was postponed due to snowy conditions. This gave him more time to work with his new squad and assess which changes to personnel and tactics he wanted to make. Shortly afterwards goalkeeper Tommy Wright, defender Paul Beesley and midfielders Kevin Horlock and Ged Brannan were signed as Clark and his assistants Alan Hill and Richard Money began to work on pulling City from out of the relegation places. A 1-1 home draw against Crystal Palace and a 1-0 win at Brentford in a rearranged F.A. Cup tie saw City play with more purpose and confidence. As the winter progressed the Blues began a surge up the table, reaching the fifth round of the F.A. Cup and offering hope of qualification for the promotion play-offs. Along the way there were exciting victories at Oxford United (4-1, in which Gio Kinkladze played the starring role), Bradford City and West Bromwich Albion (both by 3-1), plus 3-0 wins over Swindon Town and Southend United. City’s form tailed off somewhat with draws at Grimsby Town, Charlton Athletic and Norwich City and defeats at home to Champions Bolton Wanderers and at Birmingham and Ipswich Town. The play-off dream died as a result and City were understandably nervous that star man Kinkladze would want to leave for Premiership football in the summer. The last game of the season, at home to Reading, became something of a concerted effort by the club and supporters to persuade the Georgian maestro to stay at Maine Road, with the scoreboard constantly relaying graphic messages pleading for Kinkladze to stay. The player himself missed the game through injury but joined in the after-match lap of honour. Two weeks later, on F.A. Cup Final day, Kinkladze duly signed an improved extension to his existing contract.
The transformation of the team from relegation certainties to mid-table security inspired the Blues’ support to believe that, given a full season in charge, Clark and his new backroom team would take the Blues back to the Premiership. The club signed a new kit deal with Italian manufacturer Kappa and replaced its fading pale blue strip with a continental one based on turquoise, or “laser” blue shirts. More signings followed, as the club’s transfer fee was shattered by the £3.5 million arrival of striker Lee Bradbury from Portsmouth, defender Tony Vaughan from Ipswich, Dutch under-23 midfielder Gerard Wiekens and 19-year-old Mansfield Town goalkeeper Nicky Weaver. The summer optimism was almost overflowing as the Blues took to the field in blazing sunshine for the first game of the season, a home encounter with Bradbury’s previous club Portsmouth. High hopes were soon dented as the visitors took an early lead and although goals from Wiekens and Uwe Rösler saw City lead in the second half, a late equaliser stunned the home crowd; perhaps this wouldn’t be as easy as we’d thought.
Worse was to follow as Blackpool, from the next division below, beat City 1-0 in the League Cup and the Blues were hammered 3-1 by Sunderland in the first competitive game at the Wearsiders’ new Stadium of Light. Blackpool knocked City out of the Cup a on penalties in the second leg - Bradbury effectively sending the Blues out by fluffing his shot over the bar - and City needed a late equaliser from young substitute David Morley to rescue a point in a grim Friday evening trip to newly-promoted Bury after Kinkladze missed a second-half penalty. The new-found optimism evaporated as it became clear that City were yet again confounding their pre-season tip as hot favourites for promotion by flirting with the relegation places just a few games n to the campaign. Of the new signings Bradbury had failed to score, Wiekens had played reasonably well without impressing too much and Weaver played only for the reserves.
Even a 6-0 thrashing of Swindon failed to stop the slide as defeats by Norwich and Ipswich pushed the Blues further into the mire. Things came to a head during a Friday night home tie with Huddersfield Town, exactly a decade to the very day since City had humiliated the Yorkshiremen 10-1 at the same level. Former Blues boss Brian Horton inspired his team to a 1-0 win and the home fans started to repeat the after-match protests which had marred the same stage of the previous season. The Blues, hit by injuries and suspensions, fielded reserve and youth team strikers Chris Greenacre and Ray Kelly who were obviously out of their depth. It got even worse when City were embarrassed 3-1 at neighbours Stockport County, with the visiting support verbally abusing both Clark and skipper Kit Symons (who was immediately substituted to save him from further punishment) as the division’s newcomers raced into a 2-0 lead in the first six minutes and dominated the rest of the match. For all the hype, new signings and new image it was the same old sorry story and the long-suffering fans’ patience had reached breaking point. A very unpleasant Christmas was on the cards but City Surprised most onlookers by outplaying league leaders Middlesbrough 2-0 at home but even this notable success was nullified by losing the next two matches at home to Nottingham Forest and lowly Crewe Alexandra.
