Source: Daily_Mail
He's played for Souness, Keegan and Tigana . . . now Lee Clark is showing what he¿s learned
It is 8.30am in Lee Clark's Huddersfield Town office. Laptops are open, statistics are being analysed and an unnamed non-League striker is being discussed. The mail includes DVDs from hopeful players asking for trials it's no longer just a letter. The mood is businesslike; serious.[LNB]Then Clark's experienced backroom staff get to work. There is a lunch request for a plate of lettuce with gravy around it 'like Gordon Ramsay does it' followed by a brief discussion on the effect on the digestive system of eating sand. It is less serious now.[LNB] Working overtime: Lee Clark has had his heart set on coaching from a young age[LNB]Finally, news of Chris Coleman's demise at Coventry City begins to come through. Heads are shaken. Clark and Coleman were team-mates at Fulham. Clark scored the winner in Coleman's first match as manager, against Newcastle.[LNB]'It just shows you how precarious it is,' Clark said of his profession. 'When it's someone you know well, and Chris is a very good friend of mine, it makes it tougher. [LNB]'But when I got this job a lot of the managers who rang up said not to expect anything other than one day getting the sack. They didn't mean it in a bad way, they were just being realistic.[LNB]'But you have to be optimistic, too. You have to see how long you can stay. Arsene Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson, David Moyes, they're changing the rules.'[LNB]A morning in Clark's company and it becomes clear that such balance is a theme. At 37, he is the youngest manager in the three divisional play-offs Huddersfield host Millwall on Saturday in the League One semi-final first leg and he is unchanged physically from the midfielder who played Barclays Premier League football for Newcastle and Fulham until three years ago.[LNB] Popular figure: Clark (left) is the youngest of any manager contesting the playoffs[LNB]He was Glenn Roeder's assistant at Norwich and Huddersfield is Clark's first manager's job. Alongside him, though, are men such as Derek Fazackerley and Terry McDermott, who have seen it and done it.[LNB]The banter they produce was taken on to the training pitch, yet the session was long and intense.[LNB]For all his comparative youth, Clark has been planning to coach fora long time. A product of Wallsend Boys Club, he was 17 when he madehis Newcastle debut under Jim Smith, the first in a list ofhigh-profile managers Clark played under: Ardiles, Keegan, Dalglish,Reid, Tigana, Coleman and Souness. Clark started taking notes early.[LNB]Toom hero: Clark was a much-loved character in his Premier League days at Newcastle, and latterly Fulham[LNB]'I took my first coaching licence in my early 20s,' he said. 'Even in my teens I was looking after a boys club on a Sunday trained them in midweek. Shola Ameobi actually played for one of the sides, Walker Central. It's always been in my mind. [LNB]'Keegan's decision-making, seeing a player, that was spot on. Jean Tigana, he was into fitness and nutrition we'd have three sessions a day, sometimes the first was at six in the morning. [LNB]'You'd come in, do a 5km run, then have breakfast together and relax. That would give your body recovery time. You'd have another session at 10, then one at three in the afternoon. We were super-fit. We got results, that makes it easier to sell your wares. I haven't tried six o'clock here yet...[LNB]'What I saw with Graeme Souness was man-management. He was under severe pressure as Newcastle manager; the crowd never took to him. But he never once brought that pressure into the dressing room. [LNB]'As a young player, I had Ossie Ardiles. He gave us loads of confidence but the squad was just too young. We'd be 3-0 up and lose 4-3.'[LNB]Cutting Huddersfield's average age was one of Clark's stated aims in his first job interview. That was 17 months ago following Stan Ternent's dismissal. Of the 21 players' names on Clark's noticeboard, only eight remain from December 2008.[LNB]The rest of that season was about stability Huddersfield finished ninth. This season, 'the first aim was to be in the top six'. [LNB]Clark acknowledged the strong support from new, young multi-millionairechairman, Dean Hoyle. But the club's transfer record remains the£1.2million spent on Marcus Stewart 14 years ago. Since then there havebeen eight managers and this is the ninth consecutive season belowChampionship level.[LNB] Nutritional value: No stone has been left unturned as Clark tries to haul Huddersfield back in the second tier[LNB]To many, Huddersfield remain the Herbert Chapman club, the one Bill Shankly managed before Liverpool. They have not been in the top flight since 1972. Clark said the club's history should be embraced but if he is successful he will have altered it. [LNB]A victory over Millwall who lost 1-0 at the Galpharm Stadium a month ago would take Huddersfield one step forward but they are the outsiders of the four play-off teams and, while that top-six aim has been achieved, it may require the two further years on Clark's contract to get the club promoted. [LNB]By then Clark will have learned again. As he said of the difference between being an assistant and being No 1: 'Every day I have the final decision on football matters. You have to get used to that.[LNB]'I've had a player come to me this season with 'a big problem'. He asked if I could do anything about his broken dishwasher. I told him I wasn't actually a qualified plumber, but that I'd see if I could get someone to help him.' [LNB] Beckford's strike sees Leeds clinch promotion to the Championship All the fizz of the Coca-Cola League: An April to remember for TorquayHuddersfield 1 Millwall 0: Peter Clarke puts brake on Lions' drive[LNB]
