| Clark resigned to relegation? 08:50 - Nov 24 with 379 views | 1953Original |
Talking about having to take a step back ...
On the promenade, Funland was closed. Although the late afternoon sun deserved credit for perseverance, an ice cream felt like an unnecessary gamble. Business was sluggish at the candy rock stalls, nobody was buying the “Pussay Patrol” T-shirts and while the sign said otherwise in the windows of Sweetdreams and The Sundown (“couples and families only”), there were vacancies at the Gr8 Escape Hotel. Off-season in Blackpool and another off season for its football club.
A couple of hundred yards from the bed-and-breakfasts on Lonsdale Road, Lee Clark was still in tracksuit and puffer coat, plotting his own great escape, or “mission impossible” as he called it. The manager was referring to a desperate league position – his new team are clamped to the foot of the Sky Bet Championship with eight points – but there are other interpretations.
For a while this summer, Blackpool were untethered. In mid-July, they had eight senior professionals on their books. There was a public spat when Valeri Belokon, the club’s president, accused the ruling Oyston family of having “channelled away more than £24 million”. Karl Oyston, the chairman, denied those claims in an open letter and, by the morning of their opening game, only nine members of the squad had been registered.
Three years ago, Blackpool were in the Barclays Premier League and although their presence was brief, there was whimsy in the “the best ride” of Ian Holloway’s life. Since then, it has been beset by potholes – after narrowly avoiding relegation in May, 27 players left the club – and when José Riga was dismissed after four, baffling months in the dugout he spoke of working in “the very worst circumstances”. Clark is their fourth manager, permanent or otherwise, of 2014.
The context does not appear promising and the job security shaky (in January, Paul Ince was sacked by text message; Owen Coyle and Gary Rowett were reportedly approached while Riga was still in place), yet Clark, who has signed a one-year rolling contract, was bullish, talking short-term staunching and long-term plans. The horror stories are not his. “I spoke to the chairman and those questions were put,” Clark says, “but I was assured I’d be given the backing necessary.”
Riga seemed baffled that a “very difficult” relationship with Oyston unravelled as it did. “I don’t know what went on with the previous manager and it’s none of my business really,” Clark says. “It’s not something I’m interested in. If I’m sitting in front of a man and he says he’ll back me, I like to think he’ll deliver.”
There is just and recent cause to be dubious, but Clark has already been given leeway. Alan Thompson has joined Blackpool’s coaching staff, Malcolm Crosby is to co-ordinate scouting and recruitment, new players have arrived – Chris Eagles signed last week – and a reserve team have been re-established, all of which makes the earlier chaos even more perplexing.
Clark is not an ingénue; his 28-month stretch at Birmingham City was half-management, half-dousing fires. “When there was talk of this job happening, I had people in the game call me and tell me to stay away and people who said what a great opportunity it would be,” he says. “I thought it was a terrific challenge – a huge challenge – but I would love to be the one that can do mission impossible.”
He and Oyston spoke in detail. “There has to be leadership from the top and there have to be partnerships, and the most important partnership is between the chairman and the manager,” Clark, 42, says. “I’m a big enough boy to know that if the chairman knocks on my door and says he’s unhappy about something, then we can talk about it behind closed doors. But when we’re out in the public domain, we’re united.”
Since Clark’s appointment on October 30, Blackpool have drawn two and lost two of their four matches and while that represents an improvement on the calamitous form that preceded it, they have won only once this season.
In situations such as this, defeat can infiltrate the pores of a club. “And that’s not just the players,” Clark says. “It’s also the mentality around the place, the downbeat behaviour. You’ve got to try and build them up. That’s what I said when I arrived, that it was a clean slate for everybody. Don’t play with fear, because it’s a pointless emotion. Go out and express yourselves.
“We all used to enjoy kicking a ball around the streets, but it seems to me that when players come into the professional game, the enjoyment starts wavering a bit and it becomes a chore for some of them, or they’re affected by it. How you get that feeling back, really, is by winning games. In my professional life, I’ve never experienced anything better than being in a winning dressing room at five o’clock on a Saturday.”
He is reconstructing, changing and cajoling on the run – stability cannot be imposed upon a bedlam-flecked club – but, after all the mayhem, Oyston appears willing to grant him time. “We see it as a long-term project,” Clark says. “The short-term goal is to try and keep the club in the division, but we’re also trying to put in an infrastructure. It feels like a blank canvas.