Craig Russell and Jason van Blerk had been added to the squad and Russell and Rösler scored as City progressed to the third round of the F.A. Cup. Home defeats by promotion contenders Wolves and Sunderland (with the returning Niall Quinn in their attack) left City in serious danger of relegation, in an almost identical position to the one they had occupied the season before. A trademark Kinkladze dribble and finish in a televised home F.A. Cup tie against Premiership West Ham United couldn’t prevent the visitors sending the Blues out, courtesy of a late winner from former Maine Road prospect Steve Lomas and the writing was on the wall for Clark before the end of January. A week later City served up an abysmal capitulation at home to Bury -captain by ex-City leader Steve Redmond - in a 1-0 defeat during which calls for not just Clark but the entire board and management to leave were long and loud, topped off by a one-man pitch invasion staged by a fan who left the Kippax Stand to tear up his season ticket just inside the touchline in a symbolic gesture of disapproval. The usual post-match protests outside the main entrance on the Maine Road forecourt ensued but lasted longer and involved thousands.
But the biggest - and ultimately most eventful - protest took place on the airwaves as during a ‘phone-in call to a local radio station shareholder David Makin (who with business partner John Wardle had invested over £10 million in the club via a rights issue from their sportswear retailer JD Sports a year previously) demanded that City chairman Francis Lee and his board should make way for stronger leadership to impose fundamental changes to the club at all levels, including a change of manager but obviously going much deeper. It was by now obvious that not only was Clark’s time at City about to end but that Lee’s days a chairman were numbered too. With only eleven League fixtures remaining, including a home match against Promotion hopefuls Ipswich the following Wednesday, any change needed to be swift and decisive. It was; on the morning of the Ipswich game, news leaked out that Clark had been dismissed and would be immediately replaced with ex-City Striker Joe Royle, who had infamously turned the post down over seven years previously under obviously different circumstances. The trouble was that, as with the sacking of Brian Horton almost three years before, no-one at the club seemed to have informed the manager and Clark was embarrassed to be informed of his dismissal by a local radio reporter as he parked his car at the training ground before starting another day’s work.
So there we have it; Clark tried his best to improve and galvanise his team but ultimately failed. After his departure it transpired that, during a team meeting to introduce him as manager the year before he had produced an acoustic guitar and asked the squad to join him in a few country and western ballads as a way of bonding. He had also apparently travelled to Georgia to watch Gio Kinkladze play for his country in a World Cup qualifier, only to leave as his midfield lynchpin was replaced five minutes before the end of the first half. Clark later reported that “Gio had strolled around the centre circle for half an hour or so, hardly touching the ball” and genuinely seemed surprised by it when any regular City attendee could not have failed to note that this was an all too familiar performance from the Georgian maestro. Clark had therefore failed to find a way of utilising Kinkladze to nest effect in an overall team pattern, but he would not be alone in this as his successor Royle would soon recommend to the board that the Georgian should be sold to raise funds for team strengthening. Kinkladze remained but mostly looked a shadow of himself as City won just five of the remaining eleven fixtures after Clarks departure and were relegated to the third tier of English football for the only time in their history. Clark later resurfaced as chief scout for Sunderland in his native North East but hasn’t managed a club since leaving Maine Road, having failed to fulfil the promise of his first three months as City’s manager.
Frank Clark was appointed City manager a day before New Year’s Eve in 1996 and took over a club in crisis. Having been relegated from the Premiership the previous May, City were seen as favourites to make a swift return to the top flight but sacked manager Alan Ball after only three games, then had to wait another two months before appointing Steve Coppell as his successor. Coppell resigned after just 33 days in charge and his assistant Phil Neal took over. Clark’s appointment was a response to Neal’s plea for the board to sort out the club’s troubles and decide whether they wanted to retain him just days before Neal was dismissed. The former Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United full-back – holder of a European Cup winner’s medal and League and League Cup winning medals from the late 1970’s with Forest – had recently been relieved of his managerial duties at the City Ground and was therefore a free agent, with cash-strapped City therefore not needing to pay compensation to anyone for Clark’s services.
Clark got off to a lucky start in that his first game - away to Birmingham City on January 1 1997 - was postponed due to snowy conditions. This gave him more time to work with his new squad and assess which changes to personnel and tactics he wanted to make. Shortly afterwards goalkeeper Tommy Wright, defender Paul Beesley and midfielders Kevin Horlock and Ged Brannan were signed as Clark and his assistants Alan Hill and Richard Money began to work on pulling City from out of the relegation places. A 1-1 home draw against Crystal Palace and a 1-0 win at Brentford in a rearranged F.A. Cup tie saw City play with more purpose and confidence. As the winter progressed the Blues began a surge up the table, reaching the fifth round of the F.A. Cup and offering hope of qualification for the promotion play-offs. Along the way there were exciting victories at Oxford United (4-1, in which Gio Kinkladze played the starring role), Bradford City and West Bromwich Albion (both by 3-1), plus 3-0 wins over Swindon Town and Southend United. City’s form tailed off somewhat with draws at Grimsby Town, Charlton Athletic and Norwich City and defeats at home to Champions Bolton Wanderers and at Birmingham and Ipswich Town. The play-off dream died as a result and City were understandably nervous that star man Kinkladze would want to leave for Premiership football in the summer. The last game of the season, at home to Reading, became something of a concerted effort by the club and supporters to persuade the Georgian maestro to stay at Maine Road, with the scoreboard constantly relaying graphic messages pleading for Kinkladze to stay. The player himself missed the game through injury but joined in the after-match lap of honour. Two weeks later, on F.A. Cup Final day, Kinkladze duly signed an improved extension to his existing contract.
The transformation of the team from relegation certainties to mid-table security inspired the Blues’ support to believe that, given a full season in charge, Clark and his new backroom team would take the Blues back to the Premiership. The club signed a new kit deal with Italian manufacturer Kappa and replaced its fading pale blue strip with a continental one based on turquoise, or “laser” blue shirts. More signings followed, as the club’s transfer fee was shattered by the £3.5 million arrival of striker Lee Bradbury from Portsmouth, defender Tony Vaughan from Ipswich, Dutch under-23 midfielder Gerard Wiekens and 19-year-old Mansfield Town goalkeeper Nicky Weaver. The summer optimism was almost overflowing as the Blues took to the field in blazing sunshine for the first game of the season, a home encounter with Bradbury’s previous club Portsmouth. High hopes were soon dented as the visitors took an early lead and although goals from Wiekens and Uwe Rösler saw City lead in the second half, a late equaliser stunned the home crowd; perhaps this wouldn’t be as easy as we’d thought.
Worse was to follow as Blackpool, from the next division below, beat City 1-0 in the League Cup and the Blues were hammered 3-1 by Sunderland in the first competitive game at the Wearsiders’ new Stadium of Light. Blackpool knocked City out of the Cup a on penalties in the second leg - Bradbury effectively sending the Blues out by fluffing his shot over the bar - and City needed a late equaliser from young substitute David Morley to rescue a point in a grim Friday evening trip to newly-promoted Bury after Kinkladze missed a second-half penalty. The new-found optimism evaporated as it became clear that City were yet again confounding their pre-season tip as hot favourites for promotion by flirting with the relegation places just a few games n to the campaign. Of the new signings Bradbury had failed to score, Wiekens had played reasonably well without impressing too much and Weaver played only for the reserves.