“The chairman has allowed me to bring in a chief scout to head up the recruitment process, with scouts underneath looking at player recruitment and opposition analysis, which I don’t think has happened much here before. He’s allowed me to bring in a sports scientist and fitness coach to head up all parts of the medical department. If the worst-case scenario happens, which nobody is thinking about, it gives us the best opportunity to bounce straight back.”
It is a prospect Clark has faced down before. On the final day of last season, his Birmingham side were third from bottom of the Championship. “I remember sitting in the dressing room at Bolton [Wanderers], when the players were out having their warm-up,” he says. “I sent some texts to my wife and children, to a couple of people behind the scenes who had been there for me through thick and thin.
“I just said I was going to try everything in my power over the next couple of hours to keep the club in the division. It was quite emotional, really, sitting there on my own, with a bit of time for reflection. I used the word ‘Armageddon’ afterwards because of the financial implications of going down.”
With 13 minutes left, Birmingham were trailing 2-0. Nikola Zigic replied and then, deep into stoppage time, Paul Caddis plundered an equaliser. When the final whistle trilled and they were safe, Clark tore down the touchline and leapt into a seething froth of supporters. “I was just drained, emotionally and physically,” he said. “It felt like I’d played the game myself.”
Birmingham’s predicament is convoluted – Carson Yeung, who led the club’s takeover in 2009, is in a Hong Kong prison for money-laundering – and Clark describes his time at St Andrew’s as “a tough job with a fantastic club”. His sacking was a “wrench because I get attached to the places I work for. I wish I’d been around when things were a bit different, but I’ll never have any regrets. I was treated unbelievably well.”
From that intensity, to Blackpool; he is not a man for the easy life. “I didn’t want to be out of football,” he says. “I had three or four months out when I lost my job at Huddersfield [Town], and it was frightening – the first time since leaving school that I hadn’t been in work. I’m well aware it’s stressful, that there’s pressure on you all the time, but it just felt like this was the right thing to do. This was an opportunity to stay in the Championship, albeit with a team that’s at the bottom.”
As he always did as a player, Clark is putting his shift in; late nights in his boxy office at Bloomfield Road and at the hotel where he is staying beside the stadium. Beyond the odd drive along the sea front, there has been little scope for looking around, although parts of the landscape are unavoidable. “I feel for the fans because – forgive the pun – they’ve been on a rollercoaster,” he says. “And, by the way, you’ll never get me on one of those things.”
Blackpool have been careering down a steep slope. “I would like this to be a vibrant club, where supporters are enjoying what they’re seeing, where players are desperate to come,” Clark says. “And, obviously, I want us to be playing at the highest level possible. We might have to take a step back first – we’ll fight every inch of the way to make sure we don’t – but who knows? Maybe we can repeat what Ian and his group of players did.”
For now, a different miracle takes precedence. “I’ve still got the belief that we can get out of it,” Clark says. “If we stay up, it’ll feel as good as anything I’ve done.” | |
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| Clark resigned to relegation? on 15:48 - Nov 24 with 339 views | oneswallow |
What are the B and B's like on Lonsdale Road 
A couple of hundred yards from the bed-and-breakfasts on Lonsdale Road, Lee Clark was still in tracksuit and puffer coat, plotting his own great escape, or “mission impossible” as he called it | | | |
| Clark resigned to relegation? on 16:01 - Nov 24 with 328 views | we_are_Superior |
I think Clarke in the back of his mind will be preparing for next season .. be a bit like Nick Clegg planning for life out of the limelight next May - he'll talk a good game until then but eventually is doomed to fail! | |
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| Clark resigned to relegation? on 19:50 - Nov 24 with 282 views | OdinsRaven |
Well he's not going to come out and say it. Only a fool would. However we all know we are likely down with only koko and his mushrooms to blame | | | |
| Clark resigned to relegation? on 08:59 - Nov 25 with 211 views | KOSBowlCut |
I'd say it's a case of set your stall out and promise nothing! Remember Ferguson when he took over said that he still thought the Play Offs were possible! Clark would be daft to come out and say he'll save us when actually we're like a turkey lining up at Xmas! | |
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| Clark resigned to relegation? on 10:29 - Nov 25 with 206 views | Wizaard |
He knows we're in a mess, but can't say we're doomed.
He's in a no-lose position. If we stay up, he'll get a lot of kudos. If we go down, it's not his fault. | | | |
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