Even a 6-0 thrashing of Swindon failed to stop the slide as defeats by Norwich and Ipswich pushed the Blues further into the mire. Things came to a head during a Friday night home tie with Huddersfield Town, exactly a decade to the very day since City had humiliated the Yorkshiremen 10-1 at the same level. Former Blues boss Brian Horton inspired his team to a 1-0 win and the home fans started to repeat the after-match protests which had marred the same stage of the previous season. The Blues, hit by injuries and suspensions, fielded reserve and youth team strikers Chris Greenacre and Ray Kelly who were obviously out of their depth. It got even worse when City were embarrassed 3-1 at neighbours Stockport County, with the visiting support verbally abusing both Clark and skipper Kit Symons (who was immediately substituted to save him from further punishment) as the division’s newcomers raced into a 2-0 lead in the first six minutes and dominated the rest of the match. For all the hype, new signings and new image it was the same old sorry story and the long-suffering fans’ patience had reached breaking point. A very unpleasant Christmas was on the cards but City Surprised most onlookers by outplaying league leaders Middlesbrough 2-0 at home but even this notable success was nullified by losing the next two matches at home to Nottingham Forest and lowly Crewe Alexandra.
Craig Russell and Jason van Blerk had been added to the squad and Russell and Rösler scored as City progressed to the third round of the F.A. Cup. Home defeats by promotion contenders Wolves and Sunderland (with the returning Niall Quinn in their attack) left City in serious danger of relegation, in an almost identical position to the one they had occupied the season before. A trademark Kinkladze dribble and finish in a televised home F.A. Cup tie against Premiership West Ham United couldn’t prevent the visitors sending the Blues out, courtesy of a late winner from former Maine Road prospect Steve Lomas and the writing was on the wall for Clark before the end of January. A week later City served up an abysmal capitulation at home to Bury -captain by ex-City leader Steve Redmond - in a 1-0 defeat during which calls for not just Clark but the entire board and management to leave were long and loud, topped off by a one-man pitch invasion staged by a fan who left the Kippax Stand to tear up his season ticket just inside the touchline in a symbolic gesture of disapproval. The usual post-match protests outside the main entrance on the Maine Road forecourt ensued but lasted longer and involved thousands.
But the biggest - and ultimately most eventful - protest took place on the airwaves as during a ‘phone-in call to a local radio station shareholder David Makin (who with business partner John Wardle had invested over £10 million in the club via a rights issue from their sportswear retailer JD Sports a year previously) demanded that City chairman Francis Lee and his board should make way for stronger leadership to impose fundamental changes to the club at all levels, including a change of manager but obviously going much deeper. It was by now obvious that not only was Clark’s time at City about to end but that Lee’s days a chairman were numbered too. With only eleven League fixtures remaining, including a home match against Promotion hopefuls Ipswich the following Wednesday, any change needed to be swift and decisive. It was; on the morning of the Ipswich game, news leaked out that Clark had been dismissed and would be immediately replaced with ex-City Striker Joe Royle, who had infamously turned the post down over seven years previously under obviously different circumstances. The trouble was that, as with the sacking of Brian Horton almost three years before, no-one at the club seemed to have informed the manager and Clark was embarrassed to be informed of his dismissal by a local radio reporter as he parked his car at the training ground before starting another day’s work.
So there we have it; Clark tried his best to improve and galvanise his team but ultimately failed. After his departure it transpired that, during a team meeting to introduce him as manager the year before he had produced an acoustic guitar and asked the squad to join him in a few country and western ballads as a way of bonding. He had also apparently travelled to Georgia to watch Gio Kinkladze play for his country in a World Cup qualifier, only to leave as his midfield lynchpin was replaced five minutes before the end of the first half. Clark later reported that “Gio had strolled around the centre circle for half an hour or so, hardly touching the ball” and genuinely seemed surprised by it when any regular City attendee could not have failed to note that this was an all too familiar performance from the Georgian maestro. Clark had therefore failed to find a way of utilising Kinkladze to nest effect in an overall team pattern, but he would not be alone in this as his successor Royle would soon recommend to the board that the Georgian should be sold to raise funds for team strengthening. Kinkladze remained but mostly looked a shadow of himself as City won just five of the remaining eleven fixtures after Clarks departure and were relegated to the third tier of English football for the only time in their history. Clark later resurfaced as chief scout for Sunderland in his native North East but hasn’t managed a club since leaving Maine Road, having failed to fulfil the promise of his first three months as City’s manager.